Dream On

I am standing on a dock looking out to sea when I see something that fills me with cold dread. A giant wave is swelling on the horizon. I watch in horror as a tidal wave surges toward me, rising to a height that would dwarf a skyscraper. With nowhere to run, I take a deep breath and dive into it before it crests, hoping to come out on the other side.

For years, I've had recurring nightmares about tidal waves. I used to think my dreams were unique, but, as it happens, a lot of people dream about tidal waves. When it comes to nightmares, human beings seem to share many of the same fears.

In ancient times, dreams were often considered prophetic. Today, most people see dreaming as the brain's way of processing the events of the day or as a link between the conscious and the subconscious mind that, if analyzed, can provide insight into what's going on in a person's emotional life.

What dreams mean and indeed whether they mean anything at all, however, has been the subject of debate for about as long as people have been sleeping. "We're not really sure why people dream," says Dr. Stasia J. Wieber of Fairfield County Sleep Center in Fairfield. "There may be a psychological release, trying to put things together that happened during the daytime, but we're not really sure."

THE MIND NEVER SLEEPS

Even if you don't remember your dreams, scientists can say one thing with certainty: Everyone has them. "Usually we have four or five a night," Wieber says. "Most of our dreams are during REM sleep."

Sleep includes five different stages, ranging from a light sleep from which people awaken easily, to deeper and deeper levels as delta brain waves slow down. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) is the fifth stage. Though dreams can occur at every stage of sleep, the most vivid dreams happen during REM.

"Twenty to 30 percent of your sleep should be REM sleep and you cycle in and out every 90 to 120 minutes. As the night progresses, the REM periods get longer," Wieber says. "If you look at the brain waves (during REM) it's very similar to wakefulness. It's a very active part of sleep. Your breathing becomes very erratic, the heart rate becomes erratic. It's not restful at all."

It is, however, the safest time to dream because though the organs are very active, the muscles relax so completely that the sleeper is rendered incapable of movement. That's the body's safety mechanism to prevent people from physically acting out their dreams.

Typically people who are active while dreaming -- sleepwalkers, for instance -- suffer from sleep disorders. Night terrors, which are most often experienced during childhood, are considered a partial arousal disorder. These occur during slow wave or deep sleep and may cause a child to sit up screaming with open eyes, trancelike and inconsolable.

In one particularly memorable case, Wieber recalls a man with an REM behavioral sleep disorder whose wife used to tie him to the bed to prevent him from kicking and punching her as he slept. Apparently, he had very vivid dreams about fishing and was enthusiastically flycasting.

Wieber says her patients frequently ask her the meaning of their dreams, but when it comes to analysis, she has no answers. Indeed, some researchers believe that though REM sleep is important for overall well-being, dreams are nothing more than electrical impulses in the brain that tap into random images in our memory.

Ernest Hartmann, a professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and the director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Boston disagrees with this approach. "Would we be satisfied with the view that thinking has no function and is simply an epiphenomenon," he writes, "the kind of mental activity that occurs when the brain is in the waking state?"

SOMETIMES A CIGAR IS JUST A CIGAR

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was the first to see a connection between dreams and real life desires and fears. Freud considered dreams to be "the royal road to a knowledge of the activities of the unconscious." To Freud, dreams were an expression of repressed desires, which in the strait-laced Victorian era led him to formulate dream interpretations based on sexual symbolism.

Freud's student Carl Jung took a broader view. He theorized that dreams were the mind's way of processing events and that they could be used to solve problems or resolve issues, which is the more widely accepted approach today.

In the intervening years, literally hundreds of books have been written on the subject, including a number of dream dictionaries that are available in print and online to help people decipher the hidden meanings of dreams. The most common nightmares, for instance, involve a loss of control in some way. People dream they're being chased, are trapped (often in a fire), or are losing control of a vehicle.

A lot of people have nightmares about losing all their teeth. This is generally associated with fears about one's appearance or aging. Flying and falling dreams are also common -- in case you're curious, experts say you don't die in real life if you hit the ground in the dream.

Dream dictionaries will give you an interpretation for everything from A to Z. Most people who study dreams, however, consider them relatively useless because though certain symbols and archetypes may be commonplace, their meaning varies according to the individual's personal experience. I, for instance, find tidal waves to be quite terrifying but if I was a surfer, I'd probably be stoked to dream of maverick waves.

WHAT DREAMS MEAN TO YOU

Dream analysis was once considered an essential part of psychoanalysis. In recent decades, surveys of psychotherapists suggest that it has fallen out of vogue. Indeed, these days you're hard pressed to find a therapist who considers dream analysis to be a significant part of her practice. Stamford-based psychologist Alejandra Hochstedler-Stipo is one of the few who does.

She believes that dreams help people make connections between what they experience and how they feel about it. The interpretation, however, has to come from the dreamer.

"My personal philosophy is you have a lot of experiences, subconscious and conscious, through the day or through your life. You have a lot of stimulation and it triggers a lot of memories from the subconscious mind and (it's filtered through) a system of beliefs built by your experience," Hochstedler-Stipo says. "Maybe the two of us dream we're falling, but for me the interpretation is totally different than yours because perception is subjective, dreams are subjective. You are the core of your dream."

For instance, the generally accepted meaning of tidal waves, according to Patricia Garfield's book, Your Child's Dreams, is that the dreamer is feeling overwhelmed, as if everything is too much, and that he or she may need to give up. When I tell Hochstedler-Stipo about my recurring nightmare, however, she listens carefully to the words I use to describe the dream and asks questions. As we talk, I realize that though the dream is frightening, I always manage to survive, even if I have to imagine a giant hole in the middle of the wave to do it. So while I certainly feel overwhelmed, I never give up. Viewed in that light, my tidal wave seems almost reassuring.

"I think dreams really help to encourage ourselves to find out we have a lot more inner resources than we think. That is why the interpretation and analysis has to be from the reference point of the patient. I really believe if you make the right interpretations, it's a great source of healing," Hochstedler-Stipo says. "If we were to listen to ourselves, we would know a lot more about ourselves." HL

Dream Weaver

How to remember and control your dreams

You may not remember your dreams, but you can train yourself to do so. Most people forget half of their dreams five minutes after waking up and have forgotten nearly everything 10 minutes later. Keep a pen and notebook by your bed and write down everything you remember the second you wake up.

If you're really keen to remember, set your alarm to wake you up every hour and a half, which is about the time you'll be hitting the REM cycle. You can also try drinking a lot of water before bedtime and let nature's call wake you up mid-dream.

Many people believe, and studies have found, that you can use your dreams to solve problems. Write down a specific question that you'd like answered on a piece of paper and read it aloud before going to bed. Some people also suggest putting the paper under your pillow. Tell yourself that you will remember the dream and be prepared to write it down when you wake. (Inventor Elias Howe dreamt that a needle with a hole would solve a problem with his sewing machine and golfer Jack Nicklaus credits a dream for helping him develop a new grip that changed his game.)

If you're troubled by nightmares, you can change them by thinking about how to handle the situation before you go to sleep. Lucid dreaming -- being you're aware of the fact that you are dreaming -- also helps. If you awake with a start because you're being chased by a monster, think about what you would need to defeat it and arm yourself before going back to sleep. You might also consider asking the beast what it wants or simply telling it to go away.

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