Dreams touch every level of our life. They may let us glimpse the future, or give suggestions for healing, or share insights into our relationships. Above all, they can and will steer us more directly toward God.

Sri Harold Klemp

Dreams are windows into worlds beyond the ordinary. Some people have dreams that give them guidance about the smallest details of their daily life along with profound spiritual insights. Others experience unconditional and transforming love in their dreams. Through history, humanity has tried to understand the meaning of dreams. Philosophers, mystics, and scientists, all cared about this issue, coming to different answers. Many ancient cultures and even modern ones, interpret dreams as inspirations, divine signs, prophetic visions, sexual fantasies, alternative realities, and many other beliefs, fears, and conjectures, given its mysterious nature.

In 1900, Sigmund Freud in his book “The Interpretation of Dreams,” defended the idea that dreams reflect a unconscious experience. He theorized that during the sleep thought tends to be primitive or regressive and that the effects of repression are reduced. For him, repressed desires, especially those associated with sex and hostility, were freed in dreams when consciousness is diminished. However, at that time, the physiology of sleep and dreams was unknown, leaving Freud with only his psychoanalytic interpretation of dreams. Only in the 50’s, with the discovery that rapid eye movements (the so called REM sleep, or Rapid Eye Movement sleep) were frequently an indication that the individual was dreaming, a new era for research on dreams emerged, and some elements of the psychoanalysis had to be modified. Dreams became then, predominantly analyzed through theories based in neurological findings. Nowadays we know that dreams are understood as part of the biologically determined sleep cycle.

The Meaning of Dreams

The purpose of dreaming still remains largely unexplained. However, researchers have been proposed several theories based on neurobiological findings and behavioral contents of dreams.

The Content of Dreams

Many normal dreams are unpleasant. Doctor Calvin Hall catalogued over 10.000 dreams from normal people, and found that:
64% - were associated with sadness, apprehension, or anger;
18% - were happy and exciting;
1% - were associated with sexual involvement

The Proper Way To Sleep

As with everything else in life, there is a right way and wrong way to go about sleeping in a manner that is productive in dream recall. Before you leap into bed, take a moment and review these preliminary steps:

Relax completely. This can be done with nothing more then peace and quiet. If you choose, use your favorite relaxation tapes, or just some peaceful music. (pre-set to turn off)

Pay attention on your mind. As you start to go to sleep, pay attention to the main theme, or train of thought running through your mind. This will give you a clue as to what your dream may end up being based on. Also, by keeping your mind on what you want to dream about is a good way to dream about one particular issue. Don’t over concentrate though, or it will keep you awake.

Give yourself a suggestion to remember your dream. You must want to remember your dreams in order to do so. Giving yourself a suggestion is simple. Just keep in mind, and randomly bring to surface a little thought like “I will remember my dream”. Don’t just think the words like a child reciting “I will not write on the wall”, but mean it, and feel the conviction.

Waking up slowly and peacefully. Being rocketed out of bed by a big dog landing in the middle of your chest and licking your face is NOT the stuff that dreams are made of! (I speak from experience) :) Try to wake up naturally. Regardless what anyone may have told you, it is a fact that adult human beings NEED a minimum of eight hours sleep in order to be fully rested. Some, in fact most really need more. Not getting enough sleep is the number one reason for not remembering your dreams! Don’t overdo it either, or the reverse will be true. A good rule of thumb is you should wake up naturally without an alarm clock, and without someone (or something) waking you.

Your health is very important! Take your vitamins, and minerals every day! Eat a well balanced diet. Poor nutrition is also an extremely common cause for failure to recall dreams.

Keeping those steps above in mind will kick start you to remembering your dreams. These steps are the key to remembering your dreams, if you practice ALL the above, you WILL sooner or later start to remember them.

Tag: Dreams