|
 |
How Dreams Affect and Reflect Our Reality
By Erika Clarke, Staff Writer
Have you ever caught yourself saying ‘In My Dreams’? Most people
would consider that statement to be an expression. How could dreams
possibly reflect our reality when they seem so farfetched and
amazing? Dreams are how we live out our lives we truly desire.
When someone
becomes tired, as a natural human reaction they lay in bed. You
situate yourself into the most comfortable position, and prepare to
sleep. Soon, you slip into a deep, calm sleep. The thoughts that run
through your mind melt away as you harbor new ideas.
Have you ever
noticed how you don’t feel pain when you fall asleep? Sleep is a way
of resting our bodies, which explains why we don’t feel pain in our
dreams. Sometimes, we wake up with insect bites on our arms or legs.
There are also scratches or marks that we don’t remember having.
Sleep takes away any pain that we might have.
During the
day, millions of thoughts race through our minds. We lay down to
sleep, and the thoughts of the day disappear. The thoughts that hide
in the back of our minds release themselves to travel to the front
of our minds. We dream of outrageous ideas that would have never
entered our minds during the day, which seems to be our most logical
state. “I’ve had dreams about people in my life and afterwards I
have changed the way I look at them. Sometimes this makes things
awkward,” says Devon Maloney, senior.
Have you ever
fallen off a cliff or mountain and felt as if you were truly
falling. Your body falls, but then you are caught by your bed, which
you realize is lying beneath you. Although this may seem true, the
seemingly lengthy fall is only a slight twitch. When it appears that
we are yelling, all that can be heard is a small sign. This is
because when we sleep, our muscles relax. Mr. Pete Pagnucco, a
psychology teacher states, “Your body is completely paralyzed while
you sleep.”
Often in
dreams, we are climbing mountains that we never thought we could in
real life. We say and do what we wish. Our minds are trying to tell
us that we should strive to reach those points.
Are there
places that you’ve always felt comfortable? In our dreams, we may
start in one place and end up in another. This new area may be from
the past or preset. People, especially teenagers, feel stress in
life and revert to a place where they can be comfortable and
ultimately happy.
Have you ever
tried to dream about a certain event that happened in the day, or
that you wished happened. Later you find, after waking, that you did
not dream of what you wanted, but of something that entered your
mind as soon as you fall asleep. Our dreams reveal how we want to
be.
You may
be wondering why we have ‘scary dreams’. If there is a dream that
causes stress, it is not a dream, but a nightmare. Many people don’t
believe in nightmares. The Native Americans created dream
catchers to capture the bad thoughts in their dreams. However,
these thoughts aren’t considered dreams.
Sometimes, being teenagers, we push certain events out of our minds
that do not please us. Those events often reappear in our dreams in
ways that we don’t always imagine. Later on, the thoughts emerge in
real life. This is known as déjà vu. When you dream, the thoughts
and ideas that you push aside rush to the front of your mind and
flood your imagination. Things that our brains were trying to
comprehend emerge and are finally free of that thought. We consider
these dreams to be things that could never happen, but when they do,
we feel relieved.
Dreams can reveal the best and worst of who we really are. Instead
of running from these dreams and hiding how we really feel, we
should embrace who we really are. Our dreams give us the best advice
we could possibly receive. They guide us and point us into the
direction we should go. Wake up and live your dreams.
SUPERIMPOSED:
“Your body is completely paralyzed while you
sleep.” –Mr. Pagnucco, ESHS psychology teacher
“I’ve had dreams about people in my life that
have changed the way I look at them, which sometimes makes things
awkward.” –Devon Maloney, senior.
|
