A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur in the
mind during certain stages of sleep.
Why we dream is not fully understood, though dreams have been a topic of scientific, philosophical
and religious interest throughout history.
Not all dreams are pleasant and occasionally we experience dark dreams or nightmares.Today,
we’ll be diving in to the world of the subconscious to learn what’s really going on inside our
heads at night, in this episode of the infographics show, Most common nightmares and what they
mean?
First a warning, a lot of the things you will hear in this video are based on pseudo-science
and can’t be verified.
Philosophers Aristotle and Plato, and later psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud all spent time
theorizing on dreams, and agreed that this late night brain activity, is a way for us
to act out our unconscious desires in a safe state.
And a 1960 study by William Dement, a professor of psychology and sleep medicine at Stanford
University, documented the detrimental effects of not dreaming.
Results from the study showed that individuals who were awoken just as they entered REM sleep,
the sleep state at which you dream, had more anxiety, irritability, tension, less motor
coordination and more feelings of emptiness and depersonalization.
So dreaming is surely good for us, but then there’s those dreams that can scare us,
and sometimes wake us in the night, and often linger in the conscious mind throughout the
following day.
Bad dreams, nightmares, whatever you want to call them…we all have them.
And something coincidental is, that many of the themes of these dreams are common to all
of us.
So we thought it would be interesting to take a look at which ones we commonly have, and
what they really tell us about our psyche.
Here’s our top 10 list.
10.
Teeth falling out.
This dream has to do with insecurity and is common in different cultures all over the
world.
It can mean that we’re anxious about how others are judging us, and having teeth fall
out or crack can represent financial concerns, and issues with vanity.
This dream can also be due to the fear of aging or becoming less productive - a metaphor
pointing to the loss of the ability to fully bite into life.
We found there are many theories on this common dream and no one has yet agreed on a definitive
meaning.
The Talmud, which was written in 400 AD, said that it meant your children were in danger
or going to die.
Go figure.
9.
Meeting a celebrity.
Ian Wallace is a dream psychologist who wrote The Complete A to Z Dictionary of Dreams.
He says that dreaming of meeting a celebrity is one of the dreams his clients have the
most.
He believes the actual celebrity could be relevant as it may reveal what talents the
dreamer values that they would like to show off in their own life.
So while dreaming about Taylor Swift could simply hint that you’ve been spending too
much time watching MTV, it could also mean that Taylor symbolizes something important
to you, like self-expression, independence, or achieving your dreams.
8.
Unable to find a toilet.
Yes, people really do dream of toilets!
And if you’re dreaming about spending time on the porcelain throne, it’s a hint at
something private and personal that’s lingering in the mind.
Expulsion and excretion, can symbolize getting rid of something unpleasant or unnecessary.
This could be an emotion, a person, a job or whatever else you need to rid your life
of.
But if you’re running around in your dream and can never find a toilet, that may represent
your insecurities about letting go of what’s not needed, even though you desperately long
to be free of whatever it is.
7.
Dreaming of being naked in public.
Maybe you’re in school, or on the bus to work, or already there in your boss’s office;
wherever it is, you suddenly realize you are totally naked.
It’s a dream many of us have at some point in our sleeping life.
Experts still aren’t entirely sure what it means.
The majority of psychologists agree it probably doesn’t represent an actual desire to be
naked in public, and that it’s more likely related to being embarrassed about something
that others don’t know about you.
Though other psychologists have suggested it comes from having feelings of guilt or
inferiority.
6.
Dreaming you can fly.
This is a very common dream that you hear people recounting.
Dreams of flying are generally positive.
They may represent feeling that nothing can keep you from reaching your goals.
That you have high hopes and that you are feeling in control of your life.
It may indicate you are reaching new levels of achievement in your career or in your personal
life.
And it can also relate to your sense of spiritual development and conscious awakening.
The flipside of this dream is that flying may also be compensating for a lack of freedom
in everyday life or something is being overlooked or avoided, or that you need to see things
from a higher perspective.
5.
Drowning.
When we are under a lot of physical or emotional pressure in waking life, it’s common to
dream of drowning.
It can also mean you feel too deeply involved in a relationship and it is clouding your
life in a way that is bringing imbalance and insecurity.
The act of drowning can also symbolize the fear of being overcome by your emotions, or
debt if you are having money problems.
So there are a number of possible causes, but dreaming of drowning is almost always
a warning that you have gone too far or gotten in too deep with something.
4.
War.
It’s nearly always a negative sign if you’re dreaming about war.
It’s a warning about a period of hardship and troubles that you are sensing in your
life.
It may also represent an inner conflict that’s in need of a resolution.
Or a battle of wills, like an ongoing disagreement with someone in your personal or professional
life.
And war and fighting in dreams, can even manifest as a result of aggressive behavior or an abusive
relationship that you are in or have been in, in the past.
3.
Being chased.
According to Richard Nicoletti, a psychotherapist trained at the Jung Institute in Boston, dreaming
about being chased generally means that you are “being told by your unconsciousness
that you’re avoiding an issue or a person,” Nicoletti also explains that context is very
important when dreaming about being chased.
Identifying the chaser, for example…Is it a male, female, animal, or an unknown being
in the darkness?
Remembering this will help you to understand who or what you’re avoiding in real life,
that’s inspiring theses late night adventures in your head.
2.
Falling.
If you’re falling in your dream, then it’s most certainly a scary nightmare.
Nightmares about falling often represent relationship or career issues, and they’re particularly
common for people in positions of power, like managers in the office, or parents at home.
It’s believed to be our mind’s way of working through emotional trauma.
And that horrible feeling dreamers experience right before plummeting to the ground represents
a negative occurrence in your life.
Sometimes it feels so real it can jolt you awake.
There’s a rumor that if you hit the ground and die in your dream, you will actually die
for real and not wake up.
But, of course.
that’s not true.
And what about dying?
Well that’s our number 1.
According to the International Association For The Study of Dreams, "Many people have
dreamed that they died or hit the ground in a fall and of course they have lived to tell
the tale!"
There are many different ways to interpret death dreams, but in essence they all boil
down to the fact that death symbolizes an ending to something, an event or emotion in
your real life.
Psychotherapist Jeffrey Sumber told the Huffington Post that dreams about death often indicate
"the symbolic ending of something, whether that's a phase, a job, or a relationship."
So, that’s our list of 10.
Do you have a recurring dream or nightmare?
And was it on our list or is it something different?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Which Countries Are Still Truly Communist?
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!