Mankind has held dreams in fascination for a very long time. Back to ancient days, interpreting dreams as from gods, to now seeing them as signposts of your hidden mind, what does your dreaming actually reveal about your mental well-being? We probably do much more than we even see.
As science and knowledge about mental health improve, specialists are now saying that our dreams may reveal important insights into our mental and emotional state. We look closely at why and how your dreams might show your current mental condition, what recurring dream patterns mean and what to do once you understand them.
Understanding the Science Behind Dreams
It is important to learn what dreams mean and how you have them before we explore what they reveal about your mental health. Most of our dreams come from REM sleep, when our brain is especially active. The brain is busy during sleep sorting through everything you learned and felt during the day.
Experts have different ideas about why we dream. According to Freud, dreams occur when our unconscious wishes are trying to come true. Carl Jung thought dreams provided a way to better understand ourselves and help us grow. According to modern neuroscientists, dreams help us understand and release our feelings, strengthen memory and prepare us for likely dangers.
All dream theories agree that there is a strong relation between dreams and your mood and mental state. Shall we go over how this relationship happens and what you will find from it?
Emotional States and Their Dream Equivalents
Has there ever been a dream you experienced that made you feel strongly emotional or wonderfully calm? It’s not simply chance that it worked out that way. Your feelings during the day often show up in your dreams. If you’re in a state of anxiety, chasing or falling dreams are common. Dreams about people you have lost are common when you’re grieving. These events are not coincidental — they mirror what’s happening inside of you.
In times of stress, dreams typically feel much stronger and more chaotic. You might come across situations where you’re not sure what’s happening, you’re in danger or your control is gone. They are more than nightmares—they allow your mind to work through major stress and thoughts you’re not sure how to deal with.
When your mood is upbeat, your dreams may be calm, lovely or very uplifting. Dreams of flying, being in a calm lake or seeing people we care about again frequently happen when we are feeling better, happier or more accepting of ourselves.
Common Dream Themes and Their Mental Health Links
While every person’s dreams differ, there are common themes found around the world. Dreams that happen many times can give important signs about your mental health.
1. Getting Chased
A lot of the time, these dreams are connected to anxiety, fearfulness or overwhelm. When you feel as if you’re falling or being pursued, it represents a fear of not being able to manage or accomplish something.
2. Being late for your appointment or unprepared for it
Most often, this theme is related to feeling stressed, put under pressure or experience imposter syndrome. People often experience it when feeling not good enough or fearing failure.
3. My teeth or hair are coming out now.
Often, these dream images are related to your self-esteem, worrying about aging or how you hope others see you.
4. Mostly People Think About Death
Most people believe that dreams about death are always negative, yet they can be harmless. Many times, people use them to symbolize growing up, starting fresh or graduating from one part of life. Frequent dreams about death may occasionally mean there are depression or existential anxieties.
5. Flying is known as Soaring
Most of the time, this feeling brings about liberation, accomplishment or freedom from restrictions. It’s possible that you’re gaining self-esteem or maturing personally.
Nightmares and Mental Health Disorders
Everyone may get scared by a bad dream from time to time; recurring nightmares are usually a sign to worry about. Having chronic nightmares is often connected to having certain mental health problems like:
- Those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often have very stressful dreams of the upsetting things they’ve gone through.
- Anxiety Disorders can produce recurring and scary dreams, like being caught or being followed.
- People dealing with depression often say their dreams frequently revolve around feelings of sadness, loss and hopelessness.
Some sleep disorders, including insomnia and narcolepsy, may trigger nightmares that increase emotional problems.
If dreams start to affect you during your waking life, you should seek advice from a mental health care provider. Insomnia may often be successfully treated with dream therapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT-I).
Lucid Dreaming and Mental Clarity
Lucid dreaming happens when you realize you are dreaming and, sometimes, can guide your dream. According to studies, lucid dreaming can improve your ability to solve problems, lessen unpleasant dreams and grow your self-confidence.
Lucid dreams are commonly recommended to help people address their fears and reinterpret what happened to them. If a person regularly experiences dreams of being attacked, using lucid dreaming can let them respond to the attacker and feel in charge once more.
If you practice mindfulness meditation, write down your dreams and set goals before you sleep, you can notice more lucid dreams.
How to Decode Your Dreams: Practical Steps
It doesn’t take psychic power to understand what your dreams may indicate about your mental health. Sometimes, you need to pay attention, be aware of yourself and seek professional support. Read on to see how you can interpret your dreams.
Create a Dream Journal
When you write down your dreams as soon as you wake up, you’re more likely to remember important details. As you look, there will be similar symbols that seem to reappear.
Notice the Emotions in the Work
Take a moment to notice your emotions in the dream. Was your feeling joyful, uncertain, wistful or fearful? You can learn more from the emotional tone in a song than the words themselves.
Identify Triggers
Could something that happened during the day have led to your dream? You might experience triggers because of stress at work, disagreements or an upsetting movie you’ve watched.
Look at Dream Dictionaries, but Take Them with a Salt of Uncertainty
Even though dream dictionaries haven’t been scientifically tested, the meanings they give might echo your own experiences. These tips are there to serve as direction; do not take them as definite rules.
Talk with a Therapist
When dreams bring about worry or feel particularly strong, it’s a good idea to speak to a licensed therapist to reveal what might be causing this.
Cultural Interpretations of Dreams
Dreams hold different meanings to different cultures and thinking about these meanings can influence mental health. For certain Indigenous groups, ancestors are thought to speak through our dreams. Chinese belief sees dreams as a sign of something wrong with the body or warnings from the spiritual world. If you understand the cultural background of your dreams, it may improve how you interpret them.
Beliefs about dreams in culture may influence someone’s experience and discussion of mental health. When dreams are respected in a community, people might recognize their own feelings more deeply and benefit from extra self-knowledge.
Children, Adolescents, and Dreaming Patterns
Because their brains and emotions are still developing, children and teenagers often have dreams that are clear in their minds.
- Many times, children create monster dreams to represent their fears of being left alone or facing real problems.
- People growing up might dream about things like fitting in with their peers, forming an identity and their unclear future.
Parents and caregivers can use talking about dreams as a way to spot if children or teens are suffering from emotional or mental health difficulties.
Dreams During Life Transitions
Because their brains are still developing and there are many significant life changes, children and teenagers tend to dream with more emotion and detail. For instance:
- Many women during pregnancy have odd or intense dreams, linked to concerns about labor, what’s ahead or the effects of hormones.
- When someone loses a loved one to death, dreams about them are usual and may be relaxing or upsetting. These dreams usually form a part of coping with grief.
- Switches in work or place of residence commonly result in dreams about not succeeding, looking for your purpose or turning into something new.
They often reflect our responses to real changes around us and give us guidance for dealing with our emotions.
Can Dreams Predict Mental Health Crises?
Dreams themselves cannot identify a mental health issue, but they might warn us before other symptoms appear. A change in how often you dream, your dreams’ content or how you feel in dreams may signal that anxiety or depression is on the rise.
Someone who often has regular dreamless sleep without nightmares might start having the same scary dreams if they are facing hidden stress or trauma. If you can spot these changes, you may seek help sooner for treatment.
Using Dreams in Therapy
Certain types of psychotherapy use dream interpretation. Jungian analysis, Gestalt therapy and psychodynamic therapy use dreams in order to discover what someone may not be aware of deep within themselves.
People in therapy might have to recall their dreams, describe the main emotions they felt and discuss what symbols or metaphors were part of their dreams. With this approach, therapists may identify new insights into someone’s behavior, traumas or needs related to childhood.
While dream work isn’t common for every therapist, many of them find it beneficial when added to traditional therapy sessions. It helps clients join different experiences across their daily life and dreams.
Technology and Dream Tracking
New technology allows people to track their sleep and dreams in more detail now. Smartwatches and certain sleep apps can track sleep over a period of days and suggests to recall the dreams.
Some of the most used tools for recording dreams are:
- Dream Journal Unlimited
- Lucidity
- Sleep Cycle
They allow you to see your sleep habits and what you dream about, both of which help recognize mental health changes.
When to Seek Help
If what you dream about is upsetting and starts to interfere with your sleep or leaves you feeling upset throughout the week, you need to get professional support.
Keep an eye out for:
- Waking up from repeated nighttime nightmares or night terrors
- Having sleep paralysis and seeing hallucinations
- Having dreams about suicide
- Strong feelings upon waking up
Counselors with experience in trauma and dreams may be able to help you identify what is causing your issues and show you ways to manage your feelings.