Short answer: Yes.  

Long answer: Dreams are a fascinating part of life as they bring about many opinions from different kinds of people. Spiritual people and psychologists all believe different things, but each of their interpretations overlap with one another. They both acknowledge that dreams try to tell us something about ourselves. I could sit here and write about classic interpretations like ‘falling means a loss of control’ and so on, but there are things about dreams that are more interesting when you really dig deeper into it. Today, I will mainly focus on the differences between spirituality and psychology, where I will also offer my own opinion about dreams and whether they have any meaning whatsoever.  

Psychological interpretations stem from ideas advanced by Sigmund Freud, who interpreted dreams as reflections of our inner desires. This type of interpretation relates to the subconscious mind and how the things we dream about are windows into the parts of our mind we don’t see. Freud believed that there was a part of the mind that we can’t see that holds a place for the things we desire but may not realise we desire. These things manifested in dreams as a way of ‘bringing forward’ the desires we’ve never thought about. It was a way to realise what we wanted subconsciously.  

Another psychological interpretation is offered by Carl Jung, who was along similar lines of thinking to Freud, but he focused more on dream patterns and archetypes. Jung believed that dreams were a way of bringing to light things from your waking life you haven’t paid attention to yet. Less from a ‘desire’ point of view and more from a practical view. Imagine you are in a happy, healthy relationship where everything is wonderful, yet you can’t shake the feeling that something is missing. That night you dream about very normal things like looking for a house, going to a furniture shop and ending it all with a walk in the park. You wake the next morning, realising the dream had exposed some more mundane things missing from your relationship, as well as the absence of planning for a future together. These are the interpretations Carl Jung was talking about. (Do Dreams Have Meaning? What the Experts Believe) 

Spirituality has a wide range of dream interpretations. With this line of belief, there are different types of dreams: Lucid, Recurring, Prophetic, Nightmarish and Epic. Each bringing their own meanings.  

Lucid Dreaming is where the dreamer realises they are dreaming and can control the space around them with a heightened sense of awareness. I’ve heard people say to me that they experience sleep paralysis after their Lucid Dream has ended, as the two things overlap when it comes to consciousness and REM sleep. I have experienced this myself a couple of times, the most recent of which was a few weeks ago. I had dreamt I was in the hallway of my grandmother’s home, and my father was there. We exchanged some words before I said, ‘It’s fine because this is a dream’. My father turned to me and looked a little angry that I’d admitted I was dreaming; which is something people say you shouldn’t do when you’re dreaming. Following this, I woke up but couldn’t move. I kept seeing images of myself getting out of bed, but I physically couldn’t. It’s a scary thing to experience but completely harmless. Well, physically harmless. Lucid Dreaming is fun and lets you stay in control, but just be wary of what you say to the people there… No one has really given a clear answer as to what happens when you admit to the people in your dream that you know you’re dreaming, but if my experience is anything to go by, I would avoid saying anything.  

Recurring Dreams are when a dream or theme repeats for multiple nights. Some people only ever dream of the same event while, others have a recurring dream that one day suddenly stops. It is believed that recurring dreams are the result of unresolved issues in your waking life that you still haven’t resolved. With the knowledge I have gathered on this, I am inclined to believe that recurring themes follow a similar pattern. If you have different dreams each night, each of them involving you being chased, for example, surely that means you’re continuously avoiding something in your waking life, and your dreams are trying to get you to face it. What Does It Mean to Dream About Being Chased?. Dreaming of something repeatedly that remains the same scene-for-scene has the same effect. It follows a similar line of thinking to the recurring themes, where you must think about what in your life the dream is trying to get you to reflect on.  

Prophetic Dreams are even wilder. These are dreams that give you a glimpse into the future. Stay with me on this one. It’s like a crystal ball in your head; you dream about something, and then a few days later, that thing you dreamt about has suddenly come true. People blame this on Deja Vu and say that you never dreamt about it, but I personally refuse to believe that it’s just ‘Deja Vu’. 

Nightmares are just terrifying dreams that people commonly have. Some people own dreamcatchers to catch the nightmares before they have a chance to plague their minds. But nightmares hold their own meanings and can serve as warnings for things happening in your life that need addressing sooner rather than later.  

Epic Dreams are very vivid, adventurous experiences and are said to offer spiritual insight and intense symbolism. They are very emotionally charged and are something people should pay close attention to. (Unlocking the Spiritual Meaning of Dreams: A Guide to Understanding the Depths of Your Subconscious | Spirituality Shepherd). 

Personally, I lean more towards the spiritual meaning of dreams in the sense that I believe they do have meaning, and we need to pay more attention to them. Our feelings and life events manifest in our sleep, warning us about things we need to address. We can learn a lot about ourselves and what we need from life. Keeping a dream journal is the best way to identify patterns, recurring characters and themes. This is how I realised that 60-70% of my dreams share a similar theme.  

To conclude, dreams do have meaning but it’s your decision on how you interpret them when you look back on what you remember. Thinking about the fact that they are a product of real events and emotions, they must have some meaning or valid interpretation. 

Alternatively, you could be boring and believe that dreams have no meaning whatsoever, and they are just pictures your brain comes up with at night. But why be boring? Take a moment to think about a recent dream you had and what that could mean! Think about the emotions you felt both in the dream and after. Were you scared? Angry? Happy? Think about who was there and what they were doing! Were they a family member? Someone you hadn’t seen in a while? Were they nice to you? And think about where you were. Somewhere familiar? Somewhere you want to go? Somewhere you’ve never been? Put all this together, and you have a meaning right there. Do you miss someone so you’re dreaming about them now?  

The more you think about the dreams you have, the more you learn about yourself and what you want from your life.  

Written by Jess Dunipace 

Edited by Maxim Majerski 

Sub-Edited by Kadie Cooper