The Meaning Of Dreams Throughout History

The analysis of the function and meaning of dreams has varied throughout history. Therefore, theories have evolved, giving sleep functions related to learning, survival, rest and mystical beliefs.

In each culture, the interpretation of dreams has been loaded with magical content, directly influencing daily life. With the evolution of human beings and technology, the interpretation and study of dreams has also evolved.

We then go from the analysis of the magical content independent of the dreamer, to forms of analysis based on scientific theories focused on the brain functioning of each individual.

What are dreams

Sleep is an active biological process with a universal function of the brain. Dream productions usually appear during REM sleep ( rapid eye movement ). This sleep period is defined by the following characteristics:

• Behavioral : partial motor deactivation.
• Physiological : variation in brain electrical activity (similar to wakefulness).

REM sleep

It is a phase in which the brain is very active and motor neurons are blocked from the brain stem, preventing the movements of the person. In this stage, the most lucid dreams appear and with a common thread, although they appear incoherent. The eyes show movements and brain activity is assimilated to that of wakefulness. It also raises the heart rate and blood pressure.

The first explanations

In Mesopotamian civilizations such as the Babylonian or Sumerian, dreams meant expressions of the afterlife. They saw dreams as divine expressions and had gods assigned to them. In Egypt dreams functioned as omens, messages of destiny that had to be deciphered.

The most famous account is that of the biblical text of Genesis. When the pharaoh dreamed of 7 skinny cows walking along the Nile, the interpretation portrayed years of impending drought. Based on this, political and administrative actions were taken.

Dreams in ancient Greece

The Greeks considered dreams as messages from the soul, interpreted as revelations. When a person had recurring nightmares, they entrusted themselves to Morpheus, god of sleep.

For what purpose do we sleep and dream?

Polysomnographic studies allow us to establish that living beings have a biological rhythm of approximately 24 hours. This process is underlying the circadian clock, a system based on the hypothalamus. This clock regulates the biological rhythm influenced by external agents, such as light and temperature. He is in charge of sending us to sleep and keeping us awake.

Are we dreaming all the time we sleep?

The answer is no. All people have periods of NREM (No Rapid Eye Movement) sleep characterized by slow waves and REM sleep on the other hand. These periods are interspersed throughout the night. Each person experiences approximately 5 intervals of REM sleep, which occur to a greater extent during the second part of the night.

Preservation mechanism

Various authors propose dreams as a preservation mechanism acquired evolutionarily by mammals. The high brain activity of REM sleep would function as a periodic alert system for possible predator attacks. Thus, in dreams a great activity of the amygdala and the limbic system has been detected.

Sleep functions

• Rest : allows neurotransmitters to recharge while sensory-motor neurons become uninhibited.

• Genetics : dreams have an adaptive characteristic, since they allow the implementation of behavior pattern testing programs.
• Informational : REM sleep has been linked to memory consolidation. In this phase, the weakest connections from the previous day are discarded, consolidating the strongest ones.
• Creativity : can be seen as a representation of the inner world. The imagination and the brain’s ability to recreate various situations is put to the test.
• Cognitive development: the development of visuospatial skills in children has been related to the quality of dream expressions.

The emotional interpretation of the dream

Sigmund Freud was one of the first authors to systematically interpret dreams. He first relates the meaning of dreams to emotional experiences, where the unconscious manifests itself through symbolic language. Then Carl Gustav Jung, already separated from the theories of his teacher, proposes under the energy paradigm, a theory where dreams reveal shared archetypes.

A door to the inner world

It is not difficult to realize that our fears are expressed in our nightmares and our wishes are expressed in our happy dreams. In times of confusion or stress, our true desires can be expressed in dreams without the constraints of everyday life.

How to interpret dreams?

From the psychoanalytic branch, an attempt has been made to classify the meaning of dreams in various dictionaries. This task is very difficult and imprecise given the cultural variations of the language. Likewise, finding connections between dream material and daily life is a way of giving meaning.

Share dreams

There are people who find dreams disturbing and prefer not to tell them. But there are other people who are curious about it and try to analyze them, here are some tips if you are from the second group :

• Annotations. If a dream catches our attention, we must write it down in the first minutes of waking up. The more time passes, the less details can be retrieved.
• Objectivity. It is necessary to see dreams objectively and analyze them for what they are, internal dialogues of our mind. It has been shown that many times they are directly influenced by external agents. A clear example, dreaming of ice can have an explanation as simple as sleeping in a very cold room.
• Consult. Whenever a dream catches our attention or is repeated too much, we can consult it with a specialist. This will provide us with a global and critical vision in this regard.

What about nightmares?

They are usually disturbing dreams that reveal moments of stress and worry. To prevent the feeling of anguish from haunting us throughout the day, two strategies can be applied:

• Distracting task. It has been proven that the more we repeat the dream when we wake up, the more it will permeate our memory. To avoid this we can do simple tasks such as small mathematical operations in the first few minutes of wakefulness.
• Psychological distancing. It is important to understand that what happened in the dream does not have to be repeated during the day and that they are only manifestations of our fears.

Finally, it is important to emphasize that the meaning of dreams will always have a great subjective component. Therefore, both its physiological and symbolic aspects are susceptible to interpretation.

In any case, it is we who ultimately have to decide what to do with what we remember from our dreams.