While your dreams may be forgotten soon after waking, they don’t just stay in your bedroom. Whatever you’re feeling in your dream — good or bad — affects your daytime mood and social interactions the next day.
According to sleep researcher Michelle Carr, studies have shown that people suffering from depression experience “more negative mood and emotion” in their dreams than others, as well as more frequent nightmares.
We’re still learning and processing memories during sleep, and that affects the kinds of dreams we have. Here are a few of the most common ones you may experience:
Lucid dreams:
Lucid dreams happen when you become aware that you’re dreaming. We interviewed Flower Power Herbs & Roots owner, Lata Chettri-Kennedy about the power of mugwort and its effect on lucid dreaming. Mugwort has been known to keep dreamers in REM stages longer, increasing chances of attaining the lucid dream state.
Nightmares:
Nightmares can be vivid, emotionally draining, and often upsetting. While one every now and then is normal, consistent nightmares can be linked to mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression.
Daydreams:
A Harvard study shows that people daydream about 46.9% of the time. But, the same study found that letting our minds wander doesn’t necessarily make us happier. Researchers discovered that people didn’t just fantasize when they were unhappy; rather, their fantasies actually led to unhappiness.
Here are few popular examples of dreams that impact the mood the next day:
1) A bad dream that you can’t remember:
Ever went to sleep feeling good only to wake up feeling bad even if nothing has changed? In such a case it’s usually a bad dream that you can’t remember. Because our subconscious minds can’t really tell the difference between dreams and reality a bad dream can affect the mood even if you can’t consciously remember it
2) Dreaming of someone you used to like:
If you used to like someone then dreamed of him then there is a big chance that you will become more attracted to him the next day or for few days even if you didn’t think about the person for some time. The intensity of the dream will also determine the extent to which you will think about that person
3) An unpleasant dream that you can remember:
Even when you can remember an unpleasant dream it will still affect your mood for some time until something else happens and your mood changes again
Controlling your dreams is a skill called lucid dreaming and its one of the many skills you will learn in the Ultimate guide to developing superpowers course. Check the course out if you are interested to know about lucid dreaming.
Though we often dismiss our dreams and move on with our day, analyzing dreams is a first step to figuring out what our unconscious mind is up to.
Write them down: Write down everything that comes to mind before you forget. You may think you’ll be able to remember and analyze your dreams later that day, but here’s the thing: our waking brain is logical and rational, whereas our sleeping brain isn’t. That means your waking brain may try to add in details that weren’t there before.
Reflect on your emotions, too: Don’t just write down what you did, write down how you felt in your dream. Were you stressed? Anxious? Happy? Excited? Ask yourself why you felt that way. Keep track of your mood the next day and be mindful of any correlation that might arise.
Determine what they might be telling you: Are your dreams mundane or fantastical? Do they follow a logical progression or jump from place to place? Do you have any recurring dreams? Sometimes, anxiety-based dreams repeat actions that are unfinished in waking life. Take a deeper dive into dream interpretation to find meanings or common symbols in your dreams.
Dreams overall can have much more of an impact on our brains than we’d like to believe. Whether it is affecting our moods, relationships, or defining issues and problems in our lives, it is clear that dreams can affect our day-to-day actions without our knowledge. So next time you wake up in the middle of the night due to a crazy man chasing you down the street, remember to define the context of the chase and identify the man pursuing you.
Source:
https://www.bustle.com/p/what-your-dreams-could-indicate-about-your-mental-health-according-to-science-64363
https://www.tomorrowsleep.com/magazine/dreams-affect-life
