How many of us know that Billy Joel dreamed many of his melodies, lyrics and arrangements, including the tune River of Dreams? Or the fact that Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity was directly related to his dream about riding on a beam of light?
Many cultures believed in the power and meaning of dreams. For example, the Indians believed they foretold the future, while the Chinese used them to assist in medical diagnosis.
Scientific research has proved that dreams do influence our lives in various ways. Unwind delves deeper into the mysteries of the mind of the dreamer - with a little help from the professionals.
Meet the experts
Ian Wallace is a UK-based professional dream psychologist. (For more information and to contact Ian Wallace visit www.ianwallace.co.uk)
Craig Webb is a Canada-based dream analyst, researcher and author. (For more information visit www.dreams.ca/CW-bio.html)
Soniyaa Punjabi, is a Dubai-based clinical hypnotherapist.(For more information visit www.illuminationsworld.com)
What are dreams?
Wallace: The language of the unconscious. Our dreams play an important function in creating and storing memories and give us a sense of identity.
Webb: Natural processes or events that affect our mind, emotions and body. Research has proven that one function of dreaming is learning and skill rehearsal. This aspect of dreaming helps us to retain freshly learned information and master newly learned skills more than if we did not have such dreams"
Punjabi: Dreams are a byproduct of the process of storing and classifying of information which enters into the subconscious mind, from the conscious mind when we go to sleep.
If we've had a good day, do we have good dreams?
Wallace: Our dreams record our emotions - sad, happy or angry - from the time of birth to the time of death. Yet, we often have happy dreams during stressful periods because the unconscious self knows that there are better times ahead.
Webb: Although there is a definite link between our daytime emotions and what we dream, it is not quite as simple as this. Dreams are not just a reflection of what happened during the day, but are created from a source of information and experiences built over a longer period of time.
Do dreams really hold meaning?
Webb: The simple fact that different people worldwide have similar dream themes when they are experiencing the same life challenges proves that dreams hold meaning. Some are tougher to understand than others, but many undoubtedly offer insights about our lives, relationships, health and much more.
Wallace: Dreams are amongst the most meaningful experiences we can have. Some of our greatest scientific discoveries have been revealed in dreams.
Punjabi: Dreams definitely hold meaning, However, to interpret the exact meaning of the dreams depends on a variety of factors.
Many times we don't remember what we've dreamt. Why?
Wallace: Many people have just got out of the habit of remembering the dreams because they lead very busy lives. To remember your dreams more easily start off by just trying to recall each feeling of a single image from one of your dreams. Think about this feeling image and let it naturally expand to what was happening before or after it in the dream.
Webb: Why one doesn't remember a dream is mostly because they haven't realised how dreams can be valuable in their lives. Just like if we ignore someone they stop visiting us, low dream recall happens because dream experiences come from a different level of consciousness and so they aren't always easy to transfer into normal waking memory. However, dream recall is like a mental muscle and with a bit of focus and simple techniques mostly everyone can increase their level of recall.
Can the mind force itself to dream in a particular manner?
Wallace: Lucid dreaming is when we become aware that we are dreaming while still in a dream. With practice the dreamer is able to control his dreams.
Webb: We often influence our dreams unknowingly with the thoughts and feelings that we fall asleep with. We can use this principle by choosing an intention or asking a question as we fall asleep, trusting that our dreams will work on it overnight. Our dreams usually respond with insights or we may suddenly just ‘think' of a spontaneous answer the next day. Many people call this technique ‘sleeping on it'.
Punjabi: Hypnotic suggestions before sleep can guide the mind towards giving you the most appropriate experiences to assist you in your life.
Can a person conduct self-analysis of their dreams?
Wallace: Yes you can. All you need is an open mind, an understanding of the most common symbols and the motivation to keep a dream journal.
Webb: It is generally better to have an experienced dream analyst or teacher in the beginning, though anyone can work with their own dreams and there are various methods and techniques for doing so. The best is to trust your intuition about and also look at a series of dreams over multiple nights, weeks and even months to find the deeper thematic trends.
The internet is full of dream interpretation sites. Are they of any use?
Wallace: Most dream interpretation sites on the web are absolute rubbish. They usually contain misleading and useless information. Dreams may have similar interpretations but it all depends on the context in which the dreamer is experiencing it.
Webb: I am not a big fan of the dream dictionary format where one symbol means the same for everyone in every situation. Dreams are simply too creative and are very specific to the individual and the time when they come. There are however some universal symbols that can be helpful to know about.
At what stage of sleep do we dream?
Craig Webb explains:
The visual dreams that most people normally recall occur during stage 1 REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. During the course of a normal night, there are about 4 to 6 sleep cycles, each lasting roughly 60-90 minutes. Generally speaking, visual dreaming happens near the end of each cycle. However, research has shown that dream experiences can come outside of stage 1 REM sleep.
Additionally, as they begin falling asleep, many people also experience what is called hypnagogic imagery which is generally short fleeting dreams. This type of dream has been used for creative problem-solving and artistic inspiration by renowned people such as inventor Thomas Edison, artist Salvador Dali and author Robert Louis Stevenson.
How do we dream?
Soniyaa Punjabi explains:
In order to understand why we dream, it is vital to understand how the mind stores information. Just imagine the mind as a vibrating ball of energy with two parts - the conscious and the subconscious minds.
The subconscious makes up 88-90 per cent of the mind. The conscious mind helps us process, analyse, logicalise information we receive. The subconscious mind is to store all the experiences we go through (also known as modern memory) with either a positive or negative association (pleasurable vs. painful)
From the ages of 2-8 a critical filter develops between the conscious and the subconscious mind. This filter is unique for each individual based on his/her social, economic, environment and religious input, thus storing all our belief systems. The function of the filter is to classify the information we receive from the conscious mind and judge whether to store it as positive or negative in the subconscious mind.
For example, as children we are taught that stealing is bad (which is stored in our critical filter). Therefore as we grow older, anyone around us who steals is labeled as "bad." And if we steal we get punished, which then becomes a negative experience.
All information is retained in the conscious mind for one and a half hours after which it seeps into the conscious part of the critical mind, which can hold information for up to 24 hours.
If we don't sleep the conscious mind becomes clogged with more information than it can hold and we feel tired, or have a breakdown.
Once we sleep the information seeps into the subconscious mind with help from the critical filter. In all this, dreams are the mind's way of updating and processing the information.
The last stage is venting where the mind lets go of the surplus information. When we wake up in the morning our critical mind is clear, which is why we (usually) feel refreshed.
