We have a number of dreams every single night. Research has actually found that we dream every 90 minutes throughout the night, with each cycle of dreaming being longer than the previous. Though we don’t always remember all of our dreams, the ones we do recall resonate with us for a reason. It may have scared us, made us laugh, been crazy, or fulfilled our wildest imaginations. Whatever it may be, experts say that dreams almost always mirror something in our realities and have logical ties back to our real worlds.
So, let’s look at some of your most common dreams explained:
Falling Dreams
You jerk awake, dripping sweat, breathing heavily, shocked and scared because you have just experienced the “falling dream.” The common themes surrounding this dream are insecurities, instabilities, and anxieties. In some situation, in your waking life, whether it is work or a relationship, you’re feeling overwhelmed and/or a loss of control. When you fall, there’s nothing to hold on to, reflecting the downward motion of a situation that you may believe is out of your control. Falling dreams also reflect a sense of failure or inferiority in your waking life.
These dreams typically occur in the first stage of sleep, which are accompanied with twitching arms, legs, or the whole body, which explains why you physically jump or jerk awake from this dream. But don’t worry, because contrary to popular myth, you will not die if you don’t wake up before you hit the ground in these dreams.
Flying Dreams
You feel infinite and liberated as you soar across the sky. Flying dreams are actually considered lucid dreams because they’re under your control. If you’re flying with ease and enjoyment above a picturesque landscape, this means that you’re on top of things in your waking life, or that you’ve risen above something. It may also mean that you’ve gained a new perspective on things, and flying represents your newfound sense of power.
Experiencing difficulty in a flying dream indicates just the opposite. This means that you’re experiencing a lack of control in your waking life and struggling to stay on course. Flying through trees or power lines represents your real life obstacles. Difficulty flying may also mean a lack of confidence or hesitation in a particular situation.
If you’re flying and become afraid because you’re too high, that may suggest a fear of challenges and success that you’re not ready to pursue in your life.
In your mind, you can be anybody and do anything, including flying! So since we can’t really do that in real life, revel in that sense of freedom through your dreams!
Test Dreams
In these dreams, you’re often taking an exam and find that you cannot answer any of the questions or that you cannot understand them. In test dreams you may also run out of time too quickly, or arrive too late and miss it altogether. The test dream indicates that you’re being “put to the test” or scrutinized in your waking life, and are experiencing a difficult time rising up to the challenge. Often, this indicates an issue with your self-esteem and confidence in a particular matter. It also tells you that you’re unprepared, or may even indicate that you’re being judged and you feel that you can’t measure up.
Test dreams serve as signals for you to examine an aspect of you’re life that you may be neglecting. You may also be harboring guilt about not preparing for something in your waking life or not meeting others’ standards on something.
Chasing Dreams
Running away is an instinctive response in any threatening situation, and can cause a great deal of anxiety. In such dreams, an animal, attacker, monster, or an unknown figure may be in pursuit of you as you try to run and hide from it. Your actions parallel how well you cope with stress, fears, or various situations in your waking life.
The pursuer may also represent an aspect of yourself that you are running or hiding from or may have rejected. The distance between you and your pursuer indicates your closeness to the issues of your waking life, and how quickly the issue needs to be addressed.
These dreams are much more common among women than among men because of the overwhelming and reoccurring fear of being attacked, which is cultivated by urban environments and the media.
No matter what you’re running from, it’s important that you confront your fears and find out who or what it is that is troubling your waking life.
Naked Dreams
You find yourself walking down the street or shopping at the super market, when suddenly you realize that you are stark naked. Although this is a funny dream to think about having, it symbolizes a variety of serious things in real life.
If you become embarrassed upon realizing that you’re naked in a dream, that reflects your shamefulness and you’re failing attempts to hide something from people in real life. Clothes are figuratively a person’s means of concealment, hiding whom you really are, thus you are left lost when all is exposed.
In your dream when you realize that you’re naked, but nobody else seems to notice, that means that your fears are only obvious to you, and that you’re making a big deal out of something that shouldn’t be.
On the contrary, if you are proud of your nakedness, then it symbolizes your freedom and that you relish who you are. This sort of naked dream is about a new sense of honesty, openness, and confidence. Depending on the situation, this sort of dream may also suggest that you’re merely striving for attention, but are going about it the wrong way.
It’s estimated that most people have more than 100,000 dreams in a lifetime, so you’re bound to experience one, two, or all of these common dreams at some point in your life. Now you are equipped with the knowledge behind these dreams, and how to conquer their metaphorical meanings in your waking life. In the words of Steven Tyler, “dream on!”