What Are Dreams? And Why Do People Have Them?

Facts About Dreaming

Dreaming is universal, meaning that it happens to everyone, and we’re not able to control the content or outcome of them. We may not remember what we’re dreaming about, and some of us even claim we “don’t dream,” but it’s still happening, whether you know it or not.

A typical nightly screenplay can last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. Men and women tend to have similar visions, though women’s scenarios tend to happen indoors and involve family members, babies, and children, while men tend to have more aggressive scenes play out in their minds.

We tend to know the people we meet in our sleep at least 48% of the time. In the rest of the instances, we see strangers or symbolic, cultural figures like teachers, florists, etc.

Ironically, even though dreaming can help us build long-term memories, it’s very rare that we’ll remember much of what we see. Sadly, about 95% of these visions are lost within minutes of waking up.

There’s an active debate in the scientific community about the purpose of dreaming. Some scientists stand firm that it serves no function; it’s just a collection of odd stories and images that our brain tells throughout the night. Other researchers believe that this is an adaptive mechanism that allows the brain to sort through all the information of the day, learn, create memories, and recover from trauma.

What we do know is that when people are deprived of sleep (meaning they’re woken up right before they enter the stage of sleep called REM), they experience anxiety, depression, weight gain, lack of coordination, difficulty concentrating, and even hallucinations.

While we all experience life differently, what’s interesting to note is the fact that almost all of our dreams fall into a limited number of shared themes. For example, people who see images of themselves being naked are often afraid of being exposed, or they’re worried about a secret. The way that this manifests what’s happening in our daily lives is surprisingly consistent among us as a species.

Learn More: The Science Behind Dreaming

Different Types

Daydreams

Staring off into space and letting your mind carry you off into another world is a classic example of daydreaming. We spend an average of 70 to 120 minutes each daydreaming. It could be fantasizing about something or playing out different scenarios in our head. We’re not technically asleep, but we’re usually not 100 percent alert of our actual surroundings, either.

Nightmares

Disturbing and frightful images characterize a nightmare. They can be in response to a real-life situation you’re dealing with, and they’re even triggered by watching something disturbing on television right before bed.

Often, they’re a hint from our subconscious mind that there’s a trauma or fear that we need to acknowledge or address. People are more likely to have nightmares when there’s a family history of psychiatric problems, they’ve done drugs and had negative experiences, or they’re going through real-life nightmares like a troubled relationship or stress at work. For more information on how to avoid nightmares, check out our full guide.

Lucid Dreams

Lucid dreaming is when you know that you’re not awake. For most of us, this jars us out of sleep immediately. However, lucid dreaming is a skill that can be practiced. Imagine, being able to walk through a dream and know you can do whatever you want with zero consequences whatsoever!

Recurring Dreams

Having either the same vision over and over, or a vision that has a repeating theme, describes what it means to have a recurring dream. On rare occasions, these can be pleasant, but typically it’s a nightmare stemming from an unresolved problem or conflict. If you’re able to get to the root of the what the problem is, you will probably find that solving it causes the recurring image to vanish from sight.

Healing Dreams

These are common in those of us with health challenges. They’re usually a signal from our unconscious that something is wrong with our health and it needs to be addressed. Dreaming that you’re getting a cavity filled at the dentist? You may be overdue for a teeth cleaning!

Prophetic Dreams

As we muddle through life bombarded by stimuli, we’re only processing a fraction of the information we receive. However, when we go to sleep, our subconscious mind is piecing it all together. If we see an image of something that seemingly predicts the future, it’s often the result of our brain making sense of random facts and coming to a logical conclusion while we’re asleep.

This phenomenon is also referred to as a precognitive or psychic dream.

Why Do We Dream?

The scientific jury is still out on this one. Some scientists believe that there is no purpose for dreaming and that it’s completely random. Others argue that we need to do it in order to stay mentally, emotionally, and physically healthy.

Building on Freud’s belief that dreaming is a window into our subconscious, it makes sense to theorize that it helps us process the information from our daily lives and process all of the emotions we experienced throughout the day. Dreaming could be instrumental in solving problems.

Have you ever gone to bed worrying about a problem only to have the perfect solution when you wake up? Perhaps getting a night of sleep was all you needed to clear your mind, or maybe you had a dream that helped you sort through the issue.

Freud also believed that dreaming allowed you to play out unconscious motivations, thoughts, and desires that aren’t acceptable in everyday society.

Factors that Influence Dreams

Age

Even though we all experience dreaming, its vividness is most pronounced during childhood. Many of us probably recall some particularly vivid ones, especially nightmares, from when we were kids, but we don’t remember one that we had last year.

Gender

The results of individual studies differ, but most conclude that men and women dream similarly. Notable differences include that males visualize more aggression and outdoor scenes, while women see indoor settings and family members, babies, and children more frequently.

Sleep Disorders

People with insomnia tend to remember their dreams more often, and they’re often stressful. Most likely this is because they’re not sleeping as deeply, so recalling a vision is easier when they’re roused from a more superficial stage of sleep.

Those with narcolepsy tend to have more disturbing and twisted images in their sleep with negative connotations.

Well-being

It’s no surprise that people who experience stress and insecurity on a daily basis are more likely to report remembering their dreams as well as recalling images associated with strong emotions. It’s as if our brains are trying to help us process our daily struggles as we sleep.

Read more: Learn What Your Work Dreams Mean to Turn Your Stress into Success

Common Contents and Interpretations

Characters

We’re not usually the only star in our nightly plays. Often other characters appear and play major roles. About half of the time, these appearances are made by people we know.

Symbolic characters also appear in our visions. It could be a doctor, a store clerk, or a friend, but we won’t necessarily know who they are or assign a name to them. And about 16% of the time, we’ll have no idea who the person is who’s making an appearance.

Memories

It’s fairly common to dream about what’s happened in our past, and scientists discovered three distinct timeframes that appear in our dreams as memories. In the short-term, we tend to see memories of what happened that day as well as what happened the week prior. It’s as if our brain cycles in a seven-day series and there can be a lag between when we experience something and when it shows up in sleep.

Longer term memories can also crop up, though they’re usually incomplete and fragmented. Freud, as well as more modern scientists, have theorized that these function as a form of mental recovery from a traumatic experience.

Themes

No matter our culture, gender or age, we often experience the same types of dreams, or themes. Top themes include:

• Being chased
  

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• Sexual experiences
  

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• Being late
  

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• Falling
  

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• Flying
  

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• Be unprepared for an exam/failing a test

In all, there are 55 themes that occur again and again in our population. Each of these themes is tied to different parts of our subconscious, including sex drive, self-image, and internal conflict.

Pain

We can indeed feel pain while dreaming, so thankfully the instance of this types of dream in most individuals is low. However, if you’re injured or going through something that’s traumatic in your daily life, the probability of experiencing something similar while you sleep goes up.

Self-awareness

Being self-aware in a dream state refers to lucid dreaming. In this state, you can control your actions and the outcomes rather than being a helpless observer. Some scientists caution against trying to control these outcomes, but we think it’s pretty cool.

Senses

Though we can experience senses like smell, taste, and sound, it’s not all that common. Studies have shown that people with migraines report tasting and smelling more frequently, which suggests that the part of our brain that triggers migraines may also be connected to dreaming.

When it comes to hearing music, musicians are more likely to experience it, which is not terribly surprising. What is interesting, however, is that close to half of the music they heard in their sleep was original music, meaning that they’re composing in their sleep!

Relationships

Like other life themes, dreaming about relationships is more common when you’re in one. There’s also evidence suggesting that the feelings you have in your waking relationship will carry over to your sleep. So, if you’re having conflict or insecurity with your partner, it may be something you experience while you’re asleep, too.

Flying

Over the past 50 years, the instances of people reporting flying dreams have gone up. While some scientists believe this is because the frequency of air travel has increased, we think it has more to do with the desire to have freedom. Now, more than ever, we’re chained to electronic devices and overcommitted schedules. If you’re having visions of flying at night, ask yourself if you feel trapped in your daily life and wish you were freer.

Death

It can be freaky to see death in your sleep, especially your own. However, this is almost never a symbol of actual death. Usually, it’s your subconscious way of telling you that a significant change is on the horizon, and you’re about to leave the past behind.

Falling

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, insecure or unstable, you may have visions of falling. A dream about falling usually means your life or an aspect of it is out of your control. It doesn’t mean you’ll die if you hit the ground in your sleep, contrary to popular belief.