Everyone dreams. Some people claim that they don’t dream but they actually do, they just don’t remember their dreams.
There are many different reasons why people dream. Sigmund Freud, arguably the most influential psychologist of all time, studied the mind intensely.
He categorized aspects of the mind into three different parts; Id, which is centered around primal impulses, pleasures, desires, unchecked urges and wish fulfillment, Ego, which is concerned with the conscious, the rational, the moral, and the self-aware aspect of the mind, and Superego, the censor for the Id, which is also responsible for enforcing the moral codes of the ego.
When the mind is conscious, the impulses and desires of the unconscious mind are suppressed and through dreams, people are able to get a glimpse of their unconscious mind. During the dream state, the mind’s guard is down so the unconscious has the opportunity to act out or express hidden desires of the unconscious mind.
“I rarely remember my dreams,” says senior Kim Nguyen, “Sometimes I don’t know if I’m remembering a dream or if they’re real memories.”
Freud believes that the reason people struggle to remember dreams is because the superego is at work and trying to protect the conscious mind from disturbing images or desires.
“I have multiple dreams a night and they usually don’t affect my daily life except giving me weird stories to tell my friends but if they do affect me they make my problems worse by influencing my emotions,” says senior Melissa Bryan, “I can usually tell why certain things are happening in my dream based on what went on in the day or weeks before.”
Dreams occur during REM sleep and Freud also believe that during sleep, the mind tries to conjure up solutions to real problems.
“I think that dreams can be fun and that they are very important,” says psychology teacher Ed Tolin, “Sigmund Freud said that we all need to have sleep and he also said that we won’t waste our dreamtime dreaming about insignificant things. Dreams are nothing to be frightened about and they are the unconscious mind trying to solve issues for us that we can’t solve in our waking world.”
Viking Voices
12-Audrey VanDyke- “I have this reoccurring dream of a clown. My sister, my cousin and I are all at the pool and this clown appears out of nowhere, and tries to attack and kill me. It’s so ironic now because of all the clown stuff in the news. But this is real…well it’s not real but it’s real. He pushes my cousin in the pool, and kills my sister. I escape and I always wake up.”
10-Austin Kruse – “So, my entire family and I live on this prairie farm, isolated from any surrounding neighbors. My brother and I are riding our bikes, when suddenly we see these guys enter into our farm. Out of nowhere, Lady Gaga appears and rushes us into a little corner, where we hide until the men stop searching. Somewhere in between all of that, she brings us McDonald’s. The dream was very weird.”
11- Emily Burd- “I had this repetitive dream when I was younger. It started with me walking into my house, and all of a sudden, the Berestain Bears appeared and there was an earthquake and I ran into my room. As I was crying because of the earthquake, my brother appeared and told me that this was all because I ate an Oreo when I was told not to and I deserved this as punishment. That’s when the dream ended.”
9- Andrew Patton- “There was one where Australians could teleport and they killed my family and took over the U.S. but they hid me away. They were also running tests on my mom’s brain. It was a weird dream.”