Why do dream about certain people

Your significant other:. A stranger:. Your parents:. A celebrity:. The bottom line. Sarah Regan. With Ellen Vora, M. Functional Food. Lindsay Boyers. Alexandra Engler. Eliza Sullivan. Latest Articles Recipes. Emma Loewe. Jamie Schneider. Integrative Health. Your Best Sleep Ever. Previous Next. Folder Name. In order to save this article, you will need to Log In or Sign Up! These are dreams.

This stage accounts for 20 to 25 percent of total sleep time. Neuroscience offers explanations linked to the rapid eye movement REM phase of sleep as a likely candidate for the cause of dreaming. Dreams are a universal human experience that can be described as a state of consciousness characterized by sensory, cognitive and emotional occurrences during sleep.

The dreamer has reduced control over the content, visual images and activation of the memory. There is no cognitive state that has been as extensively studied and yet as frequently misunderstood as dreaming. There are significant differences between the neuroscientific and psychoanalytic approaches to dream analysis.

Neuroscientists are interested in the structures involved in dream production, dream organization, and narratability. However, psychoanalysis concentrates on the meaning of dreams and placing them in the context of relationships in the history of the dreamer. Reports of dreams tend to be full of emotional and vivid experiences that contain themes, concerns, dream figures, and objects that correspond closely to waking life.

Nightmares are distressing dreams that cause the dreamer to feel a number of disturbing emotions. Common reactions to a nightmare include fear and anxiety. Lucid dreaming is the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. They may have some control over their dream. This measure of control can vary between lucid dreams. They often occur in the middle of a regular dream when the sleeping person realizes suddenly that they are dreaming.

Some people experience lucid dreaming at random, while others have reported being able to increase their capacity to control their dreams. For example, during exam time, students may dream about course content. People in a relationship may dream of their partner. Web developers may see programming code. These circumstantial observations suggest that elements from the everyday re-emerge in dream-like imagery during the transition from wakefulness to sleep. A study of adult dream reports found:.

Another study investigated the relationship between dream emotion and dream character identification. Affection and joy were commonly associated with known characters and were used to identify them even when these emotional attributes were inconsistent with those of the waking state.

The findings suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, associated with short-term memory, is less active in the dreaming brain than during waking life, while the paleocortical and subcortical limbic areas are more active. Freud maintained that undesirable memories could become suppressed in the mind. Dreams ease repression by allowing these memories to be reinstated.

A study showed that sleep does not help people forget unwanted memories. Instead, REM sleep might even counteract the voluntary suppression of memories, making them more accessible for retrieval. The findings of one study suggest that:. Dream-lag is when the images, experiences, or people that emerge in dreams are images, experiences, or people you have seen recently, perhaps the previous day or a week before. The idea is that certain types of experiences take a week to become encoded into long-term memory, and some of the images from the consolidation process will appear in a dream.

Events experienced while awake are said to feature in 1 to 2 percent of dream reports, although 65 percent of dream reports reflect aspects of recent waking life experiences. The dream-lag effect has been reported in dreams that occur at the REM stage but not those that occur at stage 2. A study exploring different types of memory within dream content among 32 participants found the following:.

Researchers suggest that memories of personal experiences are experienced fragmentarily and selectively during dreaming. The purpose may be to integrate these memories into the long-lasting autobiographical memory. A hypothesis stating that dreams reflect waking-life experiences is supported by studies investigating the dreams of psychiatric patients and patients with sleep disorders. In short, their daytime symptoms and problems are reflected in their dreams.

Many authors agree that some traumatic dreams perform a function of recovery. One paper hypothesizes that the main aspect of traumatic dreams is to communicate an experience that the dreamer has in the dream but does not understand.

This can help an individual reconstruct and come to terms with past trauma. The themes of dreams can be linked to the suppression of unwanted thoughts and, as a result, an increased occurrence of that suppressed thought in dreams.

The results demonstrate that there were increased dreams about the unwanted thought and a tendency to have more distressing dreams. They also imply that thought suppression may lead to significantly increased mental disorder symptoms. Additionally, sex dreams may be prompted by hormonal changes. So, the dream means what you think it means. Jeffrey believes that both of these dream scenarios are two sides of the same coin.

Rather than take these dreams at face value,take a sec to unpack the feelings that arise both in the dream and from the dream. Were you cool as a cuc while sleeping and are now suddenly racked with guilt? Journaling about your dream and the emotions it elicits can help you figure out what it means.

On that note For instance, if your last partner cheated on you, you may have a heightened fear that this will happen again, even if your current S. What are they doing?

Are they happy? To Jeffrey, dreams of the deceased are ultimately about "missing that person, missing what they brought into your life, or wishing they were still around," but Bowman offers a more spiritual interpretation. Jennifer Freed, a family behavioral specialist, said it could mean that "you are making your best effort to own the parts of you that you gave over to them, whether good or bad, and that you have an opportunity to become more whole. Even creepier than dreaming about an ex or someone you once knew is dreaming about someone you don't know at all: a stranger.

It may surprise you to learn that about 50 percent of the people we dream about are strangers. That is, people who are unfamiliar to us. An older study via Psychology Today found that these strangers tend to be male. Patrick McNamara, a neuroscientist, summarized the study in an article for Psychology Today , writing, "In short, male strangers occur very often in dreams and they invariably signal physical aggression. Male strangers appear to be a 'code' for aggressive impulses that are being processed in memory.

McNamara revealed that this is further proof that dreams do not necessarily mimic our everyday lives. If you've ever lost track of someone in a dream, you may awaken with an awful sinking feeling in your stomach. This type of dream is "unsettling," Carder Stout, licensed psychotherapist and dream analyst, confirmed to Goop.

But, what does it mean? Well, according to Stout, the meaning changes slightly depending on who exactly is the person getting lost. In your waking life, he suggested loosening up: " Dreaming of death may leave you feeling frightened upon waking. But, try not to worry. It's not a bad omen. Lauren Lawrence, host of Celebrity Nightmares Decoded and dream analysis writer, told Bustle that dreaming about death represents the desire to "terminate something" — not some one — in your life.

This could be a toxic friendship or an unfulfilling job. You will want to pay attention to who is dying in your dream, though. Are you dreaming of someone with whom you have some deep-seated issues? If so, you'll likely want to address those feelings in real life. Chasing dreams — or nightmares — tend to involve "great amounts of anxiety," Michael R.

Olsen, a dream and unconscious intelligence expert, researcher and speaker, revealed on his site. As scary as these dreams may be in the moment, they're not always as bad as they seem on the surface. As an example, Olsen illustrated that a woman might dream of being tailed by another woman, but, upon turning around, sees an unassuming street musician.

Yep, the person you are running from may actually be a version of yourself that you should run to. However, this isn't always the case. If you find you're being chased by "a very dominating" person, Olsen said this may be a trait you possess, are embarrassed about, and thus run away from in your dreams.

Your dreams contain many versions of you. To explain this concept, David Bedrick, a speaker and counselor trained in Jungian psychology, recalled the words of the 20th century Spanish poet Antonio Machado in an article for Psychology Today.

In a dream about being chased, for example, you are both the one being chased and the one doing the chasing. This doesn't just apply to those sorts of dreams though. The expert explained further, writing, " Let's say 'I' am being criticized by someone in a dream; I am not only the one criticized or hurt, I am also the one who is being critical. It can be unsettling to dream about your partner having an affair, but it's actually a fairly common dream, Michael R.

Olsen, a dream and unconscious intelligence expert, researcher and speaker, wrote on his site. It could be that work, kids, or any number of things are dominating your partner's time and causing you to dream about infidelity.

A dream about your partner cheating could also be a sign that your relationship has gotten stale or that you've started to bicker more often. Olsen said dreams about cheating "rarely reflect real infidelity," but you should still view the dream as a red flag and take the opportunity to assess your relationship in real life.

Just as dreams about death can symbolize the termination of some thing and not some one , dreams about pregnancy can represent the start of something. Although more women than men have dreams about pregnancy, both sexes have experienced pregnancy-related dreams. Yet and still, there is a difference between having a dream about being pregnant yourself versus someone else. Rather, the expert said it's a sign that "something has been left inside, unexpressed or undone.

If your mom has been invading your dreams, you're not alone. But, she may not represent your real mother.