If you are getting dreams often, you are a healthy human because it is considered you are getting healthy sleep. Good sleep has been connected to better cerebral function and emotional health, and studies have connected dreams to effective thinking, memory, and emotional processing. Scientists say that during sleep, our body is working to support healthy brain function and preserve our physical health. In children and teens, sleep also helps support growth and development. Getting insufficient sleep can raise risk for chronic health problems.

Experts are working on continued studies to find out how dreaming plays a role in supporting brain functions while we are awake, such as thought processing, memories, and emotions. Therefore, researchers believe that dreaming contributes to healthy sleep. Dreams can help in regulating our emotions good as well as bad.  Depressed people struggle to get sleep, people who get sound sleep are healthier mentally and physically. Research shows that dreaming is not just a by-product of sleep, but it serves in our well-being. Many people in world have got solutions to their problems in dreams.

Jack Nicklaus – the renowned golfer who hadn’t been doing well in his game for a particular period of time in his life. One night he visualized that he was playing very well and noticed that his grip on the golf club was different than what he actually used in the real world. He tried the grip that he’d seen in the dream and it worked. His golfing skills greatly improved.

There is another anecdote: Elias Howe, who invented the modern sewing machine, faced a great problem while making the machine. He didn’t know where to provide an eye to his sewing machine needle. He couldn’t provide it at the tail, as is usually done in hand-held needles. One night, after he had spent days figuring out a solution, he saw a dream in which he had been assigned the task of making a sewing machine by a king. The king gave him 24 hours to make it or else he would be executed. He struggled with the same problem of the needle eye in the dream. Then the time of execution arrived.

While he was being carried by the guards for execution, he noticed their spears were pierced at the tips. He had found the answer! He should provide the eye to his sewing machine needle at its pointed tip! He begged for more time and whilst begging he woke up. He rushed to the machine that he had been working on and solved his problem.

Psychologists tell us that dreams disclose critical aspects about ourselves. Dreams are a reflection of our state of mind, future possibilities, and changes that we will be experiencing sooner. Some scientists have contradictory opinion. They consider dreaming to be an inadvertent consequence of sleep.

Sigmund Freud said that dreams are the disguised fulfilments of repressed youthful wishes. Dreaming is like overnight therapy. The Interpretation of Dreams is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation.

Carl Jung attributes symbol or image from a dream and intensify it by doing research on the meaning of the symbol. This meaning could come from myths, fairy tales, or folklore. Jung said that by amplifying dreams, we gain a deeper understanding of their meaning.

Dreams help us store memories and the things we have learned. Often students get solutions to complex theories and formulas in their dreams prior to exams. The brain reactivates and consolidates newly received memories and information in pieces while we sleep. As a student, Larry Page (founder of Google) had an irrational fear that he had been accepted into Stamford University by mistake. This feeling had trigged an anxiety dream. He imagined that he could download the entire web onto some old computers lying around, so he got up in the middle of the night to do some maths. When he realised it was reasonable, he took two years out of studying to create Google. Imagine how different our daily life would be if he hadn’t had that dream?

Dreams help process our emotions. We can interpret our dreams by learning more about common symbols, keeping a dream diary, and trying to identify personal associations. Recent research suggests that we are more likely to dream about emotionally intense experiences, and the theta brain waves during REM sleep are one way in which the brain consolidates those memories. This has led some researchers to examine how REM sleep plays a role in trauma recovery and mood regulation, owing to its hand in processing difficult experiences.

An average person has three to five dreams per night, and some may have up to seven; however, most dreams are immediately or quickly forgotten. Dreams tend to last longer as the night progresses. 

Some common interpretations of dreaming

I am giving here few common dream interpretations.

• If you see an elephant in dream means good health, success, strength, prosperity, and intelligence, while dreaming about a lion suggests that honour, power, fame, or recognition lie in your future.
• Dreaming about falling tends to signify a loss of control over an important situation. It also indicates fear, terror, and anxiety that comes out of losing grip over significant things.
• To be in an unfamiliar place in a dream, according to Miller’s dream book, is a symbol of the fact that some life changes await you.
• Death in a dream may symbolize the end of something and the beginning of something new.

Conclusion

Dreaming sharpens information, our mind and is most beneficial to our health.

“Telling stories is as basic to human beings as eating and drinking; more so, in fact, while food makes us live, stories make our lives more worth living”. Richard Kearney

Stories are an integral part of our lives and it has no age limit; as children we heard stories from our parents, grandparents, teachers which were like fairy tales, morale boosting stories. And in our adult hood as per the stage in lifecycle our interest for themes of stories kept changing. Stories form an essential part of our lives, we need them regularly. One of the most consequential and enjoyable aspects of our lives is that we spent time listening to with stories, primarily in novel form, reading about events and people who interest us.

Why do we watch movies? We watch movies and television serials to watch stories. They are so necessary because they serve so many critical functions that enable us to survive and thrive as humans, all at once. Through stories, we share passions, fears, sadness, hardships, and joys, and we find common ground with characters woven in them. We connect with those characters/protagonists in stories mentally and sometimes in real life stories we communicate, get friendly with the characters that are like us.

Stories are universal, conveying meaning and purpose that help us understand ourselves better and find commonality with others. There is a scientific explanation for our love of stories: when we hear a story that resonates with us, our levels of a hormone called oxytocin increase and this hormone is a “feel good” hormone.

We must listen to stories especially during bedtime to escape the humdrum, routine and boring nature of life. The routine nature bores us we all look up for some significant events in life.  A story disintegrates the everyday events, releasing out the boring bits. Through story, we can imagine being somebody else or going in a different world of fantasies, without taking on the risks or expense ourselves. We can even do the impossible, like travel through time or explore the universe.

And believe me; this escape factor makes stories highly entertaining. They pass the time. They are fun. The fun factor enables stories to fulfil their other functions. One of the most basic functions of the story is to teach. We use stories also to quickly and easily learn facts. As a Professor, I always give business examples to my students of MBA in form of stories and it works wonders. Research shows that we retain facts more readily if they are related in narrative form. Stories teach us how to be, what to be, where to be.

Human culture has evolved and bosomed via storytelling. Through stories, we communicate to our children and others how to behave, how to take decisions, values of life etc.  Stories preserve our own history and culture, passing it along in a form that is easy to remember to the next generation. We use stories not only to learn but also to speculate, to pose questions and then find solutions.

Story tellers have stretched our imaginations beyond mind’s eye, we have made contact with aliens, we have gone into different space, and we have disappeared through time machine and what not. Stories help us explore all the possibilities. Stories help us understand hypothetical situation as well. When we tell stories about ourselves, we are imagining all our possible futures and, we hope, helping ourselves choose the best ones.

Beyond just speculation about what might happen, we use stories to answer the great unanswerable questions. Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? What does it mean to be human? Stories bring order and meaning to the chaos and unpredictability of life. A story always has a beginning, middle and end, which is very satisfying to us, since we don’t know how our own personal story will end. And our lives are really a search for our own story.

Psychologists say that bedtime stories work wonders for adults too as they create a new sleep onset association. Many people listen to audio books. It is really helpful, as you don’t realise when you go off to sleep. But make sure to set a timer so it doesn’t keep playing all night. The hormones oxytocin and serotonin secrete well while listening to stories because of mood stimulation. And, if you are good story teller you can help the seniors in house to fall asleep easily by telling them good bedtime stories.

A good night’s sleep is essential for our well being and our health, but in our busy lives sleep is often poor and overlooked. Now is the time to stop a while and find comfort and wonder in other worlds where all is well and sleep just a stance/a page/ a pause away.

I often think about this point. Seasonal changes due to atmospheric change in temperature and light has got to do a lot with our moods and energy levels. A research even says that the month in which a person is born might be connected with his/her personality. It says that those born in the spring and summer months, for example, are more likely to have a positive temperament and are more likely to experience rapid changes in mood. Those born during the winter months, on the other hand, are seen lesser irritated. Psychologists have found that shorter months of winter sometimes cause people to experience gloominess which is also called as the “winter blues.” Research has also shown that the beginning of spring can actually lead to a temporary boost up in positivity depending on how much time an individual spends outdoors.

There’s a scientific reason: Any sort of scientific explanation for our personal love of any particular season also has relevance to geographic differences in time zones of different countries. Some Western states tend to have cold fall months that quickly turn to snow. Many Eastern states, on the other hand, experience milder autumn weather that showcases the glorious and colorful transition from summer to fall. Where we live and the distinctive weather of that region can play a significant role in our season preference. A recent study says that people living near sea or river or water body are found calmer.

The change in seasons can influence our body’s melatonin and serotonin; these are natural substances that play a role in our sleep timing and mood. When combined, these factors can lead to feeling Sad or Happy. It is a type of depression that primarily affects people during the fall and winter months but also can occur in the spring and summer, although it is less common. Specific symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder include – depression, guilt, loss of self esteem, feeling of hopelessness, loneliness, lethargy, indifference, anxiety. Some people feel like over sleeping in particular seasons, also you will see particular seasons make us over eat or under eat. A diagnosis of seasonal depression may be made after two or more consecutive occurrences of depression that occur and end at the same time every year, with the symptoms subsiding the rest of the year.

Good amount of sleep is important: If you find yourself feeling a little less cheerful than you were during spring’s transformation into summer, be rest assured that it is not your imagination. “It’s real,” says Kathryn A. Roecklein, an associate professor in the department of psychology at University of Pittsburgh. The changes do not affect everyone in the same fashion. Seasonal mood shifts often include less energy, feeling less social, losing interest in favorite activities, having cravings for carbs and changes in sleep it could be either having trouble sleeping or wanting to sleep more than usual, https://holisticdental.org/ambien-treat-insomnia/.

One more change the seasons bring in our body is the changing dim or bright light cycles affect our body temperature, how long it takes us to fall asleep, and how much our body produces of melatonin, the hormone that triggers sleep matter a lot. Some seasons wake you up early and some make you sleep longer.

How to cope with seasonal changes? It is nice to let the sunshine in your house/office. Get moving, do some light exercise because they enhance your mood. Eat right – It’s raining, and it’s cold. And if you haven’t eater right amount of food, it might cause further damage. Instead, it better focusing on fruits, vegetables, omega-3-rich foods, proteins and complex carbohydrates, and drinking plenty of water all of this keeps your energy and mood consistently up.

Make time for friends: friends play a major role in life. Make time for your friends. Have a good char with your friends, go for long drives, watch a nice movie, and go to a restaurant just to have a steaming nice coffee or tea, listen to some good songs and cheer up! Most of the researches have shown that spending time with friends helps relieve stress and increases the sense of belong and improve well-being.

Psychologists say if a person laughs too much, even at stupid things, he is lonely deep inside. Loneliness is a composite and usually unpleasant emotional response of many people. While, some people like to be alone; they enjoy isolation. I think, even when you are surrounded by many people, you can be lonely. Loneliness comes because of lack of connectedness,company, when you feel you don’t belong to the crowd. Don’t we all feel this sometime? I have seen people sitting quietly in corner in marriages, parties, get-to-gathers or a concert etc. I think when you really don’t feel like mingling with others, you are feeling lonely. One can feel lonely even marriage, relationship, career, friendship – a vacuum is felt. The causes of loneliness are varied which include social, intellectual or emotional factors. It’s better to come out of the loneliness phase as early as possible. It’s better to realize that loneliness is a feeling and not a fact.

Psychologists say if a person sleeps a lot, he is sad. Not necessarily. Some people when they are sad sleep a lot, while others struggle to sleep. But, why depressed people lie in bed most of the time? It’s not because they want to snuggle under the blankets, but it’s because depressed people can’t bring themselves out of the bed. For them almost any action, bustle or task becomes a painful ordeal. Even a simple task such as taking a shower, brushing teeth, or even getting up to go to washroom or getting dressed becomes difficult for depressed people. Lack of motivation, lack of any direction and lack of enthusiasm keeps them in bed.

Psychologists say if a person speaks less but speaks fast, he keeps secrets and lies. Lying is a pervasive trend which we all do to some degree. Sometimes we see that someone associated with us is a blatant liar. Many times we can spot the fibs but we decide to keep mum over them. Liars are quite often worried about being caught – therefore they speak up fast. They speak fast because they don’t want to give the correct information. They quickly jump to answers, give irrelevant details which are inconsistent. A research has proved that people lie because they want to conceal truth. When people intentionally want to hide something, they speak less and if they speak, they speak very fast. And another A research at Harvard proves that powerful people are superior liars.  If someone is constantly in powerful position, his/her lying improves. When people are given power, they are in more comfortable position while lying. And it becomes hard to detect their lies because of their positions.

Psychologists say if someone can’t cry, he is weak. More women are voicing their belief that men and boys should be encouraged to express sensitive emotions. When a man sheds tears, it means that he lives by a code of values and cares enough to show emotion when things went wrong. Medieval warriors and Japanese samurai cried during times of epic tragedy. In Western culture, a man’s capacity to cry indicates his honesty and integrity. Abraham Lincoln used strategic tears during his speeches, and modern presidents have followed the suit. Healthier men and women do not resist crying; people cry out their suppressed emotions, as crying allows them to vent out. It is very true that weaker people don’t cry.  Strong emotions cause our brains to release chemicals that indirectly lead to teary eyes. A flow of tears not only shoots up the level of endorphins – natural chemicals within the body, but it proves a sense of well-being and relieving stress. A flow of tears also release toxins from our body making us healthier. So, dear friends, crying is a healthier sign.

Psychologists say that if someone eats in an abnormal manner, he is tense. Nervous or tense people eat even when they are not hungry; they use food as a way to deal with feelings instead to satisfy hunger. It happens to all of us sometime or the other. Sometimes we finish the entire packet of chips, or occasionally we eat 4 bananas out of anxiety or boredom. I have seen children eating a lot prior to their exams. But when we eat a lot, especially without realizing it, eating can affect or weight, health, and overall well-being. It’s better to make the connection between eating and our feelings. It’s better to understand what drives us to eat so much. Emotional eating is prompted by negative feelings. Yes, people often turn to food when they’re stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored.

Psychologists say that if someone cries on little things, he is innocent & soft-hearted. Biologically, there may be a reason why women cry more than men: Testosterone may inhibit crying, while the hormone Prolactin which is seen in higher levels in women may promote it.  You will watch some people crying in theater while watching some emotional scenes or television serials. Innocent people believe Innocence implies lesser experience, lesser exposure in either a relative view to social peers, or by an absolute comparison to a more common normative scale. In comes out of ignorance, lack of knowledge, lack of experience and lack of wrongdoing, whereas greater knowledge comes from doing wrong.

Psychologists say that if someone becomes angry over silly or petty (small) things, it means he needs love. Anger can occur when people don’t feel well, feel rejected, feel threatened, or experience some loss. The type of pain does not matter; the important thing is that the pain experienced is unpleasant. Because anger never occurs in isolation but rather is necessarily preceded by pain feelings, it is often characterized as a ‘secondhand’ emotion. Remember, when a person gets angry over small things it is a sign that he/she needs lots of love. A person craves for attention/love – and when he does not get it he loses his temper over small things. Real love makes us feel vulnerable.

I love this beautiful quote by Anonymous: I am strong because I am weak. I am beautiful because I know my flaws. I am a lover because I am a fighter. I am fearless because I have been afraid. I am wise because I have been foolish. & I can laugh because I’ve known sadness.

Life is nothing but a paradox.