Dreams: What are your thoughts?

There are many people who believe that dreams are subconscious messages or prophecy etc and there are just as many people, if not more who believe that dreams are just that, dreams, and nothing more.

Do any of you have dreams that have a lasting effect on your mood for the day, make you question previous decisions or do you just shelve it and get on with what you have to do?

The reason I ask is a friend told me about a rather messed up dream about his partner cheating with someone etc and it's left him feeling a little weird though he knows its just a dream.


What are all your thoughts on the subject?

I don't have them unless drunk, the ones I do have are extremely weird and almost feel real when I awake.

Wouldn't mind being able to lucid dream.

Vidar said:

Do any of you have dreams that have a lasting effect on your mood for the day?

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YES! years ago i found myself in a really bad mood one day and i didnt know why, i collected payment from 2 customers and when i got home and counted the money i had a massive feeling of joy, like a huge weight being lifted off my shoulders as i remembered the dream i had the night before.. the dream was that id collected the money and it was all fake notes. strange but true, the change in mood was an instant 180 degree turnabout

I know since breaking up with the ex I've had dreams about her that I've woken up and found myself saddened over the situation, even missing her until I actively remember why we broke up.....

The reason I ask is a friend told me about a rather messed up dream about his partner cheating with someone etc and it's left him feeling a little weird though he knows its just a dream.

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his paranoia and fear is being put into his dreams by his subconscious it means nothing apart from he is scared she might cheat and he doesn't trust her.
it does not mean she is boning someone behind his back

Dreams are your brain trying to make sense of the day gone by or a concern or fantasy you harbour. They can, occasionally, be predictive since the subconscious mind has the ability to see into the future.

They very rarely affect me. Most of the time I don't remember my dreams. Though once I felt the presence of a dead man in the room when I was sleeping in a castle. That was slightly concerning. I slept very badly that night.

I believe dreams are simply your brain doing the housekeeping, however I also think they can tell you something about yourself and how you are feeling at times...if you can remember them of course.

I don't ascribe to prophecy or that they have some deep meaning other than what I have already mentioned despite having a few weird moments myself.

Lysander said:

since the subconscious mind has the ability to see into the future.

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O rly?

Sure. Your dreams are often ehanced versions of thoughts you already have. I don't think there is deep meaning to dreams, so if he's having dreams about her cheating on him them he's just worried about that, I wouldn't go asking about whether the grass was blue and the sky was green which means the reverse is true and he's actually going to cheat on her. That sort of dream reading is ******** imo. You either take it on face value and accept it's an enhancement of what you've already been wracking your brain over during the day or it's just a crazy dream and it means nothing.

Lysander said:

They can, occasionally, be predictive since the subconscious mind has the ability to see into the future.

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nope.

I like to think that dreams are visions we see through the eyes of ourselves in parallel universes.

my misses dreams about all sorts random stuff but for me i close my eyes then next thing i know is i wake up for me that is great perfect sleep every time i will not say i do not dream as its proven every one does but i do not remember anything.

Maybe its just that for me to sleep i need to be physically and mentally tired or else i am up all night.

The very rare times i do remember a dream it is normally about the misses and very private lol

bartledvd said:

The very rare times i do remember a dream it is normally about the misses and very private lol

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I tend to only remember dreams of a sexual nature or scary ones

I had a dream I was stabbed and it hurt like hell in the dream :O , I've had a few where I've been falling from a building as well but I've always woke up before I hit the floor

I think many people are eager to assign meanings to dreams because it's easier than saying "I don't know what dreams are". Many people do that with all sorts of things - people are often inclined to accept an answer, any answer, rather than acknowledging ignorance.

I don't know of enough evidence to justify thinking that dreams are of any importance. Maybe they're profound insights into your mind. Maybe they're messages from aliens whose telepathy is only barely compatible with human minds (and thus limited to unclear messages while asleep). Maybe they are indicators of the will of the gods. Maybe they're the detritus of our brains doing maintainance work. Maybe they're a few random things generated as a result of the partial sensory deprivation that's part of sleep (like the patterns of shapes and colours that we "see" with our eyes closed) and our brains automatically connect them together into a story (which appears to be how our "memory" works - a few details actually remembered and the rest of it made up on the fly to fit the details...and even those details can be fake). Maybe they are something else, something I haven't thought of. I don't know. I'm not going to pretend that I do know just because I dislike not knowing.

arknor said:

I tend to only remember dreams of a sexual nature or scary ones

I had a dream I was stabbed and it hurt like hell in the dream :O , I've had a few where I've been falling from a building as well but I've always woke up before I hit the floor

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The dreams I remember are almost always either surreal or mundane. I've remembered dreaming about things such as passing people I know in the street and saying hello, buying a loaf of bread...all sorts of mundane stuff.

The surreal ones are entertaining because no matter how strange they are, they always seem perfectly reasonable while I'm dreaming them. Father Christmas is the manager at my workplace? Perfectly reasonable. A chair 50 feet tall? Perfectly reasonable. It fits under a ceiling 30 feet tall? Of course it does.

arknor said:

I tend to only remember dreams of a sexual nature or scary ones

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This. One of the other, or both. Weird?

Quite recently I had a dream that I had got up and headed to work for what felt like an hour of my shift.

Was ******* gutted when I actually woke up later than I should have and had to rush to get to work, again.

Jonny ///M said:

Quite recently I had a dream that I had got up and headed to work for what felt like an hour of my shift.

Was ******* gutted when I actually woke up later than I should have and had to rush to get to work, again.

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Ha, I am crap at getting up for work.
Have on a couple of occasions dreamt that I have woken up 2 hours late for work running around panicking thinking what I can tell my boss, then woke up and been in plenty of time for work, the feeling of relief was awesome when I woke up for real

I had a dream the other night that there was a Portal convention in Cardiff and it cost £50 to get in but £32.50 for me because I'm a student

DogsBody said:

Ha, I am crap at getting up for work.
Have on a couple of occasions dreamt that I have woken up 2 hours late for work running around panicking thinking what I can tell my boss, then woke up and been in plenty of time for work, the feeling of relief was awesome when I woke up for real

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I think I've had that dream too. On a day off if I remember correctly.