Dreams are, by the dictionary definition, a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. But that’s just from the dictionary, to me, dreams can be strange, psychological ideas, usually for a need or want scenario, but stating them back or comprehending them is a challenge in of itself.

One of the three types of dreams I’ll be going over today are vivid dreams. Vivid dreams can be described as hyper realistic and can be considered symbolic or important that you can remember afterwards. These dreams often occur during REM sleep. REM is the natural way for a dreamer to sleep and dream vividly, often causing rapid eye movement during the night and low mussel tones. REM can occur up to four times per night, and can happen after an hour to an hour and a half after falling asleep, which afterwards will cause REM sleep to occur. The last REM, just before you wake up, is the longest REM you have have in the night, which lasts for about an hour. For vivid dreams, an example would be any dream that you can remember after you wake up. For instance, if you are falling down a canyon and are about to hit the ground, then you wake up, if you remember what was happening, you just had a vivid dream. For me, I would sometimes have dreams about my teeth falling out, and I’m guessing that’s my brain telling itself that it needs to brush more thoroughly. I would also have dreams of going up or down a stairwell, probably a representation of things in my life getting better, or the lesser end of the spectrum, getting worse.

If your dreams seem more real and controllable, then you might be lucid dreaming. Lucid dreams are when the dreamer knows that they are dreaming. These dreams are best known to be controllable by the individual who is having the dream, something that you couldn’t do otherwise. It can be difficult and somewhat dangerous to have these dreams though, as sometimes those who have these dreams cannot tell whether they are awake or not, which is a problem for everyday life if you could imagine. It is difficult for me to give an example of this, as stated above. The best example I could give is “your God”, to put it bluntly. You can do whatever you want and it’s up to you to decide what you will do in the ten minutes you have before waking up. I don’t have any recognition of having any lucid dreams, but if I did then it must’ve been fun.

Surreal dreams consist of strange, and often unusual, imagery while in slumber. While most dreams are usually set in a strange setting that is either fantasy or real, surreal dreams make little to no sense on any logical or realistic standpoint. For instance, you could have a dream where an apple tells you about a horrible disease called “Virus-V” that turns everyone into wheels of cheese,  or  that the only way to understand the meaning of life is to give ten dollars to Jaden Smith. These dreams, while random and nonsensical, are something that could happen only in the mind of someone who is asleep, especially the ladder. However, while lucid dreaming and surreal dreaming often sound the same and seem to be the same thing, we must remember that lucid dreaming is when you can control the dream you are in, while surreal dreams, you are mostly along for the ride with little to no control over what is happening, a movie almost. For me, I remember having this one dream of three or four characters going down “stairs” in a “museum”, starting on land, then they transitioned into a cave, then into water, and then strange stuff happens involving a casino and the dark depths of the water. For me to explain that, I would need a whole other page, because it sure is something. Some may mistake this for a vivid dream, but what was I supposed to gain from that dream, I’ll probably never know.

While dreams can provide a form of imagery and thought while one is asleep, it can also reach out to you and tell you what you require and/or missing in life and should obtain or achieve. For instance, it is often said that if you have a dream where you are falling, then that is your brain telling you that something in your life, whether it’d be a relationship, job, or anything else in life, is failing and going down hill. Another example of this would be if you dream about going up, which can be interpreted as going up in life or achieving a goal.

In my opinion, dreams are one of the most necessary things a human being could ask for. Each night, you can forget about your daily life and soar above the stars, ride on a horse, or give Jaden Smith ten dollars. We may not always remember our dreams, but they can be the most beautiful and surreal thing your mind can do when you do recall the imagery you witnessed last night. Who knows, they may even give you something to write about.