If you are reading this, then you must have been dreaming for approximately 100 minutes last night, whether you remember it or not. Dreaming is absolutely essential to all humans existent and most mammals too. For something that every human being does on a regular basis, we still know very little about what dreams are, what they do really, and why do we need to dream.
Just one of those mysteries of life that everybody since the beginning of human civilization has commented on or even recorded, but still remains unproven to as the what and why. I have been fascinated about dreams, long before being a therapist, so therefore I find dream analysis a useful conjunctive aid in psychotherapy.
First a little minutiae about dreams, or least what we do know about them. Most occur during a stage of sleep called REM, or rapid eye movement sleep. These REM stages occur every 70 to 90 minutes of sleep. We all have approximately 5 REM sleep stages per night.
They can last from a mere 5 minutes to as long as 30 minutes. Our REM sleep gets progressively longer during the night, and it is in the early morning prior to awakening that this stage is the longest. Fortunately for us, the longest dream stages occur just before awakening, as that is when most of us remember our dreams.
Although we do not know why REM stages are so vital and necessary, we do know that if humans are deprived of them, the brain, seems to take note and records how many were missed. It will then attempt to make up the missing ones by increasing the number of REM stages and they will occur quicker after falling asleep.
Babies will need about 16 to 18 hours of sleep and teenagers about 9 and 1/4.. As we get older, our sleep may be more fragmented, but REM needs remains the same. An older patient might make up a missed REM by having one in a nap. Doggies for example need about 14 to 16 hours of sleep so they dream quite a bit.
A very strange , but important thing occurs during dreams; we have a suppression of neurotransmitters. This produces REM atonia which is simply muscle paralysis. If this did not occur, then we would all be acting out our dreams and sleep walking! You probably have felt this from time to time in your dreams where you were trying to run, and your legs felt like they were dragging, or for a split instant awakened and could not move.
We have known for a long time that depressed patients will slip into REM much quicker in the initial sleep cycle than the non depressed. Rosalind Cartwright, a sleep researcher who has done brain imaging tests on depressed people, noted that their limbic areas showed as much hight level of activity than the non depressed. It is the limbic area of the brain that is the center of anxiety and or emotions. She postulates that dreaming might be a method of down regulating or modulating negative emotions.
Yet strangely enough, a little sleep deprivation, can actually be beneficial to one’s mood. Sleep deviation in bipolar patients may even trigger a high, so there is definitely some correlation with mood states , perhaps only though with individuals who have a genetic predisposition to mood disorders.
Most antidepressants have a tendency to suppress early REM stages, so perhaps that in addition to neurotransmitters regulation is contributory to improved mood. Most depressed patients will have disturbed sleep, so antidepressants that are effective will also restore the quality of sleep.
If the purpose of dreams is to modify or down grade negative emotions, then the primary emotion dealt with in dreams is fear! Positive emotions seem to be less present in general, except within a sexual context. Sexual dreams can be very vivid and are usually accompanied by the same physiological arousal of genitals as in waking states.
In working with patients, I see their dreams as being significant symbolic images of what they are dealing with in their life. Although Freud was the first in psychiatric circles to talk about dream significance, I find it was Dr Carl Jung who has offered the most masterful writings and interpretations.
Usually in mid therapy, I start to ask patients about their dreams and if they are interested in working around them. Some will tell me that they can not remember, but I have found that if I ask them to try to recall, that this suggestion is usually sufficient to affect some recall.
If I suspect there has been abuse or trauma in their lives, that is completely suppressed from memory, I also inquire , because I have found abuse victims often have reoccurring nightmares. Most PTSD patients will have reoccurring nightmares and that is one the symptoms of the illness.
I have had as well, as some of my patients, what I would call a prophetic dream. These are much more common that you would expect. Additionally, for those that believe in telepathy, which I do, I feel when we are asleep, our unconscious is open to receiving energy transmissions from others, that for whatever reason we may not be consciously thinking of them or open to receiving during our waking hours.
For those open to the notion of reincarnation, then recurrent dreams or nightmares may be remnants of past lives, which some clinicians such as Dr. Brian L Weiss have documented and discussed in case studies.
The Zohar, which is the beautifully written mystical text of Judaism, that was said to have been written in aramaic by a rabbi around the 2nd century, inspired or guided by God, is full of dream rational. I love that it states when we dream we are actually being propelled to the “other” side in the spiritual realm and that our soul is suspended and connected to our physical body by a thin silver thread, that immediately snaps us back just before awaking.
On the other side maybe we are in consult with our spiritual masters or angel therapists and are assisted spiritually in dealing with whatever we have to deal with on planet earth. I always thought that would also explain why babies need so much sleep, as it must be rough for any new soul to contemplate going through life.
Anyone who has ever loved a dog, knows that they sleep and dream a lot. Their little paws are moving slightly as if running and some will bark or yip during their dreams. They probably do not need much waking life to learn their lessons as they are already much more spiritually advanced in loving.
I also enjoy lucid dreaming, which is dreaming when you are aware of dreaming. This occurs at will in between sleep states usually in trying to go back to sleep or continue a recalled dream.
I often receive ideas about what I want to write about or what to explain during these semi sleep stages, so at least they can be productive for me. I have heard that Einstein and Edison, and many others got ideas from dreams , as I am sure that you too have felt compelled to do something or had an idea to take care of something because of a dream.
Dream incubation or seeding is fun to do if you want to problem solve or try to receive a answer to a situation you are encountering in life. Animist cultures such as the aborigines seek dreams as blueprints and guides for living. Dream time is a sacred notion for them as it represents what is more spiritually significant that being awake.
Perhaps the best explanation around dreams came from an unsuspected source several years ago when I was visiting the cathedral of Chartres. Besides being of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world, Chartres was constructed on an old Druidic energy space. Whether it is the labyrinth or Notre Dame de Pilier, the entire cathedral and immediate grounds reek of a lovely intense energy.
Just in front of the cathedral was a middle aged man with a wooden wagon decorated with multiple spiritual sayings and sitting on top was a most beautiful white plumed chicken, Madame Gigi I think. When I asked about his pet chicken and started to have a spiritual discourse with him, he looked directly into my eyes and said ” but certainly you must be aware that this(life) is only an illusion” ” It is our dream time when we are home and fully awake”