Do dreams have any meaning?

Answer 1

Dreams are your thoughts continuing while you sleep. Because you're not conscious, you are processing them without language. Just feelings, emotions, interpretations, leaps of association, etc.

Sometimes, especially when you don't have anything big going on in your life, your dreams don't really mean much of anything. It's just your brain chattering on in the background about mundane stuff. Sometimes (as someone else pointed out here), it's just stuff that has to do with your day, or stuff you're thinking about, or stuff you should be thinking about but are avoiding.

When there ARE big things going on in your life, however, your thoughts and feelings about them often come through in your dreams. Of course, since they're processed in a visual/emotional way, they often come out as symbols rather than just being what they are. It's word association going on in your brain. It's your mind trying to visually represent the feelings it is processing while you sleep.

The key there is this: The reason dreams are symbolic is not because they're magic or fortune-telling or anything... It's because the imagery is often derived from associations made in your sub-conscious between what you're thinking about and the closest visual/situation that gets that across for you.

Even a casual recording of your dreams over a period of time will show that sometimes the symbolism is right on -- the specific symbol making a subtle point or intuitive connection with lots of meaning -- and sometimes it's just simple word association, without any real meaning behind it. Sometimes it's like a game of "Operator."

Also, there's no set of symbols that always means the same thing for everyone. Each person has their own interpretations of life, their own associations between concepts, and so their dream symbols will be different than other people's. If you and I both dream of pizza, that pizza may mean something completely different to each of us (some of it to do with the context in which you find the pizza (along with your reactions to it), and some it has to do with your own personal, waking feelings about pizza). Dream symbols are personal, no matter what "dream dictionaries" tell you...

Point being: Dreams are a great way to analyze what's going on in your head, especially the stuff you're trying not to deal with (but need to). I used to keep dream journals for years (as well as working on generating "lucid dreams"), and I often found that my mind was running over and over issues that I was trying to ignore. My dreams helped me to see the issues, face the issues, and analyze the issues.

For instance: My step-father used to beat the hell outta me when I was a kid. As an adult, working in a professional field, I used to have dreams all the time about my bosses trying to kill me. I'd be working in my office, and the boss would come in, raging, and trying to stab me or shoot me or something. In later dreams, the boss would morph partway through the dream into my step-dad (that's when I figured out the connection).

So, obviously, looking at my dreams of that time, I was able to see that the terror perpetrated on me at the hands of my step-father left me afraid of authority figures, particularly ones overseeing my work every day. In waking life, I never really believed they were trying to kill me or anything... That was the symbolism. It symbolized my subconscious fear of them, using very frightening imagery.

Once I figured that out, I was able to look at the situation in real life much more objectively. Much of my nervousness about bosses and authority figures in general vanished, because I realized where it came from. Also, once I looked at the issue presented in my dreams and addressed it, the dreams changed. Suddenly I was having dreams in which a boss would come in, raging, and try to kill me. He'd morph in to my step-dad, and I'd stop running from him. In the dream, I'd turn and start yelling back at him. I'd tell him how he made me feel as a child, what I felt about him as a human being, etc. I took the upperhand in the dreams, because I took the upper hand in real life by facing the issue and not letting it control me. Thank you, dreams...

In that example, though, you see how the symbolism works. It's not magic -- I just associated anybody who held power over me with this step-father who held such great power over me as a kid and made me feel helpless to defend myself. I had never dealt with that before, but the dream put it in front of me and I did.

Dreams and dream interpretations are fantastic tools for looking further into your own mind, worries, emotions, etc. They're great ways to analyze the things that your mind is worrying about in the background. Of course, analyzing them (and figuring out your own personal dream dictionary) is only half the battle... You still have to take the steps in waking life to change the way you handle what you're dreaming about...

Unless, of course, your dreams are not about bad things or worries. Many dreams are just rehashes of what's happened to you that day, or random, less-important thoughts that are meandering through your head...

Anyway, it's fun stuff. Look into lucid dreams if you get a chance... those are great fun (they're dreams in which you realize you're dreaming, and can control yourself as if you were awake... I often use them to fly around or try things that are impossible in real life).

Answer 2

Yes most of the time. Dreams are your unconscious mind trying to slove the problems that you are having. Your mind is looking for a solution.
The two links below are, one is the person talking about if dreams have a meaning. The other one is meaning of a dream. I thought that if you are asking the question maybe you had a dream that you ant interpeted.
Good Luck

Answer 3

Some dreams do. Sometimes God gives you a reason for the dream that you've had. Like telling you that you need to be friends with this person and not this person. Something like that. But, usually, you dream of what happened that day. Thats why sometimes your dreams can be really silly.

Answer 4

Yes, dreams having meanings. Last night I dreamed my car burned up. What does that mean?

Answer 5

Of course they do. Some believe that dreams are just your subconscious processing the day's information, others believe that dreams come from another realm.

Either way, your brain is trying to make sense of some type of information and does that by trying to associate symbols with the concepts. Even if the underlying information that you are trying to process has no meaning, they way that you attach symbols to it does.

Answer 6

Sometimes dreams have some meaning. And sometimes dreams are just your mind cleaning out images it recorded.

Answer 7

Every single thing you dream, or that happens in your dream, all means something.. it is amazing really.. But our dreams are meant to teach us something, about ourselves and our life and what we need to do or learn... There is an awesome book called "What did you dream last night" By a lady named Laurie, but i cant remember her last name... it explains alot about dreams.. check it out on amazon.com

Answer 8

Dreams are ussualy about your day, not the same things you did but similar things and things that were on your mind.You can not
just do things because you saw them in a dream.So no dreams don`t really have a meaning.

Answer 9

Most dreams do unless you have some influenced from daily activities, media effects (news) or actual events.


Many dreams are triggered by our subconscious mind and they reflect our inner personalities

Answer 10

Dreams are just memories that comes back into your head when you are asleep. Like yesterday i saw DMX on tv and i had a dream about him bringing me to the ghetto and left me alone there. Just memories flashing back.

Answer 11

I think we dream to resolve thoughtsa we have not processed yet when we were up.....things that scare or bother us.....it's like writing a novel about yourself u are always the center and your thoughts rebvolve arround you and your thoughts, i dont think it has any deep meaning!