Usually I only take notice of dreams if they’re particularly terrifying, weird, or hot, but what I realised this week is that whether we remember them or not we dream whenever we sleep and as we lay snuggled up in bed our brains are still ticking over, working things out.
WORDS : MARK FOUNTAIN
In dreams we wrestle with our desires and anxieties and by paying them some attention we can learn a lot about ourselves and how to make our lives just that little bit better.
My friend Dav unwittingly discovered a direct link between the conscious and unconscious mind when he had a dream about, to use his own words ‘giving great head’, and then woke up gagging. Well it was either that or he was giving a ghost the best blow job of it’s (after)life.
What this tells us about the workings of his mind I am not qualified to guess but to paraphrase the daddy of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, dreams are wish-fulfilments – the result of anxieties, urges, and desires from our everyday lives that we push into our unconsciousness, which then find outlets and bubble to the surface in our dreams. Dreams are a way of dealing with the trails and tribulations of our lives and these personal comic-operas are performed in an encoded ‘dream language’ that can, at it’s most strange, make Twin Peaks look like the teletubbies.
Now my name’s not Joseph, and I don’t have a dreamcoat, technicoloured or otherwise, but I have had a dig around the internet to find the best in (free) dream analysis so now I can help you begin to crack your dream code and find out just what’s going on in the murky depths of your psyche.
But beware, there’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to mind, we’re all little snowfalkes, but here are my top 6 dream themes to get you started.
1. FALLING
Lets clear something up in Dream Interpretation 101, you WILL NOT die if you hit the ground during a falling dream, you just wont! ‘But sometimes when I’m falling I wake up scared with a violent shake’, you say. Well that’s just a myclonic jerk symptomatic of waking from the early stages of sleep where falling dreams are common – do your homework dick head!
As with most common dream themes, falling is an indication of insecurities, instabilities, and anxieties. Falling denotes lack of control, maybe in a relationship or at work. They often reflect a sense of failure or inferiority in some circumstance or situation, maybe you’ve been unlucky in love recently?
2. I BELIEVE I CAN FLY
The polar opposite of the falling dream, this is dream Mecca. If you have this dream, well done you lucky bastard. I wouldn’t know, but many dreamers describe the ability to fly in their dreams as an exhilarating, joyful, and liberating experience. If you’re soaring like superman it means you are on top of a situation, maybe you’ve gained a new perspective on something?
The ability to control your flight is representative of your own personal sense of power, if you’re falling then you’re having power issues. Barriers like trees, power lines, or mountains can represent a particular obstacle or person who is standing in your way in your waking life, find who or what they are and get rid!
If your flying dream goes the way of Icarus and you’re flying too high, then it suggests you’re afraid of challenges and of success.
3. NUDE
A favourite in low-rent sitcoms and soaps, I’ve never had this one personally. The sudden realisation of being nude in public can reflect feelings of vulnerability, shamefulness, not being prepared, or maybe that you are hiding something and feel others can see through you.
Clothes are our identity and being stripped of these may be a sign that you are trying to be something that you’re not. Naked dreams can be brought on if you’re trying to impress others, are you starting a new job or are you being kept on your toes by a new girlfriend who is much cooler than you?
4. HELP, I’M BEING CHASED!
There’s no shame in running, a coward once said. But in dreams running is an instinctive response to a conflict. Your pursuer can take the form of a person, animal, or unknown figure (with me it’s usually a scary black cat) that wants to hurt or maybe kill you. The way you react to being chased parallels how you respond to threats in real life; shy people run, brave people fight or try and outwit the attacker.
Also the distance of the attacker denotes the closeness of the issues. If they’re gaining on you then you’re stuck with the problem until you resolve it. If they’re dropping back, don’t sweat it, you’re in the clear.
Some of the sites I looked at advised confronting your pursuer next time you have one of these dreams, but that sounds scary as shit. I think I’ll keep on running
5 . TOOTH HURTY
I have a recurring dream where my teeth crumble one by one into my hand, and sometimes I chew them up like crunchy chewing gum. Freaky, no? Well one interpretation of this is that teeth dreams reflect anxiety about appearance – the whole am I hot or not question.
Another idea is that they symbolise being embarrassed or making a fool of yourself in some specific situation, with the teeth falling out being an over-exaggeration of your worries and anxiety. I embarrass myself on a daily basis, so it’s probably this one.
Teeth are also inevitably linked to power, gums just aren’t scary or threatening are they? So the loss of teeth in your dream may be from a sense of powerlessness. Are you are having difficulties expressing yourself or getting your point across, maybe feeling frustrated that voice is not being heard?
Feelings of inferiority and lacking self confidence can also bring on teeth dreams, so if you want them to stop roll up your shirt sleeves and start being more assertive. My advice is to stand in the middle of the room and shout ‘I AM A MAN’ until you feel suitably confident.
6. TEST THE NATION
I can’t do this. Why would they give me an exam paper in French! Oh God, time is running out, why are the hands of the clock flying round like that. And now my pencil keeps breaking, brilliant!
Test dreams center around feelings of not making the grade and measuring up to other people’s expectations of you. You may also experience the fear of not being accepted, not being prepared, or not being good enough. You feel nervous, insecure and tend to believe the worst about yourself – basically you’re Woody Allen circa 1970.
But take comfort form the fact that most people who have test dreams are unlikely to fail a test in real life. This dream goes back to their fear and anxiety about meeting others expectations of you. So you might not fail at school, but you probably will socially.
So what have we learnt? Yes dreams can be fucked up, but underneath all this twisted logic and messed up imigery is a real genuine concern that your brain is trying to get across to you. Try and listen and it might just help you sort a few things out.
Sleep tight!
