As many of my close friends and family know, I am a vivid dreamer. When night falls, the moon makes its way into the sky, and my eyes eventually close to rest. My mind does not. I am plagued with dreams, whether it’s romantic landscapes of golden-washed skies and spiral-like tents or nightmares that consist of murder and morphing bodies. Dreams have always consumed me. 

We mainly dream during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which usually only happens around the second half of the night and lasts for about an hour or two. Dreams are a well-known mystery, and although there have been copious amounts of research put into the subject, there has never been an answer to the biggest question yet: Why do we dream at all? Now, although I will not attempt to come up with my own answer to this question, I think it is important to understand why we dream what we dream. 

When I was about thirteen years old, I was gifted a dream journal, and for the first few months after getting this ‘dream dictionary’, every time I woke up, with a dream still fresh in my mind, I would open this book and search for answers. However, soon I realised that those definitions did not define my dreams. Our dreams cannot be defined by a definition based on symbolism from the past, but can rather only be defined by the meaning and symbolism you place in things.

As I have grown up and become more in touch with who I am, I soon realised that every dream holds a different, more personal meaning. 

Dreams follow no logic, they have no rhythm, and, for most, are involuntary. Dreams are imagery which can be dreamed in black and white or even colour, they can include conversations, merely just blurs of faces or even mystical worlds that you could never have dreamed of, unless, of course, you were actually dreaming. 

Everything varies based on the person dreaming. However, I have come up with one common factor: dreams hold meaning. Dreams are a way for our subconscious to sort through ideas and thoughts that sit at the back of our minds. It took me a while to view my dreams as anything but a burden. My mind is a constant rattle of thoughts; rarely do I find myself in a state where my mind is not bustling with ideas, thoughts and worries. For a while I was annoyed that even in my sleep, I couldn’t find a reprieve from the noise.

However, as this past year has ticked by, my fondness for escaping in my own mind has become somewhat of an enjoyment. Humans hold so many complexities; our emotions are rarely not entangled, our brains are rarely free of worry and concern, especially in today’s day, when the world seems to be untangling the burdens that have been hidden away for far too long.

I think that this is the time to reconnect with our subconscious. When a dream flourishes in your mind, it is important not to brush it off, but rather gather the memory of it and try to decode it, and although many things cannot be explained, it is a way to get in touch with yourself. In order to take on a world that is plagued with hate, we must understand who we are, and what better way to start than to delve into our own minds.