What Does It Mean When You Have the Same Dream Over Again
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The Science of Recurring Dreams Is More Fascinating Than We Ever Imagined
Having the same dream again and over again is a well-known phenomenon — nearly ii-thirds of the population written report having recurring dreams. Being chased, finding yourself naked in a public place or in the heart of a natural disaster, losing your teeth or forgetting to go to class for an unabridged semester are typical recurring scenarios in these dreams.
But where does the phenomenon come from? The science of dreams shows that recurring dreams may reflect unresolved conflicts in the dreamer's life.
Recurring dreams frequently occur during times of stress, or over long periods of fourth dimension, sometimes several years or even a lifetime. Not only do these dreams have the same themes, they can also repeat the same narrative night after night.
Although the exact content of recurring dreams is unique to every individual, there are common themes among individuals and even among cultures and in different periods. For example, existence chased, falling, being unprepared for an exam, arriving belatedly or trying to do something repeatedly are among the virtually prevalent scenarios.
The majority of recurring dreams have negative content involving emotions such every bit fear, sadness, anger and guilt. More than one-half of recurring dreams involve a situation where the dreamer is in danger. Just some recurring themes can also be positive, even euphoric, such as dreams where we discover new rooms in our house, erotic dreams or where we fly.
In some cases, recurring dreams that begin in childhood can persist into adulthood. These dreams may disappear for a few years, reappear in the presence of a new source of stress and then disappear again when the situation is over.
Unresolved conflicts
Why does our brain play the same dreams over and over again? Studies suggest that dreams, in general, assistance us regulate our emotions and adapt to stressful events. Incorporating emotional material into dreams may allow the dreamer to process a painful or difficult event.
In the case of recurrent dreams, repetitive content could stand for an unsuccessful try to integrate these difficult experiences. Many theories hold that recurring dreams are related to unresolved difficulties or conflicts in the dreamer's life.
The presence of recurrent dreams has also been associated with lower levels of psychological wellbeing and the presence of symptoms of anxiety and depression. These dreams tend to recur during stressful situations and cease when the person has resolved their personal disharmonize, which indicates improved wellbeing.
Recurrent dreams oftentimes metaphorically reflect the emotional concerns of the dreamers. For example, dreaming about a seismic sea wave is common following trauma or abuse. This is a typical instance of a metaphor that tin represent emotions of helplessness, panic or fear experienced in waking life.
Similarly, being inappropriately dressed in one's dream, being naked or not being able to find a toilet can all stand for scenarios of embarrassment or modesty.
These themes tin be thought of as scripts or prepare-to-dream scenarios that provide us with a space where we can digest our alien emotions. The same script tin be reused in dissimilar situations where nosotros feel similar emotions.
This is why some people, when faced with a stressful state of affairs or a new challenge, may dream they're showing up unprepared for a math exam, even years after they have set foot in a school. Although the circumstances are different, a like feeling of stress or desire to excel can trigger the same dream scenario once again.
A continuum of repetition
William Domhoff, an American researcher and psychologist, proposes the concept of a continuum of repetition in dreams. At the extreme terminate, traumatic nightmares directly reproduce a lived trauma — one of the main symptoms of postal service-traumatic stress disorder.
Then there are recurring dreams where the same dream content is replayed in role or in its entirety. Unlike traumatic dreams, recurring dreams rarely replay an consequence or disharmonize straight only reflect it metaphorically through a cardinal emotion.
Farther along the continuum are the recurring themes in dreams. These dreams tend to replay a similar situation, such every bit beingness late, beingness chased or being lost, but the exact content of the dream differs from one time to the next, such equally existence late for a train rather than for an exam.
Finally, at the other end of the continuum, we discover certain dream elements recurring in the dreams of 1 individual, such every bit characters, actions or objects. All these dreams would reflect, at unlike levels, an try to resolve certain emotional concerns.
Moving from an intense level to a lower level on the continuum of repetition is oft a sign that a person's psychological land is improving. For instance, in the content of traumatic nightmares progressive and positive changes are often observed in people who have experienced trauma as they gradually overcome their difficulties.
Physiological phenomena
Why do the themes tend to be the same from person to person? One possible caption is that some of these scripts have been preserved in humans due to the evolutionary advantage they bring. By simulating a threatening situation, the dream of existence chased, for example, provides a space for a person to practise perceiving and escaping predators in their sleep.
Some mutual themes may besides be explained, in part, by physiological phenomena that have identify during sleep. A 2022 study by a research team in Israel plant that dreaming of losing one's teeth was not particularly linked to symptoms of anxiety but rather associated to teeth clenching during sleep or dental discomfort upon waking.
When nosotros sleep, our brain is not completely cut off from the outside globe. Information technology continues to perceive external stimuli, such as sounds or smells, or internal trunk sensations. That means that other themes, such every bit not existence able to find a toilet or being naked in a public infinite, could really be spurred by the need to urinate during the nighttime or past wearing loose pyjamas in bed.
Some physical phenomena specific to REM sleep, the phase of sleep when we dream the most, could too exist at play. In REM sleep, our muscles are paralyzed, which could provoke dreams of having heavy legs or being paralyzed in bed.
Similarly, some authors have proposed that dreams of falling or flying are caused past our vestibular system, which contributes to residuum and can reactivate spontaneously during REM slumber. Of course, these sensations are non sufficient to explicate the recurrence of these dreams in some people and their sudden occurrence in times of stress, but they probably play a significant function in the structure of our most typical dreams.
Breaking the cycle
People who experience a recurring nightmare accept in some ways go stuck in a particular style of responding to the dream scenario and anticipating it. Therapies have been developed to effort to resolve this recurrence and suspension the vicious bicycle of nightmares.
One technique is to visualize the nightmare while awake and and then rewrite it, that is, to modify the narrative past changing 1 aspect, for example, the end of the dream to something more than positive. Lucid dreaming may also be a solution.
In lucid dreams nosotros go enlightened that we are dreaming and can sometimes influence the content of the dream. Becoming lucid in a recurring dream might allow u.s.a. to think or react differently to the dream and thereby alter the repetitive nature of it.
Withal, not all recurring dreams are bad in themselves. They tin can even be helpful insofar as they are informing us about our personal conflicts. Paying attention to the repetitive elements of dreams could be a way to meliorate understand and resolve our greatest desires and torments.
Claudia Picard-Deland, Candidate au doctorat en neurosciences, Université de Montréal and Tore Nielsen, Professor of Psychiatry, Université de Montréal.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original commodity.
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/the-science-of-recurring-dreams-is-more-fascinating-than-we-ever-imagined
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