Are you a dreamer, no I’m not talking about daydreaming I mean when you go to bed at night or take a nap……close your eyes (which I guess could meditating or praying as well) do you dream? Yes, no?
Dreams are described as the subconscious imaginings that contain sounds, images, and other sensations while you sleep. The fact that these run on your invisible senses mean something that most don’t notice and that is a connection between your physical self and the soul or spirit. Let me explain a little more. Dreams can occur at any time, but your most vivid dreams occur as part of the REM stages of sleep and can be about anything. They can be beautiful, magical, exciting, terrifying or just plain odd. I remember one time my whole dream was about me sitting down and talking to someone I couldn’t see and I was asking questions about my future. It seems so real, like a memory of a conversation but why do we have them?
Science believes it has no particular function or if anything a review for the brain.  However, we know that there is a reason for everything that our bodies and mind do even though it cannot be explained yet. There are a few theories about why and then I will say my own.
Dreams Act As Therapy
Often your dreams force you to face an emotional circumstance that’s actually happening in your real life, and that allows you to deal with those emotions in a safe and protected environment. When you face an emotional issue in a dream, your brain makes connections and that has the potential to help you look at a situation in a different light or understand something new about yourself. 
 
Dreams Let You Perfect Dealing With Threats
Dreams that involve a chased or fight are a common way of practicing fight-or-flight responses.
 
Dreams Allow You to Practice a Skill
Whether you’re stressing about a review at work, a performance, or a conversation that you don’t want to have, your dreams give an opportunity to practice for major life events that require extra concentration.
 
have you noticed a theme here for these three. “practice” …mental practice
Dreams Let You Get Creative
People credit their dreams for doing all sorts of things that receive recognition. Certain moves, writing songs, new inventions or anything thing else that involves creativity. Dreams can help you think in imaginative ways. Writing down your dreams can be a good way to think of a brand new idea.
 
Dreams Declutter Your Brain
Dreaming allows your brain to reshuffle everything that it’s remembered, keep the important connections that it has made, and push the connections that are not needed in a section for a rainy day for when it is.
There is a psychologist by the name of Rosalind Cartwright, PhD. She is a professor and chairman,  at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She believes that dreams are the mechanism where the brain incorporates memories, solves problems and deals with emotions. Rosalind believes that dreams are essential for our emotional health.
I think all of these theories are true but just like in life everything isn’t in specific compartments. Sometimes dreams are a warning of things up and coming. I had dream once about riding a motorcycle that was trying to buck me off, it did it twice. The 1st time it scared me and the second time I was prepared and handled it like a champ. A few days later driving home on an icy day. I slid into a stone wall. I was not going fast but when your moving in a direction you aren’t planning on moving it throws you off. I still damaged my car but not enough that I could drive away. A minute later I slid again, but I was more in control and calmer about how to handle it then alI I did was fishtail and continue on. I’m sure I am not the only one to experience this. I have had dreams where a scene or discussion has happened and then later on in life it actually occurs.  I would call this dejavu even though some wouldn’t define it this way. So, I did practice a skill (theory) as well, but it wasn’t me talking to me because I don’t know the future.
I also think that dreams are your way of talking to yourself. Your true honest self without your reservations, limitations (placed on yourself) getting in the way from hearing what is truly on your mind. In this way, you are helping yourself become the best you possible. It is your own personal therapy, even when the dreams are not so great.
Since your mind (or a better word would be your spirit) doesn’t speak with you with words, it uses your senses in this case, your sense of feeling and images. The image that is shown is not particularly what is meant to be relayed, it is more symbolic. Sometimes the symbolism is very personal to you and other times they can be standard. This is why people like to talk about their dreams and/or write them down so that you can figure out what you are trying to tell yourself. There are a lot of dream dictionaries books as well as websites that try and help decode the standard/general symbols in dreams.
I have noticed that when I don’t give myself enough personal time to sort out how I am feeling, when I am confused or need to make a decision. I dream vividly and it sometimes feels real while other times, it’s right out of a fictional movie like “alice in wonderland” or “sharknado” (ha ha)
The next time you have a dream that you can remember, try and remember if it was in color or black and white. Colors have a way of showing how you feel in your dream or how your outlook or expectations are. Sometimes the colors can be a reassurance on things to come versus how you currently feel. At least, that has been my experience. The theory of decluttering the brain becomes something that you can see especially as a way of removing unnecessary stress or tension since stress and tension are reflected to the body from your mind.
I can’t figure out the age-old question of why some people dream an others don’t, but I think it is probably the same answer as why some people can move that washer on a string we talked about in episode 30 of season 1. The power of intentions, but that is just my guess…what’s yours?

Sleep org (2018)  What are Dreams  from https://sleep.org/articles/dreams/
National Sleep Foundation (2018) https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/your-dreams