We dream about 2-6 times almost every night(or day), but we never wonder what they actually are and most of the time, you forget what you dreamt of when you wake up and even sometimes when you remember, you just put it aside and focus on more worldy thoughts. None of us realize though, that our brains can think the clearest and deepest while we're dreaming. So here's how I understand dreaming.
I would define a dream as ideas, emotions and thoughts that converge to form a sort of a movie in your head which you sometimes can, but sometimes can't control. Although I''m no oneirologist or a psychoanalyst, this is my view about dreams.
For me, dreams usually materialize based on my last thought before falling asleep. So, therefore before going to bed, I think about stuff which I like and stuff which I wonder a lot about, like Chelsea winning, rebelling against your genetic composition etc, and sometimes when I'm in my dream I command the world and can therefore try different scenarios to put to bed my curiosities.
While you're fully conscious, there are stuff which are highly impossible to successfully recreate in the conscious world. In a dream, even the sky is not the limit. You can achieve ANYTHING in a dream. The world belongs to you. All you need to do is know how to control it. They can help you get creative and give a sense of inspiration and ideas. You can actually solve problems better in your dreams than in a conscious state.
Dreams can also be re-visualizations of good or scary moments of the past which affect you emotionally, either causing anxieties and fears or happiness and nostalgia. You dream about happy moments of the past which you wish to relive or about repressed memories and phobias during which you fathom about what would happen if such a thing were to occur in real life. You go through different possibilities, of how you could've made a good moment better, or of how you'd react were to be placed in an unpleasant situation which you fear while conscious. You get ideas on how to tackle such situations and to beat your fears.
Sometimes, in rare cases, you will come to understand that you're dreaming. How you do varies from person to person. Like for me, during rare instances when I suspect that I'm dreaming, a door with a sunflower on it suddenly appears which makes realization dawn on me. I have absolutely no idea why it's a sunflower door nor can I change it. It has been the same from when I was young and is probably because of my experiences then. If I choose to stay, I can sort of influence the events in the world of dreams, but I also wake up if I open the door and walk through it. I have no idea why this is so and find it incredibly bizarre. This is basically known as lucid dreaming. You are aware that you're dreaming and sometimes, can even control and influence the events occurring in the process.
Dreams consolidate newer memories and reinforce older ones combining them with your thoughts to provide you a better view and ideas to sate your curiosities and abate your deepest desires which widely vary from person to person. They help in enlightening you and broadening your view on subjects. They also serve as reminders for things which you should do in the future or bring back visions of people who were in your life in the past who you dearly miss.
Sometimes, they also serve as warnings for future occurrences which may probably take place due to a series of events culminating into one big showdown. Sometimes, people get premonitions or visions about future events that are going to take place. Many put forth a religious and spiritual point of view to these 'premonitions' like astrology, divination, necromancy etc but this is my view on this. Some people have a very good IQ(Intelligence Quotient). Usually, these are the ones who get these visions about the future in their dreams. I would say this is because their mind is sharp enough to analyse certain small and seemingly insignificant events, but all of which might have possible consequences. There are people who have 'predicted' future disasters and are being called 'Oracles' or so but they are probably those whose minds are intelligent enough to put together a few factors which might cause a disaster in which man might have had a role to play. Like say, in EM Forster's, the Machine Stops, although he wrote it as science fiction, he was able to successfully predict a world which is highly dependent on machines and the Internet and instant messaging services back in 1909. He had such good foresight, that it almost seems as if he travelled through time and wrote the book back in 1909. These kinds of people have incredible IQs and could possibly be able to put together events which may culminate with them predicting the final event in the future subconsciously. They are basically the ones we revere and call Oracles. At least, that is my opinion
The most difficult part I face is that about 90% of the time, when I realize that I'm dreaming, I wake up and am unable to continue the dream. It is very difficult to maintain a subconscious state once you realize that what you're experiencing isn't real and has no effect on you. But after a while, sometimes you master it, and for sometime you control the world of dreams where the Laws of Physics don't apply and you can try out different things which you'd have always wanted to do in real life. You can also gain answers to questions and be inspired by the happenings of a dream. But, sometimes, instead of being affected by the outside environment and waking up, the brain incorporates this as a part of the dream resulting in continued sleep.
The toughest part though is to recall and remember a dream, and even when you do it is extremely unreliable as most of the time, you mix reality with the dreamscape and get an altered version of the dream. But, that said, if you awake while in the middle of the dream, you'll be able to fully recall and remember it, but what use is it when you wake up while in the middle of solving something. Mostly, you'll be able to recall dreams which are vivid and interesting in content making you curious.
So yeah, this is my interpretation of dreams. If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough, so dream big!
PS: Not taking anything away from EM Forster for he was one of the best science fiction writers in the world. Plus, this is just my view of a dream, you may not agree with this, but this is what I believe.
