It’s 3 a.m., and you jolt awake, your heart beating out of your chest as you try to make sense of the wild dream you just had. In it, you were being chased by the people you thought you could trust through a maze of familiar childhood places that turned dark. Maybe it was a warning, a sign or the result of ingesting too much caffeine before bed while cramming for your final. Either way, you can’t shake the feeling that it meant something.
People have tried to interpret their dreams for centuries, searching for meaning in these nightly narratives. But does the science of psychology offer any real answers, or are our dreams simply a collection of random thoughts and images?
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud’s groundbreaking theories on dreams, presented in the early 20th century, significantly shifted how we understand the unconscious mind. Freud famously referred to dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious mind,” seeing them as a direct link to the hidden, repressed aspects of the self.
According to Freud’s theory, dreams reveal desires, fears and unresolved conflicts, particularly those rooted in childhood.
“Freud distinguished between the manifest content and latent content of dreams,” said the Council for Psychoanalysis and Jungian Analysis.
This highlights that while the manifest content is what we consciously recall, the latent content contains the more profound, symbolic meanings — often tied to unconscious struggles and desires.
Freud’s notion of “dream work” further refines this concept, suggesting that the mind engages in mechanisms like condensation, displacement, and symbolism to disguise the latent content. This process, as Freud theorized, occurs to protect the dreamer from confronting painful or unsettling truths.
The Council for Psychoanalysis and Jungian Analysis stated, “Freud often emphasized themes related to sexuality and aggression in his interpretations, as he believed that many of our deepest unconscious conflicts revolve around these drives.”
He saw certain symbols in dreams, such as “phallic symbols” — e.g., snakes or towers — , as representing repressed sexual desires, while violent imagery reflected unresolved conflicts, often stemming from childhood experiences.
These themes were critical to Freud’s overall theory of dreams and their ability to shed light on suppressed parts of the psyche.
The Science Behind Dreams
So, what do scientists know about why we dream?
Dreams are an active process in the brain during sleep, and recent advancements in brain imaging have helped clarify their scientific basis.
According to The Science of Dreams, a study using magnetic resonance imaging to match brain activity during sleep to images participants had previously viewed while awake.
The results revealed that 60% of the time, brain activity patterns from sleep matched the content of participants’ dreams.
“This means that dreams are created in the brain during sleep,” said Rebecca Spencer, who has a PhD in neuroscience.
This research helps confirm that dreaming is not merely a product of random thought but a structured process tied to brain activity during rest.
During non-REM sleep, the brain replays memories from the day, reinforcing neural connections and moving information from short-term to long-term storage.
This replay process happens even if dreams are not vividly remembered, indicating that dreaming itself may be an integral part of memory processing. As the brain reactivates learned material, it enhances the ability to recall and retain that information over time.
In addition to cognitive functions, dreams play a significant role in emotional regulation. The amygdala, active in processing emotions when awake, is similarly engaged during REM sleep.
This suggests that dreams help process and regulate emotions experienced during the day. By re-experiencing emotions through dreams, the brain may help us work through emotional challenges, leading to improved mood and emotional resilience upon waking.
Popular Dreams: Science vs. Myth
For centuries, humans have tried to assign meaning to common dream themes. Dreams of falling, flying, or appearing in public without clothes are popular across cultures, but do they mean anything universal? Science is skeptical, but it offers some insights.
Take the classic dream of falling. According to Healthline, in the popular myth of dream interpretation, “Researchers theorize that this may reflect feelings of helplessness or rejection.”
From a scientific perspective, however, the feeling of falling may relate to your body’s transitions in and out of deeper sleep stages.
“Sometimes, there’s an overlap between hypnic jerks and dreams about falling.”
Healthline suggests that this phenomenon might have more to do with your body falling asleep than your mind trying to tell you something.
Ultimately, dream symbols remain subjective; no universal meaning can be attached to any particular image in a dream. What we can conclude, however, is that dreams likely reflect our internal world, shaped by what we feel, fear and experience.
The Verdict
So, is dream interpretation more science or fiction? The answer lies somewhere in between.
While scientists have made strides in understanding how and why we dream, interpreting specific dream content remains largely speculative.
Neuroscience shows us that dreams are the brain’s playground for memory processing, emotional release, and creative problem-solving.
But if you’re hoping to find a hidden message in your dreams, modern psychology suggests that the interpretation will ultimately be personal.
words_emily melissinos. illustration_andres alessandro. design_lizzie kristal.
This article was published in Distraction’s Winter 2024 print issue.
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