One of the first things I do every morning is analyze my dreams.
What about you?
Do you remember your dreams?
Do you write them down?
Do you interpret their meaning?
Have you ever dreamt the same dream repeatedly?
In the video below I share the dream I had last night.
A “dream theme” I have at least twice a week.
Dream Symbol: Water
Dream Discussion Forum
If you’re curious about the psychology of dreams, leave a dream in the comments and I will interpret it for you.
Sweet Dreams! Dr. D 🛌 💭
Learn More
- Online Dream Symbol Dictionary: What Do Your Dreams Mean?
- “Active Imagination“: Jungian Recall Strategy
- Brain Processes that Allow You to Remember Dreams: Scientific American
- Mind Mapping Your Dreams: Spatial and Visual Dream Exercise
- A to Z of Dream Interpretation: What Dreams Reveal About Our Lives, Loves, and Deepest Fears. (The Dream Book Pictured Above)
Thriving Under Pressure 
Good evening Dr Andrea..
I hardly ever remember my dream…the dream I see while sleeping😊….but the ones I am able to remember are not usual…next time maybe i will try and recollect it all…
Regards
Hello Krish!
Isn’t it cool how it’s evening where you are in the world and morning in Canada.. one more reason to love blogging! Worldwide conversations.
This article below has great tips for helping people to remember their dreams. A habit that requires conscious awareness from the moment you go to bed until the moment you wake up. But so worth it!
https://journeyintodreams.com/how-to-remember-your-dreams-10-tips-for-better-dream-recall
Sweet Dreams! 🛌 💭
True Dr Andrea…
The technology unites no.matter where we are and what time it is……
Read the article…will try to follow the guidelines..hope it helps…but I do remember my dreams generally do not have a ending ..mean whatever I am doing remains unfinished when the dream ends. .
Thank you, yes I often try to analyse them.. Not often making sense.. But some are much more profound than others and I know beyond doubt the message within them.. Thank you Andrea.. 🙂 May our waking Dream time also become important, for how we want to shape our future world..
Blessings your way 💚
I am not surprised that you often try to analyze them with a name like Sue DREAMWALKER! I also believe in our waking dreams. Something that was a very big part of my TEDx Talk and my daily conversations with students – and the subtitle of my psychology blog “Don’t be chased by your problems, be LED BY YOUR DREAMS”. Now you have me thinking and analyzing… thank you Sue for the full circle deep thoughts! I feel your blessings. Have a wonderful Thursday! ❤️❤️
“Don’t be chased by your problems, be LED BY YOUR DREAMS” I wish more would teach that dear Andrea.. Love and Hugs your way… 💚🙏
❤️❤️❤️
I actually don’t have dreams any more. Very occasionally I have a bit of nightmare.
What’s your nightmare about? Nightmares are also dreams open to interpretation. I had them all the time when I was younger. I used to sleep run through the house while having nightmares!
DREAMING IS A BIOLOGICAL NECESSITY
And we all dream – but we only remember them if we wake up midway. Which is why the dreams we remember most vividly is the last one before we wake up. Often interrupted by an alarm clock or biological processes.
Dreams are essential for memory consolidation and learning. Something that happens more often during the night than during the day.
This also explains why babies and children sleep so much — their brain needs to integrate and consolidate all the new acquiredly information.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3557787/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00874/full
These are just a few of the topics ^ from consciousness – chapter 4 in my psychology textbook.
🛌 💤💙
I only get nightmares when I worry and am feel I can’t cope. Dreams, may be i cant remember them as i don’t wake up midway through. But, i believe when i am at peace, and my meditation practise keeps me at peace along with journally i don’t dream – unless i work late into the night and i go to sleep with a highly engaged mind, then I dream and plan and am very active – but then i can’t sleep.
it is all interesting stuff. I do believe it is all sub-consciousness stuff.
This week a trauma from college out of nowhere arrived one day
It arrived with intense emotional content
The dream of this event happened every nite
The fear, rage and helplessness of the event, plays in vivid detail
I am always trying to stop the event from happening or getting violent revenge
When my complex PTSD was at its strongest
I would wake up drenched in sweat from life and death charge situations
I thought one day I had killed someone
Had to ask my wife of the time, what was real
These dreams were so real I thought they happened in real life
Trauma dominates my dreams
I guess my dreams are dominated by unresolved abuse
I do yearn to have positive dreams if adventure or intrigue
Thank you for sharing your experiences with nightmares Marty.
I think you’d be interested a research study where sweet smells during the night corresponded with sweeter dreams.
Specifically: researchers found (link below) that sniffing flowers at a particular point in the sleep cycle led to more positive dreams. 🛏 🌸
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2009.00737.x
Worth a try!
My ptsd is up so dreams get darker for a while
It is interesting to see the mind bring forth dreams and all the daily thoughts and judgments
Thank you for always being so open with your life lessons and ptsd challenges Marty. Sending you a double dose of healing vibes. It’s times like these where gentleness is everything. Especially with ourselves.
Well this post today is the most open I have been
This event in college exploded this week.
All the emotion, confusion and terror exploded like I was 19 again
Hopefully this is movement
https://ptsdawayout.com/2020/07/03/personal-stuff-about-my-abuse-and-the-impact/
I just read your post Marty. Thank you for sharing here and on my psychology blog. So many triggers during this time. I see it as movement too. Which of course is hard to see “in the in between”. So let me be a witness to your healing. You are the caterpillar feeling trapped. And I can see your wings.
I have always been interested in dream interpretation. Some I remember vividly. There are definitely messages within our dreams. Thank you for peaking my interest again! Have a wonderful and bright weekend, Andrea!🌞💛
Thank you my friend! As I read your note I said “oh I love it!” out loud 💖💖 How lucky we are to pique each others’ interest in long forgotten rituals. My weekend is already brighter because of you! #dreamers :))))
You’re very welcome, my friend! We are fortunate to have crossed paths 💖 brighter weekend on both ends, thank you! 😊 #dreamers 😊😊😊
Hello Dr. Andrea.
Thank you for sharing this blog. My curiosity brought me here after seeing a video in tiktok saying, “Crazy Pyschology Fact: If you remember your dream when you wake up, it wasn’t a dream, it’s a message.”
So, my dream was about spending time or somehow dating with the person I haven’t talk to a quite long time ago. He was confessing his feelings for me in my dream. But, before this dream, I tried telepathy to this person after watching it from Youtube.
Now I am so confused if my dream was just a product of my thoughts or if this person really wants to send me a message.
I would be happy to hear answers from you Dr. D. Thank you.
This is not a “psychology fact” BUT I do love that take on dreams!
Science indicates that you are more likely to remember your dreams if you are woken up mid REM cycle. Which is more likely to happen in the morning when you a woken up by an alarm clock.
Hope that helps!
Sweet Dreams
Dr. D 😴
Thank you Dr. Andrea, for raising dreams and their messages, I totally agree that dreams hold messages and these are communications between our subconscious and higher power.
Stay safe and healthy
Wonderful to meet you Kanika ☀️
Do you have a reoccurring dream similar to the one I shared in the video:
What resources do use to interpret your dreams?
Dreams fascinate me! Sometimes I manipulate what I dream about (doesn’t always work) and sometimes I manipulate the dream when I’m having it (doesn’t always work). And sometimes I explain myself my dream while dreaming/after waking. Wonderful way to get a little peek into our subconscious.
That is amazing! You are a student of lucid dreaming. I love that Samantha!
The best part is taking the same active dreaming skillset into your waking life too.
Just as the tag line for my blog says:
“Don’t be chased by your problems — be led by your dreams”.
🛌 💤 ☀️🌸
I love your tag line. Dreams do help finding my way around in life. And that’s a good tip, about taking the skillset into my waking life. Funny how I never thought of that.
I think dreams are magical. Sometimes they seem to show me what I’m doing wrong, and a couple days later I stumble across similar situations and know exactly what to do! I sometimes also have nightmares that magnify on my fears…
What is your most common dream? What is your most common nightmare? fear? Include awake and nighttime examples of each. It’s always fascinating to see the crossover between our waking and unawake consciousness. 💤☀️🛌💡
Thank you Dr. Andrea, for sharing this great article. I always had this question in my mind. What are these dream about and why they revolve around the situations the scenarios the people you are familiar with in one way or the other. I always thought they have some message.
Anyway dreams are magical and hold messages and these are communications between our subconscious and higher power. I loved your article. Thanks again for sharing it.
You are so welcome Akshay!
I love the energy of your writing:
“Dreams are magical and hold messages and these are communications between our subconscious and higher power.”
Elegant & Empowering.
Have a wonderful night!
I tend to dream a lot. And for the most part they feel so real and I feel like I am actually reaching to the person in my dream. Usually it’s a past parent. I then wake up startled because it just so real.
Sounds like you’re travelling to another realm. (I like to stay open minded.) Very very interesting..
I’ve always felt my dreams were alerting me to something happening in my life just now, something I need to be more aware of …
Try out the links in the blogs. They offer incredible insight ^ and self awareness. A fun morning ritual to try. Especially now… :_D
thanks been doing that for decades …
How many decades? Five? 😉
now that would be telling, my age is a mystery 🙂
Maybe I was talking about my own 😉
lol sorry, then your pics are most deceiving! I’ve been doing it a bit less than that 🙂
I don’t usually remember my dreams, but I do hear someone whisper my name, and that’s when I wake up suddenly with no recollection of who called my name or why. This has happened a couple of times now.
I’ve had that happen before too! Such a wild experience. Spooky & cool… all at once.
I’ve always found dreams fascinating Andrea and used to keep a dream journal for a long time. I have a LOT of dreams about water too and travelling on various forms of transportation, boat, train, car but I’m often late or not in the drivers seat. I’m unusually able to decipher them but sometimes they make little sense. Gosh, how I wish I was in your class! 😍
I wish you were in my class too! ❤️❤️
You are right… Dreams are always a message for us… ❤ 🙂
Curious… Do you have a re-occurring dream too? 🛏 💭
My dream is quite long. l hope you will help me decipher its meaning.
First of all, everytime this guy (my friend) appears in my dream the setting is always in my birth house.My hometown. He’s never been there. And now l am currently residing on the other side of the world.
l had dreamt of him several times and most of it he confirmed it to be true, we are now continents apart).
So my latest dream with him was, he came to visit me in my house. He slept overnight. When l woke up in my dream, we are lying down and facing each other.
He said, the mat we were sleeping on reminds him of his mom.
When he turned and lay flat on his back, l saw a pink rose taped on his chest.
Before, l could say something, our housemaid came with 2 wilted whites roses bouquets. She said, she found it outside the house.
l looked at my friend and told him, why do you have to hide those? We could have it kept for you in the fridge or on the vase.
Then he got up and went on to change his clothes. He was wearing a suit. He said, he is going to meet this girl. There’s nothing special. He just find her name cute and he found a dinner deal at a restaurant for $50 each.
As l was watching him putting on hia shoes, l saw hia face full of pimples. Severe kind. his face is red and swelling. the more l look at him he is getting uglier.
then l woke up.
My dreams are really vivid and colorful.
With this guy. The first time we talk on the phone, l dozed off and saw him with a guitar. When l woke up, l told him about it. He asked me to described the guitar l saw in my dream. He had goosebumps because he had exactly same guitar like what l described. He even sent me a photo.
l hope you can help me interpret the latest one
Thank you for sharing Chris! I will take some time this week and reflect on your very vivid dream and reply back with my thoughts and interpretations. I really appreciate you taking the time to share.
I will pick out 2 to 3 symbols that jump off the page. Have a wonderful Tuesday! We are in the middle of online exams in my psychology classroom and today I will be posting a new blog post and video.
Stay Tuned for my thoughts! 💭 🛌
Hi Again Chris!
As promised: I am back to help you interpret your dream.
At least – part of your dream.
I teach a class on consciousness in my intro psych class where students are assigned dream journals.
The topic comes out of chapter 4 in my psychology textbooks: https://drandreadinardo.com/books
Students are taught how dreams represent symbols as per Jungian Psychology and the early work of Freud and dream interpretation.
The one symbol (there are 10 plus in your dream) that I will interpret for you is the “pink rose”.
ROSE represents the soul in dream symbols. Derived from “rosary” in religious practices.
PINK represents a softening. A tenderness.
INTERPRETATION This ^ part of your dream is encouraging you to be more vulnerable and open to the softer side of your personality. And how it relates to your relationship with yourself: Your intuition. Your spirit. Your self love.
IN SUMMARY
There is a lot of debate over the different theories of dreams and dream analysis. But as I share with my psychology students, anything that encourages us to stop, take a deep breath, and reflect – is wonderful in my books!
Wishing you a peaceful start to the new year.
Dr. D 💖
The only dream I remember is a recurring one. It’s about the man I love, but I am not in a relationship with. For the past 20 years I dream of being near him, kissing him, holding him, making love to him. The feeing wanting to be with him is insanely intense. But I always feel like we need to hide and our encounters are always tormented in my dreams. Every time we end end making love and I always wake up just before we are about to climax because the energy is so powerful and intense that I feel my body won’t be able to contain it. I end up with lingering energies for days of empowerment, desire and beauty. He confessed having similar dreams. Would love an interpretation. Much love!
It sounds like a very straightforward dream about unrequited love ❤️
For future dreams Julie, check out “The A – Z of Dream Interpretation: What Dreams Reveal About Your Life, Loves and Deepest Fears” it’s one of my favourite books for dream symbols. 🛌 📖 💭
Doctor Dinardo, as always, an excellent article and thank you for sharing. Your choice of subject matter is stimulating and thought provoking. If I feel (and of course if I remember the details) my dreams are sufficiently significant, I write them down and make notes of analysis comments. On reading through these, sometimes years later, I marvel at what has been foretold. I believe that dreams offer messages for us. Keep up the excellent work, you are a champ.
If you could only see my smile! Thank you for your time and ongoing encouragement.
It’s people like you Peter, who remind me of my why. Dream interpretation included!
Wishing you a week filled with faith and grace. Receiving all that you give, in unexpected ways.
Such gracious words, thank you.