Dreams

Dreams: A dream can include any of the images, thoughts and emotions that are experienced during sleep. Dreams can be extraordinarily vivid or very vague; filled with joyful emotions or frightening imagery; focused and understandable or unclear and confusing.

Dreams are things that most people love. They enable us to go to places that don't exist, places too wonderful for others to see; and they're exclusive to the one dreaming. It is said that we dream every night, however only some remember every dream. Some people would call that lucky. 

I am not one of those people.

I hate dreams. They whisk you off to some unknown place where anything and everything happens. You have no warning if something's about to go wrong or if some unwelcome person is about to appear. In dreams you have no control - you're asleep. Some people say you can control your dreams, but I strongly disagree. Often, my dreams conjure up people I've left behind, or blocked out - the people I've chosen to not be involved with. My dreams can take me back to places I've been before and twist my own memories of those places so that in a years time I'm not sure whether something actually really did happen or not. I'm not crazy. A lot of you are probably in the same position, or, if you're not, your brain obviously works differently to mine.

A majority of my dreams are seen to me as nightmares. No, they do not include ghosts and ghouls, witches and warcraft, good vs evil etc. Instead, they are what most people call a "good dream". My problem is that I've had the dream in the first place. For example, the other day I had a dream, woke up in the early hours of the morning and sent a text that said this: "Dude, my dream said things which I hope aren't honest. Regardless of it if they currently means something. Which we won't. I swear." Now, I'm blaming the utter incoherence on the fact that I had just woken up. The main point is that something from that dream bothered me enough to drive me to attempt to text someone about it, promising "we won't" do whatever the dream signified. I was confused, in this sleepy state, as to whether my dream was telling the truth, when I now know it's just a made up fantasy. They confuse me. So much. And I hate not understanding something made up by my own brain.

Sigmund Freud, seen as one of the founders of psychology, came up with idea that we dream using our 'id', "centering our dreams around pleasures, desires, unchecked urges and wish fulfillment". In a sense this is true. Our dreams enable us to do things which would hardly be possible in reality (e.g. flying). 
Here are some other theories:

• Dreams are the result of our brains trying to interpret external stimuli during sleep. For example, the sound of the radio may be incorporated into the content of a dream.
• Dreams serve to 'clean up' clutter from the mind, much like clean-up operations in a computer, refreshing the mind to prepare for the next day.
• The idea of psychotherapy - that the dreamer is able to make connections between different thoughts and emotions in a safe environment. 
• Loose connections between thoughts and ideas are linked and then guided by the emotions of the dreamer.

I've heard about every one of these, and it is likely that in many case each one is true, in some respect. However, it cannot be proved. So here's another theory:

"A dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. In dreams you will lose your heartaches, whatever you wish for, you keep." - Cinderella

Yep. Cinderella. But think about it... "A dream is a wish" links to Freud's theory, "your heart makes" links to both Freud's and the third bullet point. "In dreams you will lose your heartaches" suggests the ideas of bullet points two and three, "whatever you wish for, you keep." brings ideas from bullet point four, as well as Freud's theory. The only one not mentioned here in the first bullet point, which I know myself is partially true as a choir of angel popped into my dream when Nan turned on Classic FM one Sunday morning.

Here's the last theory for you to read:

"A dream is a movie which allows the dreamer to see what they're thinking about in a much more vivid way."

That's my theory. Because it's true. And thought's are influenced by our wishes, emotions, environment and what we've done that day. It's that simple. I don't see why people try and work out what they mean or buy dream catchers to help them sleep better at night, because all a dream is, is you thinking in colour. Unless you dream in black and white... Hmmm... That's awkward.

I still hate them though. Maybe my thoughts and feelings are just all over the place. Maybe I just don't know how to think or what to feel. Maybe that's why my dreams are so confusing, so uncontrollable. I will forever ponder this. I will forever wish that I didn't dream... Hey! Do you think that if dreams display what you wish, if I wish not dreaming enough it'll work?! Probably not... Oh well...

Arrivederci.