Dream on

Every night when we go to sleep, something incredible happens. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you dream. You dream quite a bit actually and, according to psychoanalyst Michael Murphy, your dreams are fantastic containers of clarity and support for your waking life.

But where do these nightly visitors come from?

“The latest research shows that dreams update our survival strategies. In other words, you dream of something at night and it prepares you for the next day, for the next week, for the next month, in order that you can survive better and make a success of your life. So dreams are really extremely positive events,” says Michael.

According to Michael every single person dreams, even if they aren’t able to remember them and these dreams can last anywhere from two minutes to 40 minutes. We can even experience multiple dreams every night.

“We have a number of dreams every night. At least four. And I know at times people will say to you that they never dream, but that means that the dreams are doing their work while we are asleep. Normally we’ll remember, for example, a nightmare or something that disturbs our sleep. Now that is a dream that is asking us in very strong terms to pay attention and to try and understand what the message is that the dream is giving us,” says Michael.

So how can we start unravelling the messages that are held within our dreams? An easy method that you can start using immediately is to keep a dream journal.

“I would recommend that everybody keep a dream journal. It’s just a little jotter by the side of the bed and you note down maybe just some of the main things [in your dream]. ‘I was dreaming about John last night,’ or whatever. As simple as that. When you wake in the morning often you’ll be able to remember what John was doing in the dream. So if you keep that journal and then look back at it a week later or a month later, you’ll often notice the same theme recurring. It would be important to pay attention to that theme.”

When it comes to the nitty gritty of actually interpreting the dream, the key is to keep things simple, says Michael.

“The dream is basically a drama. It’s like looking at an episode of something on television and when you wake up in the morning, ask questions: What was that about? What was the main point of the dream? What was the bottom line in that dream? Well there was a row between me and my brother. So then you ask yourself well, what is going on with my brother at the moment that I should have that particular dream? So that’s how you decipher what’s going on.”

And for anyone who is interested in beginning to explore their dreams, Michael has the following advice.

“The dreams always want what is good for us, no matter even if they are nightmares. They’re trying to bring us back into balance if you like. They’re compensating something we’re not doing in our every day lives… Never be afraid of what occurs in your dreams because really dreams do want what is best for us.”

Michael Murphy’s Book of Dreams by Michael Murphy (Gill, €12.99), is out now

Michael’s dream interpretations

Michael interprets some of the most common dreams

Teeth falling out – “When your teeth fall out, it’s something to do with ageing or getting old… We use our teeth to chew on food and if any of our teeth break or if they fall out, it means we’re trying to take in something that is too hard for us. So the metaphor there is we’re faced with some reality that we’re not able to cope with and therefore the dream is showing us that we’re not able to assimilate it in some way. Then you need to ask, ‘What is happening to me in my life at the moment that I’m just not able to face or take in?’”

Falling – “A throwback to when we were young or way, way back when we had to negotiate our balance. It’s helping us to stand upright in our lives if you like. That’s what’s going on in that dream.”

Not being able to run away – “The part of something chasing us, it’s an interesting dream because it is much better if we can turn and face what is threatening us. Often the person that’s chasing us in the dream means that they’re actually bringing some qualities that we could use. For example, maybe they’re streetwise or they are extremely practical or they know how to negotiate their lives very clearly and if we incorporated some of the qualities that maybe we have jettisoned because maybe our parents didn’t like it, because they were ‘bold’ qualities if you like, if we try and incorporate those qualities now, it will help us negotiate our lives going forward.”