We all know that when we fall asleep, our bodies go into a resting state and sometimes (hopefully!) we dream. But what happens when we dream? Where do we go? And what does it mean when we don't dream?
I remember when I was a kid I used to keep a dream journal. I had so many very real and vibrant dreams that seemed to carry a story, and sometimes my dream would continue where it left off the next night, a month or even years later! The ones that impacted me the most often involved speaking different languages (I only know English!), betrayal, death, very gruesome or shocking ways to die, being chased and captured, and being involved in fights or wars in one way or another. I even had a dream with 2 dimensional little green creatures that looked like they were straight out of Rambo and hopped through trees like ninjas in an anime. Totally weird!
I became really good at looking up the meanings in dreams using the many dream resources on the internet, and while some made a certain amount of sense, a lot of the time it was way out to lunch and the symbols held a lot of beliefs that I didn't associate with. I am by no means a dream interpreter, but I have a pretty good grasp on what kinds of dreams people can have, how to distinguish between them, and what it means when you don't dream.
Leaving the science jargon out of it, when we sleep, we are giving our subconscious access to parts of our brain our consciousness wouldn't otherwise give it access to during the day. So in short, this is the time where a lot of processing happens from events that happened during the day. It categorizes and de-fragments emotions, problems, memories, etc. and files them away into the super-computer that is our brain. This is the part science understands, and everyone knows how important sleep is to the human body and the mind - but why do we dream? Dreams aren't always figments of your imagination combined with processing and integrating information. There is much more to it than that. To understand why we dream, we must understand that there are different kinds of dreams.
De-fragmenting Dreams
The kind of dream we know and science understands, are the de-fragmenting dreams. These dreams are interpretations by your brain to process things happening in your life. They can twist and take shape into whatever odd scenario and often contain symbols that stand out and may hold certain meaning for you to decipher. These types of dreams are the ones dream interpreters target to let you know what your subconscious is trying to tell you. These dreams often don't make a whole lot of sense, they may contain people or places you know or frequent, and strange things happen - like a giraffe driving a car.
The reason for all that non-sense is purely your subconscious picking random elements that invoke certain feelings or memories and figuring out which category to place them into. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work in these dreams, and unless you really want to know what your subconscious is doing, it isn't always worth the time to try to decipher them. By the time you are able to, you would have already processed and stored the issue away anyway.
The times where you would want to interpret de-fragmenting dreams is when there are recurring dreams and/or elements. This usually means your subconscious is having a hard time categorizing it and you need to figure out what that is, so your conscious mind can help put your subconscious at ease.
You may not always remember these dreams as they are often not relevant by the time you wake up. These dreams can also cause nightmares, especially in children, simply because they don't make any sense compared to the world they currently understand. However, it may be important to note that if these dreams are causing nightmares, you may want to look a little more closely at what is really happening during the day.
Another thing to note about de-fragmenting dreams is that these dreams happen more "in body" and at certain times of your sleep cycle when your body is in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.
Memory Dreams
Have you ever had a dream where you were watching it like a movie, either from someone else's perspective or your own? Or perhaps you spoke a different language, and you were a different gender and you had a completely different life. These dreams are memories, but they aren't just memories from this lifetime. These types of dreams are quite common and we often dismiss them as imagination and a pretty cool story (sometimes worthy of a novel!). The truth is, they are interpretations of memories from previous (or current) lives.
These dreams process events that happened, that could be in some way affecting you in that moment. There may be certain elements from the dream that resonate with current circumstances, which caused it to come to the surface; or, perhaps it was just time for that particular memory to be healed and let go. Either way, our souls use this opportunity to get the human out of the way and get some soul work done.
These are the most common dreams for nightmares, especially in children. Unfortunately, these dreams can feel so real that upon waking up, you may feel very disoriented, you may hold onto the feelings from the dream, or they may be scary enough to not want to fall back to sleep.
As with the de-fragmenting dreams, these dreams are necessary and part of the healing process. This is when your soul can easily access your own akashic records for the purpose of categorizing, processing, and healing your past or current lives and traumatic events. That being said, just because you remember dreaming it, does not mean it is healed and done with. It may take a few re-runs or different interpretations of the same scenario for it to be 'dealt' with. I would argue that remembering a particularly nasty dream (even if it is PTSD related) is a red flag for you to go get healing done from a qualified healer who can access the akashic records and clear events and emotions surrounding events. (You can book with me by sending a message on my contact page!) In either case, I highly suggest keeping a dream journal to write down your dreams and see if there are specific patterns that need to be addressed for healing.
Memory dreams can be misinterpreted as other types of dreams because it may conflict with time and space as you know it. It is important to understand your point of reference right now. For example, your dream could be set in modern day, with modern day weapons, vehicles, etc. Your brain has inputted and replaced things that you don't necessarily have the point of reference for, for things that you can easily understand. This interpretation could be a scenario from a past life on a different planet where the physicality of that lifetime is hard for humans to comprehend, or, perhaps it is a memory of an alternate timeline.
Memory dreams typically happen in the non-REM part of your sleep cycle. It is when your body is the least active, and you are able to disengage from your physical body to access your akashic records. Sleep experts would call this Stage 2 of the non-REM sleep cycle.
Traveling or Visiting/Visitor Dreams
I'm not talking about dreams in which you are traveling or visiting within your dreamscape. These are dreams where your soul is quite literally traveling, much like memory dreams, this is the chance your soul can take to be free from the density of the human body, and go travel. Your soul can visit the astral realm, visit passed loved ones or ancestors, learn new skills, temporarily access other dimensions, talk freely with your spirit guides or other beings, or get access to your soul plan, etc. Sometimes you can even visit other people, like your friends or family in their sleep, or they can visit you.
It is hard to recognize these particular dreams because they may look like the other dream categories, but the difference would be what you get out of the dream (if you remember it at all). Some examples would be: you receive a message from a passed loved one; you wake up suddenly gaining more perspective for solving a problem you've been struggling with; you appear in other people's dreams and/or they appear in yours.
The purpose of these dreams can be varied, as well as the outcome. It can be to help aid or guide you on your current trajectory, reconnect with your soul family for inspiration or motivation, relay information to your consciousness about things you may need to do, or ask the infinite resources to help you complete a task so you can finally move forward. These dreams may hold knowledge important for you to remember or relate to your life. Keeping a dream journal for these dreams would help you decipher the true meaning of the messages.
These dreams don't typically cause nightmares, and are most often forgotten by the time you transition sleep cycles or wake up. In cases where you do remember, it can be hard to comprehend the astral realm or other realms or dimensions you may travel to, so your brain may compensate by inputting known environments and other elements from your life instead.
Traveling or visiting dreams typically happen in the non-REM portion of your sleep cycle in stage 2 or 3.
Lucid Dreams
I'm sure you've heard of lucid dreaming, where you are able to become consciously aware that you are dreaming and can manipulate and do whatever you want in your dream. If you're like me, these dreams are incredibly hard to master. I am not a lucid dreamer, but not for lack of trying! It is a wonderful gift to be able to have that level of awareness in a dream. To be able to manifest, manipulate, and do whatever you want or need to do, and do it consciously, is pretty spectacular!
I had one lucid dream that I can recall in my current lifetime. I really wanted to fly, so I mustered up everything I could to do just that. The level of concentration needed to stay conscious was exhausting. I could feel my consciousness slip away and I lost the reigns shortly after. But it is still one of my favorite experiences.
Lucid dreams happen most often in REM sleep, which is where most of the 'in-body' processing happens. But with practice, it can happen at any stage of sleep. Lucid dreaming is usually initiated in stage 1 of the non-REM sleep cycle, and most often achieved in the REM part of the sleep cycle.
Night Terrors
This isn't specifically a type of dream so much as an event. While I cannot diagnose medical conditions, I can help make night terrors make a little more sense and hopefully a little less terrifying. By now you know that our soul often travels when we sleep, whether it is to access our akashic records, or visiting the astral realm, etc. Sometimes there is a bit of a hiccup where your consciousness wakes up before the body does or vice versa. This is rare in adults, and a little less rare for children. The most common reason being, adults have had more time to practice 'coming back.' The reason for this hiccup can be any combination of things: You may have been alerted to come back sooner than anticipated; you've been subjected to a psychic attack; or you skipped a step in coming back. Either way, this is a very frightening experience. As hard as it is to do in the moment, you have to try to remember to breathe. Focus on your toes and your breath, and it will pass as you become more grounded into your body again. In the cases where it is the body that wakes up before the consciousness, it is more terrifying for any who happen to witness it. It is not recommended to try to wake the person experiencing the night terror, but rather make sure their environment is safe (especially for sleep-walkers!) and allow them to come back naturally. They will likely not remember the event once they've woken up. (After all, they weren't there!)
No Dreams
It is very common to not remember our dreams, but there are people who claim to have NO dreams, ever. While you may not think this is a problem, it is often a symptom of a much bigger issue.
Dreams are a very normal human process to interpret, relate, process, and integrate. When you don't dream at all, this can mean any combination of things. To name a few examples:
you could be disconnected from your higher self,
there may be a physical medical explanation preventing you to dream (I cannot diagnose medical conditions, I am merely giving a possible example),
you may have blocked chakras,
you may not have access to your own akashic records,
certain aspects of you may need to be replaced or repaired.
It is highly advised you see a qualified healer that can assess you and find an appropriate solution to the root cause. If you feel it may be medical related, I suggest you speak with your doctor. It is important for human function to be able to dream. If you are unsure if you dream or not, I advise getting an assessment done by a doctor or spiritual practitioner.
To sum it up, dreams are an important process, both for the body and the mind, but also for the soul and keeping up your spiritual health. Through many sleep studies, science has already discovered there are many different sleep cycles, and we have a certain amount of awareness of our surroundings that drifts in and out while we are sleeping. Understanding those sleep cycles and when we dream certain types of dreams helps us understand where we go when we fall asleep. After all, when our bodies are in a deep relaxed state (like when meditating, for example), it makes sense that we would disengage from our physical bodies at that moment to do our soul work. Keep in mind, while our soul can disengage from the body, we are still very much connected to our bodies in an intricate way, thus we can rest assured that we will always find our way back before we wake.
About Cathy Rose: Cathy is a spiritual blogger who shares her personal experiences, knowledge and training to help others navigate, understand and heal throughout their own spiritual journey.
You can contact Cathy by email at cathyrosehealing@gmail.com or visit her Facebook page www.facebook.com/cathyrosehealing or her website www.cathyrosehealing.wixsite.com/home
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