Dreams And The Unconscious

What is the real connection between dreams and the unconscious? Is the unconscious responsible for the dreams we have? Can we interpret our dreams by relating them directly to our unconscious? We will try to find some answers.

How the unconscious affects our dreams

Think of the unconscious as a large repository where packages containing your convictions, memories, and life experiences are kept. The content of said deposit then affects your behavior and your actions in different circumstances.

For example, if while awake you are worried about a problem that afflicts you, it is likely that your unconscious reminds you of it in your dreams. What’s more, there is the possibility that it may even help you solve it.

Doing a deeper analysis, there would be two specific reasons from the psychological point of view for our dream travels. On the one hand, there is considerable consensus that sleep helps to establish long-term memory and, in addition, it tries to continue rest, without waking up.

Others understand that there are enough indications to consider that dreams, historically, have had a training task to face the situations feared by the human being.

It is that when we sleep, our unconscious does not need to fight with our conscious. Our emotional side is not challenged by logic or rationality, and our desires and fears are released into a symbolic and metaphorical world.

And do dreams affect our unconscious?

Just as the unconscious has an impact on our dreams, dreams also act on our unconscious. How? Another of the theories that tries to explain dreams, understands that the purpose of dreams is to organize the information that we have received during the day, in our unconscious. So somehow our dreams could be in charge of ordering the packages in our warehouse.

Another interpretive way of how dreams affect the unconscious is when dreams disturb our emotions. If, for example, we dream about something that affects us emotionally, this can affect your behavior once awake, which means that indirectly your dreams had an effect on your unconscious.

Dreams and the unconscious: interpreting symbols to overcome fears

Interpreting dreams is very complex, and you can never fully interpret a dream. The important thing is to pay attention to the meaning that those symbols and metaphors may have.

Think of dreams as a story where almost nothing is literal, everything you are telling is symbolizing something. That? It will only be up to you to find out. Once you think about it, dreams are easier to understand.

Based on the aforementioned psychological functions of sleep, which enhance emotional memory, and which also imply a way of training our mind to face situations that perhaps frighten us, or avoid us, then the interpretation of dreams can help us overcome the anxiety that such situations provoke.

To achieve this, in the dream itself, or in the conscious interpretation, we would have to face those fears that are being expressed by our unconscious in a symbolic way. It is a very simple method of interpretation, anyone can do it, it does not take long to practice it, and it is based precisely on facing feared situations, which is the clinical method for overcoming fears and phobias.

So, to dream, to interpret, and to be paradoxically a little more aware of the relationship between dreams and the unconscious.