What Do Dreams Really Mean?
I sensed my nightmare was recurring for a reason. What science led me to discover was beyond my wildest dreams.
During one of the most challenging times of my life — a prolonged, contentious divorce — I kept having the same vivid and unsettling nightmare.
Wandering through my house, I notice a strange, unfamiliar door. I push it open and am struck by a blinding white light and a violent gust of wind. I turn to run, but can’t because — (c’mon, you know) — I’m paralyzed.
Then, BAM. I’m jolted back into consciousness. Shaky and sweaty, I’d sit up and try to catch my breath. And I find myself pondering the same questions I’d considered after so many previous nighttime storyscapes: What was that? Why did it happen? And what the hell did it mean?
All dreams — especially intense ones, like mine — are worth paying attention to, says neurosurgeon and neuroscientist Rahul Jandial, MD, author of This is Why You Dream: What Your Sleeping Brain Reveals About Your Waking Life.
“Neuroscientists and psychologists increasingly believe there is much we can learn from our dreams,” Jandial writes. “Studies have shown that interpreting our dreams really can inform our waking lives, though not always in the ways we are expecting.”
