One of the most compelling descriptions some have made about the nature of dreams is their homologous relationship to what's happening in waking life. I generally tend to believe that simply by virtue of having fervently studied something for more than a day or two. I will have nothing but dreams about whatever that may be. This has even occurred after writing hubs. I'll dream of nothing but writing hubs.
Another teleological description of dreams is that they are what you might characterize as the mind's attempt at solving problems and forgetting irrelevant details. But it can only do so with a certain degree of clarity or salience. What's more, dreams are often emotive. Likely due to the fact that we suppress our emotional responses on a regular basis, typically as a consequence of abiding by social norms. This is a pretty standard theory with regard to unconscious processes.
Strangely enough, I've had some unsettling, apocalyptic dreams as of late yet it's negatively correlated with what's happening to me in waking life. Over the last year, I've made some very meaningful strides in my life, not least significantly curbing a lifelong struggle with depression. Things are on the up and up and my dreams are telling me something different. Perhaps there is simply an unconscious fear that what I've gained and maintained will be taken from me at any given moment but I don't feel this type of angst even when I look for it during meditation or by the effort of conscious inventory. I suppose that's why unconscious influences are defined as existing below the level of awareness, however, most of the time I can at least detect some rustling beneath the leaves. It's not always obvious that dreams are bound by a set of rules that have anything to do with anything.
Thoughts?
I feel dreams do have a purpose, end of the day they too are triggered biochemical process inside our CPU. But, then again, not every dream is relevant and even those that are, appear to be seemingly stupid at times. Like the one you mentioned in the begining, the dreams about your certain obsessions or about the the daily chores or a confused mix of them. Those I feel is, often the mind flushing out irrelevant information to free up more RAM
Decoding a dream is the interesting and tricky part, it is more like a case study. A necessary sin nonetheless, when it comes to recurring dreams.
I can't argue with that. It would seem preposterous for anyone else to legitimately weigh in on what might be occurring in my little nook of the cosmos.
What's even more strange is that dreams seem to happen to us rather than us having them. Who know's what ot make of that?
I hope (that is, an earnest expectation) to comment later on your observations, but I would like to congratulate you right now on your victory with depression. How you have achieved this victory is none of my business, but you must consider it to be a major milestone no matter what. I too have had several bouts with “situational depression” in my lifetime, so I can identify with you.
I strongly believe that some depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and might require medication. However, there is another site to the coin as well. Living life backwards, my bouts of depression were all caused by having “depressing thoughts” for three minutes, three hours, three days, three weeks, etc. before the actual manifestation of the depression itself. In essence, I planted a toxic seed into my mind (depressing thoughts on whatever or whomever was bothering me) and the net result was full-blown depression with all of its unpleasant symptoms.
I have also learned the hard way to avoid (if possible) “slippery” people, places, and situations that could ultimately cause depressing thoughts.
Thanks for sharing your unique experience with that and I say "unique" because depression seems to manifest itself in a multitude of ways depending on the person and, yes, your biochemistry.
Couple things there, sometimes we have to differentiate between a psychological state or just simply tragic circumstances. Sure the two interact with each other but when someone is upset because they lost their job and a loved one dies on the same day, it's not quite obvious that this is only a psychological problem. Chaos intervenes. Sadness, guilt, shame, and anxiety are all natural and appropriate responses to tragedy.
Secondly, I believe you're correct about chemical imbalances but the biggest problem with that is no one knows what the ideal balance of neurochemicals actually is. Many different things influence states of experience: hormones, environment, experiences, genes, culture and so on.
It wasn't until recently that I discovered my type of depression was linked to my dopamine reward system. Often the drugs that people are given for depression (SSRI) are designed to regulate the half-life that the neurotransmitter serotonin spends on synapses between neurons. In the past, serotonin anti-depressants always produced the opposite effect for me. Higher aggression. Higher frequency of suicidal ideation. Highly agitated. While, in contrast, stimulant street drugs that work on dopamine activation like cocaine and speed always made me feel what I can only describe as "level". They stabilized me temporarily (with a much greater expense to be had later).
The only way to naturally modulate healthy dopamine levels is to acquire a proper aim in life and spend every day moving towards it. Find something to do that interests you in a way that can last a lifetime. Find out what's meanigful to you and commit your life to refining it. That and coffee haha.
It also sounds like your experience in depression is cognitively driven. You mentioned thoughts followed by negative emotion. You might simply be one of those peole that could benefit from serotonin drugs granted everything else in your life is stable.
Do you have people that care about you?
Are you employed?
Are you engaged in an intimate relationship?
Do you have any hobbies?
If you answered "no" to all these questions, then those are the things that need to be fixed first.
One more thing on that:
One of the most revolutionary ideas in spiritual and psychological practice is that we don't have to believe our thoughts.
Take Cognitive Behavior Therapy, for instance. This program essentially forces people to write out past events in order of Antecedent, Beliefs, and Consequences, otherwise known as ABC's. First, writing about the past helps people organize their experiences. It draws memory from the unconscious faculties into the higher cortical regions where we can actually grab them and take a good look at them. Second, once we begin to see a pattern of how every negative outcome is a consequence of our thoughts then we're forced to contend with ourselves. And third, we begin to see how those thoughts are connected to an entire belief system. Our belief systems are merely internal representations of the world. Models, so to speak. So, often when things don't turn out the way we want them to, its because we operate on inaccurate simulations of how the world is supposed to work.
Meditation is probably one of the best tools we have for further divorcing who we think we are from the thoughts and feelings that we have. If you sit quietly for 20 minutes and you begin to notice that certain nagging thoughts appear, you can also realize that this, like dreams, is something that's coming AT you. Not YOU producing the thought. Thoughts seem to fall out of a blind void. We don't have to identify with them. They are merely contents of consciousness. Machinations of uni-motivational systems within a larger system of the mind. That's why certain cultures started out polytheistic (Greeks). They personified certain aspects of personality that seems to take over even when we know better. Often we are the "playthings" of the Gods. i.e. Lust, Anger, Hunger, etc.
I just remembered something that I haven’t thought about in a long time. My grandmother on my father’s side of the family had a “dream book” that she always consulted to decipher the relevance of a particular dream.
More and more, I find dream journals to come highly recommended. I started one a few months back but between the time I wake up and the time I sit down in my office, I've already set my mind to other things. It's all about habit building.
I had some troublesome dreams last night that were probably due to a hub that I just completed. I wanted the editors to move it to ToughNickel.com and I was keyed up over the issue. Well, everything worked out well in the end. I had to make some minor adjustments to the manuscript as a prerequisite and the rest is history.
Great, mine got rejected recently. I am hoping to connect with the editor's unconscious tonight, I need more than templates for enlightment. Then again it's been a while though, I guess it wouldn't be fruitful.
By taking circa 30 minutes each day and renewing my mind through meditation, I can move from one victory to the next. However, when I become l-a-z-y and believe that spending 30 minutes engaging in “frivolous nonsense” is more important than renewing my mind, I can and will have unpleasant consequences.
Depression is sometimes referred to as anger turned inward. Whenever we are angry about something or with someone, it also signifies that we are afraid of something. In any given situation that involves anger, we must isolate what we are specifically afraid of.
by Peeples 12 years ago
Is there a way of stopping dreams about someone else when you're married?I am having dreams about someone from my teen years. I was never in a relationship with him but in my dreams I always am. I wake up feeling guilty. How do I stop having these dreams? I always wake up remembering every detail...
by Stephiliboo 8 months ago
What does it mean to have a reoccurring dream about a city?Is there suppose to be some sort of underlying meaning to it?
by jirel 13 years ago
If yes, how can I?I have lots of lucid dreams, how can I switch it to astral projection?I mean I've heard that in a lucid dream, we can take control and if we want we can take it to the other step.i.e.astral travel.How can I change it to astral projection when I'm lucid dreaming?
by Brian 13 years ago
I'm not sure if this is the right forum to ask this question, but, If you are gay do have dreams about it? Or, even dreams that you are straight?last night I had a dream where I got a job working at a gay resort. I was handing out resort flyers while dressed in leather. Cool leather hat, leather...
by Tammy 8 years ago
All my life I have had strange dreams, some premonitions. Latley I have been dreaming about tornados.. almost everynight. I look outside and see tornados everywhere. Last night I had a dream that I came upon a huge tornado and it had a giant face.. I guess it represents something and someone. I had...
by pinetreehugger 4 years ago
What does it mean when you keep dreaming about dead people?
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |