Are you ever tired? Do you often find yourself dead from school work? Is pushing long hours in class or co-op having serious repercussions on your mental health? Well, it’s time to go to sleep and get away from the world, even if it’s just for a little bit.
Sleep is most definitely an important thing for the body. You don’t function right if you’re not getting enough sleep. It wears away at your physical and mental efficiency, and after a brief period of sheer adrenaline, you find yourself even more exhausted than ever before.
Life is naturally exhausting, but we all can find a way to endure it. If you don’t have the time or the money to take a vacation or get away from all the stress, I advise a healthy dose of dreaming, where you can take a vacation every night, free of charge.
Dreaming is the ultimate way to detox and escape stress. But it does require a little preparation.
Learn how to set the mood before you start catching z’s. Rushing into sleep works sometimes but not all the time. Take some time to actually relax and learn how to settle down. Turn off the lights or dim them down. Play a song that puts you right in your comfort zone. Don’t let your mind run through all your thoughts. For once, don’t think about anything at all and let your subconscious take the wheel.
Dreaming to me is simply sleeping with a purpose. A dual purpose, actually, because while I’m still trying to get quality resting time, it is, at the same time, a nice escape. The way I see it, dreaming is just a brief moment when you indirectly have the ability to bend reality. It’s not like things are in your total control, at least not all the time, but you just sort of enjoy it for the ride.
The destination is always unclear; we don’t know where our dreams are going to end up.
Recreational dreaming is fun because you never know what might happen and it’s exciting to roam the weirdly crafted world that is your dreamscape.
Dreams can be really insightful because they’re not really dictated by your conscious self. It’s like your subconscious (or better yet your “inner you”) roaming in a different plane of existence. You know who you are, and you know what you want, but I believe your inner you represents your deepest darkest thoughts, emotions and feelings. Sometimes he or she may tell you things you didn’t really know or at least make yourself more aware of something you had not realized.
Don’t get me wrong — some dreams are weird and make no sense at all. It’s not like your subconscious has the last ultimate say for your emotions, thoughts and feelings, because for every weird dream you have it could make things really inconsistent.
I’m pretty sure everyone has had that weird dream where you woke up at the supermarket and wondered why your favorite artist or band was performing there, and your best friend showed up to have fun, but you guys had to leave because the dolphins were splashing water everywhere, so you took a flight back to the mountains. If it didn’t make sense, it makes perfect sense. There are just some dreams that you’ll have that you’ll never understand.
Some dreams, you’ll never understand what they meant, but as a dream reflectionist, you start to decipher what dreams mean something to you. The more you know thy self, the more you start to realize that the subtle things that passed by that you forgot, or that one thing you never forgot, might have been a sign from your inner-you. They might be trying to portray something you’re not aware of or are running away from, something you’re scared of, someone you’re madly in love with — literally anything.
Your inner you won’t hold back on what you don’t know or don’t want to know. Sometimes people have nightmares that scare them and sometimes people have dreams that reveal something about them. Sometimes people have great dreams of something they could never do in reality. All your dreams are left up to your own interpretation. When you realize it’s something possible that you can do, if it’s something you should do, do it!
The point is, analyzing some of your dreams might give yourself insight that you might not have figured out while wide awake. But besides your prophetic dreams of the future, your nightmares and your unexplainable dreams, the ones that might matter most are the ones you know can’t exist.
At the end of the day, dreams are what they are, dreams. There are some dreams that you have and believe in, and the day that you make them reality is beautiful, but the dreams that could never materialize are probably the most special. What I mean by that are dreams that can’t exist, not by any means from you or anyone else.
Having a dream where you can fly is amazing. Have a dream where you can fight zombies is terrifying but amazing. Having a dream where you’re in a TV show or movie is amazing. Having a dream where you have the chance to talk to your grandfather, grandmother, father or mother again, is invaluable. It’s moments like these, that don’t happen very often, that are the most special. It makes you so appreciative that you had the chance to have that dream.
Who could have thought that something so simple as a dream, that could happen during an 8-hour sleeping session or a two-hour nap, could be something so life changing, so potent.
So ladies and gentlemen, I’m not saying rush to your beds and hope for the best. You can’t really force your dreams to come (trust me I’ve tried); they happen on their own. Get the rest that you need; take it easy every once and awhile. The byproduct of a great sleep session is a dream.
Life is going to be stressful, and it’s only going to get more stressful with age. There are going to be good moments to make up for the stressful times along the way. Make sure you’re getting the rest that your body needs to keep up with your busy life. And maybe, if you’re lucky, you’ll have the next dream that might change your own life.