Bad Dreams Are Good

Bad Dreams Are Good

Ben Healy

For all the commonalities dreams exhibit, they vary across time—people who grew up watching black-and-white TV are more likely to dream in black and white [10]—and culture. A 1958 study determined that compared with Japanese people, Americans dreamed more about being locked up, losing a loved one, finding money, being inappropriately dressed or nude, or encountering an insane person. Japanese people were more likely to dream about school, trying repeatedly to do something, being paralyzed with fear, or “wild, violent beasts.” [11] (For their part, beasts almost certainly have nightmares too: Just about all mammals are thought to dream, as are birds, some lizards, and—unique among invertebrates—cuttlefish. [12] The dreamiest member of the animal kingdom is the platypus, which logs up to eight hours of REM sleep a day. [13])

If human dreams sound bleak, bear in mind that even negative ones can have positive effects. In a study of students taking a French medical-school entrance exam, 60 percent of the dreams they had beforehand involved a problem with the exam, such as being late or leaving an answer blank. But those who reported dreams about the exam, even bad ones, did better on it than those who didn’t. [14]

So the next time you dream about an education-related sexual experience in which you are both falling and being chased, don’t worry: It’s probably totally meaningless. Then again, your brain might be practicing so you’ll be ready if such an event ever comes to pass.

So the next time you dream about an education-related sexual experience in which you are both falling and being chased, don’t worry: It’s probably totally meaningless.

Carl Jung would have strongly disagreed. Dreams are almost never meaningless, but show symbolic representations of what lies within the depths of our subconscious, and even occasionally, our unconscious.

Falling and being chased could easily symbolize that you're running away from emotions that you're deeply afraid of confronting, and which must be confronted, known, and understood, so you can become free from their otherwise invisible chains. Without understanding one's pain, one remains a puppet to these emotions.

I can't remember the source right now but supposedly nightmares can train people to become natural lucid dreamers. Kids especially who suffer frequent nightmares were shown to have eventually learned and retained the ability to spend every night in a lucid state.

I can't remember the source right now but supposedly nightmares can train people to become natural lucid dreamers. Kids especially who suffer frequent nightmares were shown to have eventually learned and retained the ability to spend every night in a lucid state.

That's literally what happened to me

Carl Jung would have strongly disagreed. Dreams are almost never meaningless, but show symbolic representations of what lies within the depths of our subconscious, and even occasionally, our unconscious.

Falling and being chased could easily symbolize that you're running away from emotions that you're deeply afraid of confronting, and which must be confronted, known, and understood, so you can become free from their otherwise invisible chains. Without understanding one's pain, one remains a puppet to these emotions.

While I agree with you (and Jung) about symbolism, I do think that dreams also serve a purpose of confronting scary situations in dreamland rather than in real life - or at least as some kind of preparation. I've spent a lot of time, however, trying to identify the symbolism of my dreams and dreams of friends and usually the symbolism turns out to be personal rather than archetypal. That's just my experience though.

As for lucid dreaming, I wish, I wish. Just lately I've been experiencing hypnagogia quite a lot so I'm hoping this is a prelude to being able to direct my dreaming self - perhaps even into an OBE.