Can dreams teach us something about our lives?

Many people think that sleep is a quiet moment of lost time that only serves the body to recover from the exhausting day. In reality, a lot happens inside us during these silent hours. Our brain does not switch off, but processes the experiences we have just had, produces images, introduces us to mysterious strangers, ideas and feelings, and takes us to places we have never been before. We call this long process: dreaming, and it happens to everyone, every night, for a time that is practically a third of our existence. For many, the dream world is another world that they barely remember or neglect the importance of. But would they do the same if they knew how dreaming influences their conscious life?

Here's what dreams can teach us and why remembering them could change our lives

Sogno causato dal volo di un'ape intorno a una melagrana un attimo prima del risveglio di Salvador Dalì

It will have happened to everyone at least once to wake up scared after a bad dream. As children, we would run to our parents' bedside and they would tell us, to reassure us, "It's just a nightmare, go back to sleep". They were partly right, there was no evil witch waiting for us when we opened our eyes, but how are dreams related to our conscious life and why can analysing dreams help us?

Ever since humans have existed, they have tried to interpret dreams: Oracles, spirits, divinations, folk traditions. The dream world has always been considered a world apart, fascinating perhaps, but difficult to take seriously. Many people claim not to be able to remember most of their dreams, and even when they do, the scenarios they report are so strange that they have convinced us that sleep is a state that borders on the real. The truth is that we don't go anywhere in sleep. On the contrary, according to recent neuroscientific studies, dreams are uniquely linked to the sense of self and serve to restore the integrity of the psyche to the individual. In other words, dreaming and understanding the meaning of what you dreamed helps you to know yourself better and increase your self-confidence, awareness and objective perception of the outside world. "It's like buying a dress and leaving the labels on."

Dreams and Psychology

Dreams can be a source of inspiration and joy, but also a great help in improving mental health. In fact, a dream can reveal sides of your character and relationships that you would hardly admit to yourself. This is because we tend to talk ourselves into things because it is easier for us to accept them and we are rarely in a position to disagree with our opinions. Dreams are similar to the friend who tells us the truth even when we don't want to hear it; how many times have we thought after the umpteenth disappointment in love that maybe we should have listened to him a little sooner? Well, dreams work in a similar way, but on a more intimate level and on all sides of our existence. Learning to remember them (because you can learn!) and seeking interpretation may not save you from a broken heart, but it can certainly help you improve your mood, overcome traumas you've blocked but ignored, and help you understand what you really want and what you could avoid instead.

In short, the world of dreams is not easy and interpreting them requires some acumen, but it can be worth tackling, especially when we consider that the person we end up spending the most time with is ourselves: A nice skin care routine or a "solo date" are certainly good habits, but self-care seems to start in the bedroom.