Meaning of Dreams

We are a free resource to help you interpret your dreams with a massive searchable Dream Dictionary and Dreaming Forums that provides the meaning of your dreams along with Dreaming Diaries and considering various Dreaming Theories.

Our specialists have studied the works of Freud and Jung and continue to follow modern scientific research in the field of dreaming, undertaken by scientists like J. Allan Hobson, Robert McCarley, Mark Solms, Jie Zhang and Antti Revonsuo.

The meaning of dreams is something we all consider because they often leave a big impression on our daily thoughts, just as our daily routines affect our dreaming - the two aspects often echoing each other. Sometimes our unconscious adventures make us laugh, while other times we may awaken feeling confused or disturbed. This is why many people come here to talk about them and achieve peace of mind - the things we are dreaming about are rarely the ill omens many perceive them to be and discovering the meaning of dreams can be a very useful tool for guiding our lives with a little knowledge and help, all of which is available here.

Dream Dictionary

Our Dream Dictionary is an ever-growing meaning of dreams resource, an ongoing project where members of the Dreaming Forums have made suggestions for new entries to help everyone discover the world of dreaming together. In fact, if you cannot find what you're looking for on our site, you can request an addition and we guarantee it will be added for you, usually the same day.

You may wonder how a dictionary can be used to analyze your personal dream when everyone has different ideas and thoughts. To find the answer to this you can read our page on The Benefits of Dream Dictionaries, which can help you interpret common symbols so you can make your own personal interpretations. You may even take your own individual experiences and beliefs into account when considering your interpretation and using our dictionary.

Dream Theories

Some of our more in-depth dream guides can be found in the Meaning of Dreams dream theory section, where you can learn why the collective evolutionary history that is shared by all human beings means

Lucid Dreaming

Our lucid dreaming section tells you all you need to know about taking control of your dreaming mind, including the science behind lucid dreaming and how to induce the lucid state.  You can also find out about out of body experiences here.

Sleep and Sleep Disorders

Because sleeping and dreaming are interrelated, we have provided you with information about the stages of sleep and how they relate to dreaming as well as information about sleep disorders such as sleep paralysis, sleep walking, night terrors, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and REM sleep behavior disorder.

Your Dream Meanings

Take a look at my dream archive, and our members' dream diaries and you should see that even though they are unique, there are patterns in what other people dream that they themselves may be unaware of - you may find you can see the meaning in the dream descriptions of other people clearer than your own. You can use insights and discussions about other people's dreaming as a guide and aid to your own interpretations.

As you develop your own knowledge, you can help find the meaning of dreams for other people, which will in turn help you get a better idea of how to understand your own. The Dream Themes section expands on some of the more common dreams listed in the dictionary, and the rest of the Meaning of Dreams site covers a much wider spectrum that encompasses all aspects of dreaming.

How to Understand Dreaming

Dreaming and sleeping are not mutually exclusive, so to embark on the journey of understanding of why you are dreaming you must also explore the science or phenomena of sleep.

As Human Beings we live our lives in cycles, with around two thirds of our day filled with waking activity and one third of our day spent in a state of rest. We use sleep to cast aside our daily struggles, both mental and physical, and while our internal systems go about repairing and restoring our muscles and soothing our aches and pains, our brains take us to imaginary landscapes, or dreamscapes, to escape the mental stresses of day to day life. With proper sleep we awake feeling revitalized and rejuvenated.

Everyone needs sleep and dreaming to function properly and successfully carry out daily tasks. When we do not sleep properly, we become physically run down and mentally incapable of coping with situations and problems favorably, lacking the means to flourish as a Human Being. If you go without sleep and without dreaming, it soon becomes apparent that these two functions are an essential part of being Human.

Even without knowing the meaning of dreams - in fact most people do not - you still benefit from having them. There have been scientific studies of sleep deprivation that suggest your brain will increase your level of dreaming to compensate for those you have missed by skipping sleep. You may have noticed this yourself when, during periods of stress and heavy workloads, you have stayed up too late and woken up too early for extended periods, and your body has taken over and made you sleep longer during the weekend, when you wake up having experienced tremendous amounts of vivid dreaming - almost as if your brain was filled to bursting with subconscious thoughts. In fact, if you go for long enough without sleep you may notice your subconscious leaking surreal thoughts into your waking life in the form of what one might call hallucinations - seeing things and hearing voices that will often make you feel paranoid, as if you are losing your mind. But, unlike real paranoid illnesses, all the symptoms will thankfully disappear after a prolonged period of restful sleep that compensates for the dreaming deficit.

It is widely believed that dreaming is the mind's way of sorting through our waking thoughts, dealing with some of the harder to face issues in an abstract way that is less stressful and time-consuming than facing them while we are awake. After all, we would never get anything done if we spent all day worrying about our thoughts, relationships and childhood traumas. With this in mind, it is easy to see why we can breakdown mentally and physically without sleeping and dreaming.

Attaining a Deeper Perception of Yourself Through Dreaming

The meaning of dreams and sleep has been studied for many years, with opinions shifting from time to time (see Stanford School of Medicine's Michelle L. Brandt on The Meaning of Dreams in 2005). The concept of gaining a deeper understanding of yourself through dreaming may sound similar to regular interpretation, but it can in actual fact be a whole other way of looking at your sleeping thoughts.

You can begin by utilizing standard interpretation techniques. Say, for example, you were dreaming that you were on top of a very tall building, standing at the edge and looking down at the street below, knowing if you leapt off you'd be able to fly but are afraid to take that leap - for this dream you may surmise, using standard interpretation, that you are at the edge of something, that you're preparing to make a leap into the unknown and fearful. The dream may be to do with your higher self, as buildings often represents parts of yourself and you were right at the top.

A deeper perception can be sometimes reached when the dreamer adds conscious thoughts and waking life rationality to their dreaming experience. Thinking about your dreaming helps you bring order to the seemingly random imagery. You can apply what you know from dream interpretation to what you know of your current situations, bringing the two together.

In this example you may have come to a point in your life that requires a paradigm shift in your thinking, a shift larger than you'd at first realized that is evidenced by the height of the building and the distance you would fall if you could not fly.

You have learned two things: 1. You have interpreted the dream, and 2. Your current need to change your way of thinking is a much bigger a deal than you'd allowed yourself to believe. In other words, you have gained a greater perception of your own personality and, because knowledge is power, you can use this insight into your dreaming mind as a tool throughout your life.

See also: The Meaning of Dreams through Dream Art