What are dreams?

It can be like a movie, but includes sensations, emotions, and even ideas. They are created involuntarily in a person’s mind during sleep.

Dreams usually occur in the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) stage of sleep. Dreams happen only at the last REM phase before you go into the "blank" non-dreaming stage of sleep.

(Trivia: you don’t snore when you dream.)

Dreams can occur during other times not during REM, but these dreams tend to be less vivid.

It is thought that dreams containing particular objects or subjects can tell us about our personality. I tell people to follow the feeling of the dream to get clues about yourself.

Sometimes you might dream something that comes true, but that doesn't mean there's anything magical or mystical going on. It is just a coincidence. If nothing you ever dreamt about became true, that would be very hard to explain!

What do dreams mean?

In the early 1900s Sigmund Freud believed that dreams reflect our deepest anxieties and desires, often relating to repressed childhood obsessions or memories.

There are many opinions about the meaning of dreams. Some theories are that dreams help us in problem-solving or that they occur simply due to random brain activation. That is, everything you've ever experienced is all there in your subconscious and can come up to the near surface in a dream --like a type of soup. Every night you get soup made from TV shows you watched, real memories and maybe even other dreams-- all mixed together!

Usually we have dreams every 90 minutes, but we often don't remember them. If you want to remember them have somebody wake you up when your eyes start moving under your closed eyelids (REM).

Would you like to control your dreams? Your first task tonight is to look at the back of your hand within your dream. This might take a few days.

Your next task will be to just pause in your dream and look around. After you have mastered those two basic levels you can try to change your dreams.

I have accomplished those tasks and many more, so you can as well.

Richard Baker

Dumaguete City