7 Facts About Dreamers and Dreaming

There have been countless experiments conducted on the subject of dreams, as researchers would like to learn more about the events that take place with sleepers. In this article, you will encounter findings centered on the topic of dreaming, including information on hallucinations and sleep deprivation.

1) Sigmund Freud plays an important role in the research and understanding of dreams. As the father of psychoanalysis, Freud published a book called ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ in 1899. The first reactions regarding his book came with suspicion, but over time, an increasing number of people were able to grasp the concepts that dealt with dream interpretation and the unconscious mind. His work would go onto help with the long-term treatment of mental disorders around the world.

2) External influences play a role in the type of dreams you may have. For example, it is not uncommon to dream of a burning house and awaken to hear fire trucks in the background.

3) Carl Jung worked with and studied under Sigmund Freud. While Freud approached the study of dreams from a purely scientific standpoint, Jung believed that a mystical connection was also a significant piece of the puzzle.

4) Precognitive dreams deal with events to take place in the future. Many times, this strong dream has prompted those to change the course of their waking life. For example, some people claimed that they did not travel on the Titanic because they dreamed that it was sinking. Others believe that they knew John F Kennedy was going to be assassinated because of what they had seen in their dreams. Another famous dream-like vision affected Julius Caesar as he was warned to beware of the Ides of March.

5) Dreaming of death and the details related to a death is not an uncommon experience. Samuel Clemens (better known as Mark Twain) had a dream where he saw his brother’s body being laid out in the living room. He accurately predicted the death. Just days before he was killed, Abe Lincoln (the 16th President of the United States) had a dream where a death took place at the White House. The dream was told to others shortly before his own assassination.

6) Some dreams open up the doors to creativity, such as the case of scientist Friedrich von Kekule. In one of his dreams, he saw a snake devouring its own tail. This was an ancient alchemical symbol that is said to have allowed him to complete his life’s work. Kekule was trying to figure out how to break down the molecular structure of benzene. His dream made him realize that the carbon and hydrogen atoms in benzene were arranged in a closed ring , much like the snake chasing its own tail.

7) The idea for Frankenstein came to authoress Mary Shelley in a dream. Another writer who dreamed of a grand book idea was Robert Louis Stevenson, who penned Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.