Do you ever dream about falling? How about someone chasing you into a house you’ve never seen before? Have you ever dreamed about being pregnant, or being romantically involved with your own family member? Dreams are very, very strange indeed. They often confuse us, mislead us, and provoke certain feelings upon awakening. Because of their mysterious aura, most people will ask, why are my dreams so strange? The answer is both simple and complex.
For starters, we all know that dreaming takes place in the sub-conscious. Dreams can be so mysterious because as humans we dream thousands of dreams a night. Because we have so many, certain images and events can become construed and mistaken as one full, very weird dream. In essence, they are mixtures of countless tiny dreams that are hard to separate. Another reason why dreams may seem much stranger than life is because our dreams are supposed to be our “safe place.” That means we are likely to dream about things that are dissociated or irrelevant during our waking lives, they are our inner desires, emotions, and fears manifested as images, odd behaviors, and recurring nightmares. Dreams are especially linked with our own self-loathing and are therefore sometimes pointing to traits we wish to repress.
According to the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, dreams may compensate for one-sided attitudes that we hold in our waking consciousness. Dreams are rumored to regulate moods and allow to mind to walk through fantasy as a way to gain control over difficult emotions. Historically, the Greek believed that dreams were used for healing as well as for guidance or divine inspiration. Nowadays, dreams are said to be so weird because of one’s diet, thoughts right before bed, or the use of mind-altering drugs.
There is also evidence that certain medical conditions of the brain can impact one’s dreams. For example, people with synesthesia, a neurologically-based condition, often times experience black and white dreaming. Posttraumatic stress disorder can also lead to some pretty strange or scary nightmares.
So the answer is, should we take our dreams seriously and try to interpret them as best we can? That’s really an individual decision. Some feel that their dreams are signs, they’re requests from a higher being to examine your waking life and make a change, help a friend, watch your back.
