Dream Interpretation, and The #1 Reason People Fail to Interpret Their Dreams Correctly

Dream Intrepretation

Interpreting your dreams can be fun and provide you with valuable insight. As dreams are an extension of how you perceive yourself, dream interpretation may help you uncover self-knowledge that you are not aware of. Before attempting to interpret your dreams, please ensure you are practicing the Three Easy Steps For Remembering Your Dreams and Improving Dream Recall.

How to Interpret Your Dreams: The “I Am and I Need” Technique

Interpreting your dreams is not something you can become an expert at overnight. It will take time and practice.

To start, open your dream journal, and take out a scrap sheet of paper (or use an Excel sheet). On the scrap paper, create two columns, one for “I am” and one for “I need”. Go through your dream journal, and write all negative words or phrases under the “I am” column. Write all positive words or phrases under the “I Need” column.

Next, pay attention to the subject matter (ex. location) in the dream. For each keyword, create a sentence “When it comes to (subject matter), I need / I am (negative/positive keyword).”

Example Dream Interpretation

Dream Title: On vacation near the ocean

Dream Details: I am on vacation with my wife near the ocean. It is very beautiful scenery, but another tourist sitting near us keeps talking on their cell phone. The tourist is a workaholic, trying to close a business deal. We are very annoyed and want to get away from him.

I am

Very annoyed: When it comes to my workaholic personality
Workaholic: When it comes to my job

I need

Vacation: When it comes to work
Beautiful scenery: When it comes to a vacation

You could interpret this dream as “When it comes to work, I need a vacation with beautiful scenery”, or “When it comes to my workaholic personality, I need to change/get away from this.”

Type of Dreams

As you interpret your dreams, you will want to pay special attention to types of dreams and recurring dream themes. Below are the main types of dreams you may experience.

Physical dreams: Dreams about food/eating, sex, negative habits, confrontation, stress, realization, and performance/rehearsal.

Spiritual dreams: Visitations from deceased loved ones, premonition/prophetic, message dreams.

Nightmares: Cause you to wake up feeling anxious and frightened. May be a response to real life trauma and situations, or occur when you ignore or refuse to accept a particular life situation.

Recurring Dreams: Can repeat over a short period of time or years, with little variation in story or theme. May be connected to a deep message, and will repeat until that message is recognized.

Lucid Dreams: These occur when you realize you are dreaming, and become an active participant in your dreams. Many dreamers wake themselves up when they realize they are dreaming.

The #1 Reason People Fail to Interpret Their Dreams Correctly

The #1 reason people fail at dream interpretation: They use the one-size-fits-all approach of a Dream Dictionary to understanding a very personal subject- their dreams.

Dream Dictionary: A tool used for interpreting images in a dream.

Only you can interpret your dreams, and you will not be an expert right away. But if you rely on a Dream Dictionary to describe what each part of your dream symbolizes, you are setting yourself up for failure. Dreams are highly personal, and the same dream could have infinite meanings, depending on who dreams it. Dream dictionaries are generally not considered scientifically viable by those within the psychology community.

To interpret your own dreams, you must discover your personal Dream Symbols. How does the dream make you feel? What real life situations does the dream remind you of? What is the dream telling you that you might not already know? Think metaphorically about your dreams, and then test your interpretations.

Additional Tips For Interpreting Your Dreams

Dreams are a reaction to daytime activity, and often show a way out of a dilemma. Relate your dreams to a current activity. Dreams may be directed to your past activities as well as your future activities.
Recurring dreams often illustrate progress or failure. If the dream remains unchanged throughout several year, it may indicate your resistance to change.
Do not let the people and places in your dream obscure its meaning. Instead, think about them metaphorically, and ask yourself what emotions you felt during the dream.

This post is part of the Dream Evolver Series

Popularity: 2% [?]

Three Easy Steps for Remembering Your Dreams and Improving Dream Recall

Remembering Your Dreams

Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions.

-Edgar Cayce

Upon waking, people typically forget more than 50 percent of their dream content within five minutes. Within ten minutes, 90% is gone. But with practice, many people have learned how to remember their dreams every day. Most of these dreamers would say that remembering their dreams gives them insight that they did not have before. It helps them learn more about themselves, and adapt to changes in their waking life.

“Practice makes perfect” has definitely been the case for me. I used to rarely remember my dreams. Shortly after I started practicing the steps below, I was remembering one dream per night. Now I usually remember 3-4 dreams per night.

Why Remember Your Dreams?

Your brain takes in a lot of information during the day. Your conscious mind is not able to process all of this information while you are awake. When you go to sleep, your dreaming mind has access to this information that was not available to you while you were awake. Your dreams might reveal new insights, desires, or help you solve a problem creatively. If you remember your dreams, you will have access to more self knowledge and might learn more about your true thoughts and feelings.

Famous Dream Inspirations

These famous individuals used their dreams to help them with inspiration:

Albert Einstein: Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
Paul McCartney: The Beatles song “Yesterday”
Mary Shelly: The monster Frankenstein
Elias Howe: The Sewing Machine

Preparation for Improving Your Dream Recall

Go to your local bookstore and buy a nice journal which you will devote solely to capturing your dreams. Also purchase a book light which you can clip on to this journal, and a nice pen.
Place your dream journal, pen, and book light close to your bed or under your pillow
Tell yourself that when you wake up the next morning, you will remember your dreams

Step 1) Make a conscious effort to remember dreams before you go to sleep

As you’re falling asleep, suggest to yourself that you will wake up remembering your dreams. You can use a mantra (such as “I will remember my dreams”). Instead of putting intentional effort into the suggestion, try to genuinely expect to remember your dreams. Just be careful not to put too much intentional effort into the mantra. Instead, try to genuinely expect to remember your dreams.

Step 2) Upon awakening, stay in bed as long as possible and replay the dream in your mind

It is generally accepted by dream researchers that dreams are not remembered unless the dreamer awakens during a dream. Even after awaking during the dream, it is usually not remembered for long. Therefore, every time you wake up in the night, and the next morning, ask yourself, “What was I just dreaming?”

Stay in the same position and think your dreams over before jumping out of bed. After you have remembered your dream, move to a different position (with your eyes still closed) that you normally sleep in, and try and remember other dreams. The position that you are in may help your brain remember what dream you had while sleeping in that position.

Dream Journal

Step 3) Write about the dream in a dream journal

Capture as much detail as possible, including the estimated time of the dream. If you are too groggy when you awake, just jot down a summary, and try to fill in the gaps the next morning.

Your dream recall will improve with time. Before I started capturing my dreams in a dream journal, I rarely remembered them. After using a dream journal for several weeks, I was remembering at least one dream per night, often 3-4.

Other Tips for Dream Recall

You need at least 8 hours of sleep per night. Most of your dreams will occur during the end of your sleep cycle (REM phase), so you need to ensure you are getting enough sleep to begin this phase.
Keep your Dream Journal or a notepad with you at all times. It is likely your daily activities may remind you of something in your dream. As you remember these details, write them down immediately.
Try to go to sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time each day to increase the quality of your sleep

This post is part of the Dream Evolver Series

Popularity: 2% [?]

Dream Evolver Series

Dreams are real while they last — can we say more of life?

-Havelock Ellis

Vivid Dreamscape

I have been researching and experimenting with dreams for the last decade. I have focused primarily on lucid dreaming (being aware you are dreaming while dreaming), dream recall, and dream interpretation. I have also tried many supplements to improve my sleep quality, dream recall, and dream vividness. I am excited to share my explorations on Life Evolver. Over the next several months, the majority of my posts will focus on dreaming.

Why should you be interested in the dreaming world?

Life is short. And on average, you will spend over one third of your already-short life asleep. Can your sleep time be tapped in to and put to better use? Or are you better off not tampering with it? After all, maybe we aren’t supposed to remember our dreams.

Growing up in Western culture, I never learned to put much value on my dreams. Unless I had a bad nightmare or extremely weird dream, I rarely thought or talked about my dreams. When I first began experimenting with dreams, I wasn’t sure if I could make better use of my sleep time. But after experimenting for a while I became convinced of it. Dreams have offered me new insight, opportunities for personal growth, and fun. This has led to a positive impact on my waking life.