Do dreams have any significance? A dream is like a film, which is seen unexpectedly. Every time we fall asleep
we are given a ticket to such a cinema, but we do not even know the title of today''s dream. Strange situations, famous people, or nasty dragons can appear in every dream: everything may happen in this peculiar state of mind. Such a phenomenon, a dream, may be very interesting or even significant for different people: first of all for the dreamer, that is for the participant or just the witness of the dream; next for
psychologists, for whom a dream can serve as a mirror of a person''s psyche; and finally for scientists who are faced with the very difficult task of stating what a dream really is.
Dreams constitute a significant part of human life, if only because of the fact that they take up usually one third of our lives. This is a time for unknown adventures and unpredictable events under unexplained circumstances, a time to speak to people we admire and whom, most probably; we would never meet in the real world. Every limitation created by our consciousness or by sheer physical disability can totally disappear. People fly; penetrate through walls, and erect infinitely huge buildings. They rule, give orders, they are listened to and respected. They are prettier and richer, or they even turn into somebody else. At last, they are happy and carefree. This is why some people call dreams a better world; they compare them to a serenely happy childhood and very often long for them. Besides, every person is the owner and sole witness of such a world. One can be sure that the pictures of one''s dream do not exist in anyone else''s head. This kind of monopoly makes people associate so closely with their dreams, and perhaps this is why dreams are so important for them.
The
significance of dreams can also be a subject of interest for psychologists. They treat them as a group of related thoughts, images, or feelings experienced when the mind is not completely under conscious control. The psychologists'' premise is that what we experience while sleeping is the reflection of what we meet in our consciousness, and thus analyzing dreams could provide some important information about someone''s general emotional state. It is usually the case that an accumulation of events or even a sheer increase in the mind''s activity during the day makes a rest more exhausting so that tiring things are dreamt about. Stress in everyday life may turn our dreams into nightmares; temporary or permanent fear often creates appalling pictures in our dreams, from which we wake up shouting; a pessimistic outlook upon life always gives our dreams a somehow tragic quality. Thus, a proper evaluation of the emotional colouring of dreams could be a helpful factor in evaluating the completely psychic sphere of a person.