How to Have the Same Dream Again

(Mischa Keijser/Getty Images)

The Science of Recurring Dreams Is More than Fascinating Than We Ever Imagined

Having the aforementioned dream again and again is a well-known phenomenon — nearly ii-thirds of the population report having recurring dreams. Being chased, finding yourself naked in a public place or in the heart of a natural disaster, losing your teeth or forgetting to go to class for an entire semester are typical recurring scenarios in these dreams.

But where does the phenomenon come from? The science of dreams shows that recurring dreams may reverberate unresolved conflicts in the dreamer's life.

Recurring dreams oft occur during times of stress, or over long periods of time, sometimes several years or fifty-fifty a lifetime. Non only do these dreams have the aforementioned themes, they can likewise repeat the aforementioned narrative night after dark.

Although the verbal content of recurring dreams is unique to every private, there are common themes among individuals and even amongst cultures and in unlike periods. For instance, being chased, falling, being unprepared for an exam, arriving late or trying to exercise something repeatedly are among the most prevalent scenarios.

The majority of recurring dreams have negative content involving emotions such as fear, sadness, anger and guilt. More than than one-half of recurring dreams involve a situation where the dreamer is in danger. But some recurring themes can likewise be positive, even euphoric, such as dreams where we notice new rooms in our house, erotic dreams or where we fly.

In some cases, recurring dreams that begin in childhood can persist into adulthood. These dreams may disappear for a few years, reappear in the presence of a new source of stress and and then disappear again when the state of affairs is over.

Unresolved conflicts

Why does our brain play the same dreams over and over again? Studies suggest that dreams, in general, help us regulate our emotions and adapt to stressful events. Incorporating emotional material into dreams may allow the dreamer to process a painful or hard event.

In the example of recurrent dreams, repetitive content could represent an unsuccessful try to integrate these difficult experiences. Many theories concord that recurring dreams are related to unresolved difficulties or conflicts in the dreamer's life.

The presence of recurrent dreams has also been associated with lower levels of psychological wellbeing and the presence of symptoms of anxiety and depression. These dreams tend to recur during stressful situations and finish when the person has resolved their personal conflict, which indicates improved wellbeing.

Recurrent dreams often metaphorically reflect the emotional concerns of the dreamers. For case, dreaming about a seismic sea wave is mutual following trauma or corruption. This is a typical example of a metaphor that tin represent emotions of helplessness, panic or fear experienced in waking life.

Similarly, being inappropriately dressed in i's dream, being naked or not being able to find a toilet can all represent scenarios of embarrassment or modesty.

These themes tin can exist thought of as scripts or ready-to-dream scenarios that provide us with a space where we tin can digest our alien emotions. The aforementioned script can exist reused in dissimilar situations where we experience similar emotions.

This is why some people, when faced with a stressful state of affairs or a new challenge, may dream they're showing up unprepared for a math exam, even years after they have set foot in a school. Although the circumstances are different, a similar feeling of stress or desire to excel can trigger the aforementioned dream scenario again.

A continuum of repetition

William Domhoff, an American researcher and psychologist, proposes the concept of a continuum of repetition in dreams. At the extreme end, traumatic nightmares direct reproduce a lived trauma — one of the chief symptoms of postal service-traumatic stress disorder.

Then there are recurring dreams where the aforementioned dream content is replayed in part or in its entirety. Unlike traumatic dreams, recurring dreams rarely replay an event or conflict directly only reflect it metaphorically through a central emotion.

Further along the continuum are the recurring themes in dreams. These dreams tend to replay a similar situation, such every bit being late, being chased or being lost, but the exact content of the dream differs from one time to the next, such as being tardily for a railroad train rather than for an examination.

Finally, at the other terminate of the continuum, nosotros find certain dream elements recurring in the dreams of one individual, such as characters, actions or objects. All these dreams would reverberate, at different levels, an attempt to resolve sure emotional concerns.

Moving from an intense level to a lower level on the continuum of repetition is often a sign that a person's psychological state is improving. For example, in the content of traumatic nightmares progressive and positive changes are oft observed in people who have experienced trauma every bit they gradually overcome their difficulties.

Physiological phenomena

Why practise the themes tend to exist the same from person to person? Ane possible explanation is that some of these scripts take been preserved in humans due to the evolutionary advantage they bring. Past simulating a threatening state of affairs, the dream of beingness chased, for instance, provides a space for a person to practise perceiving and escaping predators in their slumber.

Some common themes may also be explained, in part, past physiological phenomena that take identify during sleep. A 2018 report past a research squad in State of israel plant that dreaming of losing i's teeth was non especially linked to symptoms of anxiety but rather associated to teeth clenching during slumber or dental discomfort upon waking.

When we sleep, our encephalon is not completely cutting off from the outside world. It continues to perceive external stimuli, such as sounds or smells, or internal body sensations. That ways that other themes, such as non existence able to find a toilet or being naked in a public space, could actually exist spurred by the need to urinate during the nighttime or by wearing loose pyjamas in bed.

Some physical phenomena specific to REM slumber, the stage of sleep when nosotros dream the nigh, could also be at play. In REM sleep, our muscles are paralyzed, which could provoke dreams of having heavy legs or beingness paralyzed in bed.

Similarly, some authors have proposed that dreams of falling or flying are caused by our vestibular system, which contributes to rest and can reactivate spontaneously during REM slumber. Of course, these sensations are not sufficient to explicate the recurrence of these dreams in some people and their sudden occurrence in times of stress, but they probably play a significant office in the structure of our well-nigh typical dreams.

Breaking the cycle

People who experience a recurring nightmare have in some means go stuck in a particular fashion of responding to the dream scenario and anticipating it. Therapies have been developed to try to resolve this recurrence and pause the cruel cycle of nightmares.

I technique is to visualize the nightmare while awake and so rewrite it, that is, to modify the narrative by changing one attribute, for example, the stop of the dream to something more positive. Lucid dreaming may too be a solution.

In lucid dreams we go enlightened that we are dreaming and can sometimes influence the content of the dream. Condign lucid in a recurring dream might allow u.s.a. to remember or react differently to the dream and thereby alter the repetitive nature of it.

However, not all recurring dreams are bad in themselves. They tin can even exist helpful insofar as they are informing us about our personal conflicts. Paying attention to the repetitive elements of dreams could exist a way to better understand and resolve our greatest desires and torments.

Claudia Picard-Deland, Candidate au doctorat en neurosciences, Université de Montréal and Tore Nielsen, Professor of Psychiatry, Université de Montréal.

This article is republished from The Chat nether a Creative Eatables license. Read the original article.

zinnbauerthatilgincim1945.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/the-science-of-recurring-dreams-is-more-fascinating-than-we-ever-imagined

Share this post