Sigmund Freud once said, “The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.” While there are many theories of dreams, Freud’s observation that dreams seem to reflect the subconscious mind prevails. Dreamers from South Korea and India to the U.S. and Canada believe that their dreams have some valuable lessons to impart upon them, and that they should listen should a bad omen come to them in a dream. Many people are interested in acquiring the ability to interpret dream meanings so they can be more introspective and find greater fulfillment in life.
The industry surrounding how to interpret dream meanings is big business. Psychotherapists, sleep institute researchers, therapists, psychic mediums and life coaches may all be interested in helping patients remember their dreams and derive meaning from them. Making sense of a dream, whether it’s a flying dream, a school dream, a sex dream or a falling dream, can help you sort through some of your stress and psychological issues that plague your waking hours. That is why decoding dream messages and coming up with theories about dreams can be a powerful catalyst for change.
The first step towards learning how to interpret the meaning of your dreams is to facilitate dream recall and keep a journal. Experts recommend setting up a regular sleep schedule and abstaining from drugs or alcohol before bedtime. Typically, we get our best sleep in the wee hours of the morning, so you might want to set you alarm a couple hours before you’re scheduled to get up, so you can keep hitting the snooze button and having fantastic dreams. Lucid dreams often come after someone has gotten out of bed, spent a few hours doing light housework or reading, and then hitting the hay again for just a few hours more.
There are many books out there to help you interpret dream meanings. Some of the most well-respected authors include Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Ann Faraday, and Marie-Louise von Franz. In addition to these academic works, there are scores of books you may use as a dream dictionary or “how-to” guide. These guides encourage you not to always take dreams so literally, but to look deeper. For instance, you might have a nightmare about being raped. This does not necessarily mean you fear this all the time, but it might symbolize that you fear losing control over something in your life or that you feel helpless in a certain situation. On the other hand, you may remember dreams that don’t really have a deeper meaning at all. For example, you may fall asleep watching a movie about pirates and then dream that you’re on a pirate ship because the images are fresh in your mind.
Once you remember and record your dreams, you may wish to interpret dream meanings by understanding some of the most common dreams you may encounter. For example, many people have chase dreams, which imply they are fearful of something, they need a new method of handling stress or they are acting destructively. Falling dreams may symbolize insecurity, instability, yielding to a sexual urge or feeling helpless and inferior. On the other hand, flying dreams reveal that a person is on top of a situation and strong-minded. Naked dreams imply a desire to be noticed, the fear of disgrace or the inability to conceal something. Teeth dreams show a sense of powerlessness, lack of self-confidence or the need to keep some thoughts to yourself. School test dreams reveal your fears that others are judging you or that you are not performing as well as you could.
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