Have you been dreaming about job cuts or a pay loss? Are your nightmares making you anxious? There’s an explanation for what’s playing out in your dreams. Dream interpretation can help you understand why you are dreaming about certain themes. Psychiatrist Parul Tank explains the connection with dreams and our conscious mind.

Dream interpretation is not a structured science

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, described dream interpretation as ‘The Royal Road to the Unconscious’. He studied dreams and based his therapy on it. However, dreams interpretation is not a structured science. Parul shares, “What you could not do in the conscious mind is resolved in your dreams. Your unconscious mind is reflecting your thoughts and emotions, which you are not able to express or verbalise or process in the day.”

Understanding why you are having dreams about certain themes

Since the pandemic, people are trying to cope with stress and anxiety. And some of this is also playing out in their dreams.  Dreams occur in the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, and sometimes can be a patchy memory that makes no sense. Your dreams may not always be connected but at times that may have a common theme. Here’s looking at why you are having certain kinds of dreams or nightmares.

• Dreaming about sexual desires

If your dreams are sexual in nature, it could indicate that your desires were not met. It could also be a fleeing thought that crossed your mind during the day, and is now playing out in your subconscious.

• Anxiety dreams

People dreaming about common themes of grief and loss is a sign that something was not resolved during the day. This is now being resolved in your dreams.

• Waking up with nightmares

If you have a history of trauma or Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the pandemic has only aggravated that condition in many people. As a result, when that trauma is not resolved it leads to nightmares in the night.

• Dreaming about the future

Not all dreams are unpleasant. Some people have been dreaming about holiday destinations or a visit to a beach. These dreams express a longing and a desire to explore the outside, and to have social interactions. Something that most people are missing out in these stressed times.

Parul underlines that dreams are a patchy part of your subconscious and dream interpretations should be used judiciously and cautiously.