Do dreams mean anything?

Depends on what the dream is, really. I don't buy into the whole science of studying dreams too much, but I think there might just be something to it. I fully believe our subconscious dictates a part of what we dream, and that we can really get some idea of what we truly need from subjectively analyzing our dreams.

Of course, I also believe that some dreams are just gibberish. For example, the other day I dreamt that I had a goldfish bowl for a head. What the hell can I get from that?
 
I think that dreams do have significant meaning especially if you're anxious or worried about something or have been thinking about it a lot. A lot of times though if I look my dreams up in my dream dictionary they'll mean something totally crazy that doesn't make any sense. I think it depends on your situation. Recurring dreams have some sort of meaning indefinitely if they are happening continuously over and over
 
yotsubanned said:
Depends on what the dream is, really. I don't buy into the whole science of studying dreams too much, but I think there might just be something to it. I fully believe our subconscious dictates a part of what we dream, and that we can really get some idea of what we truly need from subjectively analyzing our dreams.

Of course, I also believe that some dreams are just gibberish. For example, the other day I dreamt that I had a goldfish bowl for a head. What the hell can I get from that?
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Totally agree, it depends on what it is. Reoccurring dreams more often than randomly experienced dreams can hint at hidden emotional stresses or anxieties. http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream8.htm

Slightly off-topic, I had a dream this morning about leading a pack of children through a retail store after a zombie apocalypse. It was terrifying. I HOPE it doesn't mean anything. Perhaps that I'd be a good zombie-killer...?
 
I think there's a lot to learn from dreams in general, but I don't think they have any supernatural qualities or anything like that. Recurring themes, to me, are just the subconscious's way of working through an issue. Some dreams are just brought on by watching or reading certain things, though, so those may not be as meaningful. I find dream interpretation to be very interesting, and although I'm generally not that good at it I find that I greatly enjoy doing it.
 
The reason I asked this question is that I have 2 dreams that keep coming back.

1. I am very very late for an exam which is very important for my future and there are no second chances.
2. I keep running as fast as I can (I don't know from what). No matter how fast I run I feel that the thing I am running from will eventually catch me.

These dreams are so vivid that it really takes me a minute or so after I wake up to realize that it was indeed a dream.
 
a_breezy said:
Totally agree, it depends on what it is. Reoccurring dreams more often than randomly experienced dreams can hint at hidden emotional stresses or anxieties. http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream8.htm

Slightly off-topic, I had a dream this morning about leading a pack of children through a retail store after a zombie apocalypse. It was terrifying. I HOPE it doesn't mean anything. Perhaps that I'd be a good zombie-killer...?
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Or perhaps you're a leader of children, haha!

I've never had reoccurring dreams, yet I've had many dreams that I could relate to my real-life needs directly after waking up, such as the need for affection or the need for stability. Have you ever dreamed you were peeing? Trust me, you don't want to.
 
shylock said:
The reason I asked this question is that I have 2 dreams that keep coming back.

1. I am very very late for an exam which is very important for my future and there are no second chances.
2. I keep running as fast as I can (I don't know from what). No matter how fast I run I feel that the thing I am running from will eventually catch me.

These dreams are so vivid that it really takes me a minute or so after I wake up to realize that it was indeed a dream.
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That seems like a pretty common theme to me. I've had somewhat similar dreams, and I've definitely had dreams with effects that last well into the rest of my day. I actually had a dream like that last night, but the weird thing is that I don't remember why it's been effecting me so much.

Running could represent trying to avoid something in waking life, especially impending events or dates. Being late for an exam is something along the lines of fear of change or something to that effect. I'm a believer in dreams having meaning, but you may take that stuff with a grain of salt. If you're interested in learning more about common themes, I use this site: http://www.dreammoods.com/
 
I think it has to do with the subconscious.

I don't believe that dreams are an indication for the future or the other thing when people see a dead relative and say: Oh my dead - whatever - talked to me in a dream.....

It's the subconscious. Our mind re-arranging itself. Regenerating itself and while doing that our deepest fears, wishes, worries come out (sometimes in a weird way)

So i do believe that dreams should be given a second thought because they might even tell us and help us realize what we fear or want.

Of course, it could always be something unimportant. For example you watch a scary movie like the exorsist or whatever, you go to sleep and wake up in the middle of the night, sweaty and terrified. In this case (and others) i think it's just a reaction to the movie or tv show one saw and it means nothing...

It always depends and it's for each of us to judge their own dreams. Those dream readers and card readers and people that talk to the dead - I personaly believe - are scams and fakes... :)
 
Yeah, I agree that I don't believe dreams are prophetic. They may help you to make future decisions or things like that, but they don't "predict" the future. There are times when something may happen that had previously happened in a dream, but it's usually either due to coincidence or its something that was sort of bound to happen based on past experiences.

Interesting side note about "card readers:" I bought a set of tarot cards a while back, mostly out of curiosity. I found that, while they don't literally predict the future, they can help you clear your mind and think of new solutions. I can't think of any specific examples, but you may get a card that says "you should look to others for advice" or something to that effect. But when those "readers" say that they're telling your future, that's when you know they're full of it.
 
I don't really believe that dreams have powers or indications which are supernatural in nature. However, I do believe that dreams reveal parts of our subconsciousness, and it raises the issue of how prominent the subconscious is in the mind of a person. I mean, Freud thought that dreams are the release of the repressed subconscious, and Jung thought that dreams are based on not only the subconscious, but the unconscious as well. I feel that while dream interpretation can be credible in the sense that objects occur as metaphors, but it is easy to form confirmation bias. It is especially hard to be certain because dreams are so subjective and people may not always remember the entirety of their dreams as well.
 
I tried to read Sigmund Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams" but it was so deep that I couldn't understand a thing of what I was reading. Are dreams really that complicated? I don't know.
 
shylock said:
I tried to read Sigmund Freud's "Interpretation of Dreams" but it was so deep that I couldn't understand a thing of what I was reading. Are dreams really that complicated? I don't know.
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I think dream interpretation requires at least a basic knowledge of psychology, especially if you're reading the work of Sigmund Freud. If you understand the concept of the subconscious and its relation to your waking mind, then you already have a pretty good idea of how it works. I wouldn't say it's complicated so much as varied, especially depending on how you interpret different themes. I'm majoring in English so I do a fair amount of interpretation of themes as it pertains to literature, but there's a significant overlapping of ideas between the two fields.

One dream I had a while back was something like this: I was in my parents' room (I don't know why) trying to catch a crab with a basket before it could get away. On the surface, it made no sense whatsoever. But then I did some research and found that the crab could be a symbol for Cancer (the star sign), and trying to capture it was a ways of preventing its escape. It turns out that this was around the time that a friend of mine--whose star sign happened to be Cancer--was leaving for college, and I was trying to arrange to see her before she left. In that case I was able to make a connection between my subconscious mind and my waking life. But the most impressive thing about that was that I remembered which dates fall under the sign of Cancer, which isn't something I think about often.
 
Joker99352 said:
In that case I was able to make a connection between my subconscious mind and my waking life.
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This is where it gets a little confusing for me. Is that connection real or are we fabricating the connection in order to understand our dreams.

I sometimes have strange dreams which involve quite a lot of my friends from different walks of life. These dreams have my colleagues interacting with my childhood friends like they always knew each other while in reality they have never met and perhaps do not know of each others' existence.
 
shylock said:
This is where it gets a little confusing for me. Is that connection real or are we fabricating the connection in order to understand our dreams.

I sometimes have strange dreams which involve quite a lot of my friends from different walks of life. These dreams have my colleagues interacting with my childhood friends like they always knew each other while in reality they have never met and perhaps do not know of each others' existence.
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I don't think that there's always a connection, but I don't think anyone is fabricating anything either. But I do think that most dreams have at least some significance to them, as random as they may seem. Granted, it doesn't have to be anything life-altering or highly profound. I remember having a dream about being at a fair and having the Dukes of Hazzard cast serving hamburgers, and I'm pretty sure there's no substance there. Still, I find it very interesting that our minds can produce these off-the-wall scenarios that can feel very real sometimes.
 
I've heard dreams are just there to filter out bad things that happened throughout the day. Actually maybe bad or good, which is why in a lot of studies people who have certain things going on in their life will a lot of times have dreams that are similar to people in similar situations. I rarely have dreams, but I really enjoy life and have little stress or problems. Whenever my life starts moving fast and getting hectic, that's when I will have a dream here or there. I actually tested this for myself and it seemed to show the same results as a lot of studies.
 
I don't know about filtering, per se, but I think the general idea is that your brain is sorting the useful information from the less useful. I also don't think it's limited to just that day, but chances are that most of it will be.

And actually, you have dreams every night; you just don't remember most of them. In fact, I think the number of dreams the average person has per night is around 2-3. It would be really cool if we could remember all of them, but I suppose that would sort of defeat the purpose of sorting out the useless information.
 
When we fall asleep, our brains goes into overdrive doing a plethora of things, whether it is storing information, recounting the days events, etc. I personally believe that dreams are a manifestation of the struggles we face at times. Although it may be presented in an abstract manner that we don't understand, I think dreams are a way for our mind to solve the problems it's been presented. Think about how many times you have gone to bed with an issue on your mind, but when you wake, you have a possible solution out of the blue. Could it have been a result of a dream you can't quite remember?
 
I'm open to the idea of dreams meaning something in the sense of your teeth falling out meaning you are having feelings of insecurity or things like that. Also I think you can try things out in your dreams and they can mean something like if you dream about your future career, or decisions you have to make. That can have meaning. But as far as dreams revealing what you are supposed to do, or whats going to happen in the future, I am highly skeptical of this.
 
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