From Freud’s theories on the unconscious mind to twenty-first century researchers, dreams have interested psychologists for centuries. Why do people have them, do they mean anything, and what different types are there? There are many theories, but little anyone knows for sure.
“We have different theories about the meaning of dreams but we don’t have one concrete answer,” Katie Jeray, psychology teacher, said. “If you follow the by-product theory,dreams are meaningless, but if you follow something like Freud’s theory, then we can dissect specific items, colors, people, etc. to assign symbolic meaning to them.”
Many believe something in between a few theories, with 36 out of 57 students who took a survey reporting that they believe some dreams have meaning, but not all of them. Freshman Emerson Raino said he believes dreams have “a little bit, but not much” meaning, and that they relate to how a person feels at a given moment.
“Dreams are kind of a reflection of your subconscious thoughts,” Anthony Gerges, junior, said, “In my experience with dreams, it’s usually a part of your brain you don’t really talk to or listen to trying to get you to listen to it.”
There are many different types of dreams, and another major question is why people have those different types. For example, some people have lucid dreams and others don’t, with 12 out of 57 students surveyed never having had a lucid dream, while others had them at a variety of frequencies.
“Lucid dreaming is simply being able to recognize you are dreaming while it’s happening without waking up. If you can do this, you can activate your prefrontal cortex which is responsible for decision making,” Jeray said.
Jeray also said that she is unsure as to why some people have lucid dreams while others do not, but that it is something that one can work at. The same can be said for remembering dreams.
“It is thought that everyone has the capacity to remember dreams, but for some it may require more concentration,” Jeray said.
29 survey takers said they only remember dreams sometimes, and Raino stated that he remembers his dreams more often when he finds himself sleeping in an uncomfortable position, while Gerges said he noticed no pattern in how often he remembered his dreams.
The types of dreams people have range from two seconds of normal life to the most absurd things the mind can cook up, and to this day, they are yet unexplained.
