Dreaming fascinates me. Even though we fall asleep, we can continue to experience things but subconsciously. Therefore, if we’re able to absorb and remember some of those experiences, we could actually spend a good part of our years “wasted” on sleeping doing outrageous or even impossible things. Although what we do in our dreams is interesting, the psychology of them is what really blows my mind.
I started jotting down my dreams in a Dream Journal the summer before my freshman year. After graduating from high school, I began remembering my dreams and lots of them. All right, so I remembered only about twenty, but keep in mind that dream recollection was new to me. Never before had I been able to recall these subconscious experiences.
Humans dream. Good for us. But why all of the sudden was I remembering many of mine? To fulfill my curiosity, I took a walk to my town library. Surprisingly, while I waited at the front desk, I overheard two women discussing dreams and I asked them about my situation. One of the women immediately asked me a question: “Are you going to college this Fall?”
Bingo. I was impressed because the connection made sense! I had just graduated from high school and had about two months left before leaving for college. My anxiety level had never been higher. A large chapter of my life was ending and a new one was waiting to begin.
I originally believed that I was dreaming so much because I was on a mental vacation, something I needed after being an intense and active student for four years. I thought having time to finally reflect on my life contributed to remembering so many dreams. However, it was overanalyzing the future that affected me. Not the past.
My dreams made that summer interesting. They allowed me to participate in activities I would not have experienced while awake. I even looked forward to going to sleep on some occasions because I expected to dream. Wonderful, right? Another thing to be anxious about! Nevertheless, I enjoyed them.
I wondered if I was the only 18 year old in the country that was having so many dreams, but highly doubted it. If the woman in the library was correct, there must have been thousands of incoming college freshman remembering many dreams as well.
What about you? I’m curious if your mind swirled with various thoughts the summer before your freshman year and if you consequently remembered more of your dreams. If so, perhaps it was just a bit of anxiety. Actually, from what I learned in HLTH285 (the best class that I’ve taken at Maryland), anxiety is America’s number one mental disorder.
Anyway, my summer ended, but the dreams did not. I continued to remember my dreams throughout my freshman year and by the end of it, I dreamt a lot. I was anxious about the summer. Then during the summer, I eventually began to dream a lot because I was anxious about the Fall. Notice a pattern?
It was during that Fall semester that I experienced extensive worry and fear. I irrationally imagined the possibility of failing two business classes and therefore being rejected from the Maryland Business School. This eventually led to questioning my existence at Maryland. My negative self-talk contributed to the anxiety that I experienced.
As for remembering my dreams at the time, the most impressive thing happened. As weeks went by and my worry snowballed, I remembered more and more dreams each month: four in September, eleven in October, sixteen in November, and twenty-four in December. Using Microsoft Excel, I charted those days and created a monthly aggregate graph. The dreaming data from that Fall semester creates the highest anxiety peak on that graph.
I remain convinced that my ability to recall my dreams is connected to my emotionality. On an average morning, I can remember anywhere from one to six dreams and some of them seem so real. So far, I’ve recorded about 500 dreams on 300 occasions. What’s your rate of recollection?
We dream all the time, so I assume that anxiety doesn’t cause us to have more dreams. Anxiety only causes us to remember more of them. All right. I understand the psychology, but what about the meanings of my dreams? Most of them entail basic experiences, normal places, and actual people in my life.
Some of them, however, have not been your average subconscious experiences. The dreams in which I’ve committed crimes don’t even phase me. It’s the numerous amount of dreams in which I hook up with girls that’s interesting! Looking back through my dream journal, I’ve been subconsciously intimate with several girls from my past. As enjoyable as these dreams may have been, I did not remember much of them. I could basically just recall a few seconds of each experience.
In addition to the intimacy experienced in some of my dreams, I’ve noted that primary characters in all of my dreams included girlfriends at the time, ex-girlfriends, and high school crushes. Does this tell you anything? According to one dream interpretation book that I just looked at, relationships were on my mind. Looking back at the last few years, I’d have to add that I was also “living in the past.”
I think it’s impressive that dream interpretation books can work, but who has the final say? We do. It’s our perception! For example, according to another dream book that my friend, Heather, gave me, the one dream where I was in class and naked represented my concern of people rejecting me for who I really was. To me, maybe I was naked and in class because I simply chose to be naked.
Did you know it is possible to manipulate your dreams? Lucid Dreaming occurs when you’re consciously aware that you’re dreaming. I’ve yet to experience this feat, but imagine the possibilities. Knowing that you’re dreaming, you can attempt to do those outrageous or impossible things, and succeed! Just make sure that you know you’re dreaming before you choose to walk into that certain class naked, okay?
Jared Meyer is a senior finance major presently spending the summer in NYC. Reach him at jmmeyer@wam.umd.edu.
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