What do your dreams mean? This hasn't been clearly answered by science yet. It is possible that they are a way to exercise the brain and keep it functioning efficiently. Some scientists theorize that dreaming is a way to categorize and "file away" things that weren't sufficiently dealt with during the day. This would explain why daily events so often become a part of that nights dreams.

Dreaming seems to be necessary. In experiments, people have been prevented from dreaming by being woken up whenever they started, as evidenced by their REM or "rapid eye movement," which accompanies dreaming. This seems to cause mental distress, although this was often shown in nothing more than increased attempts to dream. Those woken an equal number of times, but randomly, didn't seem to suffer as much.

We may need to dream, but we don't know why, and we could argue endlessly about the meaning of the content of our dreams. However, despite this essential ignorance about what dreams mean, we do know that there are ways we can use our dreams. A couple examples follow.

Dreams Mean Entertainment

You may occasionally remember a dream you had that was better than most movies you've seen. Sometimes you may not even want to wake up from a dream, because it is so enjoyable. Perhaps you wish you could have more dreams like these.

You can, by waking up IN the dream, and taking control. Want to fly over that lake? Or join that party? You can direct your dream if you know that you are in a dream. That is the idea behind lucid dreaming.

Does it work? many swear that they regularly are conscious and in control during their dreams. I have had more than one dream where I argued with someone that we were in a dream (and of course proved it by waking up). Without getting into an argument about what consciousness is, it is still easy to see how much fun such "controlled dreams" might be.

One common way to induce lucid dreams is to have a "trigger" that reminds you that you are dreaming. This trigger can be any common object you're likely to see in a dream. If you choose a clock, for example, then whenever you see one, you say "I am dreaming right now and can do what I want." Once this is habit, you are likely to say it when you see a clock in a dream, thus "waking yourself up" to the fact that you're dreaming. Then you can take control and have some fun.

Dreams Mean A Chance To Solve Problems

I have had a number of good ideas come to me in dreams. In fact many of the pages on my web sites started out as dreams. To have creative ideas or solve problems in your dreams, try some of the following.

1. Do some mental work in the area you want ideas or a solution. Think about it, write some notes down, and consider some solutions. This work signals the brain that the topic or problem is important, so it will continue to work on it below consciousness.

2. Turn off the alarm clock. If you wake up naturally, you are more likely to remember your dreams.

3. Keep a recording device or a pen and paper next to your bed. Note any ideas you have if you wake up in the night, and especially when you first wake up in the morning.

4. Lay still when you first wake up, and review your dreams. This process "sets" them in your mind, so you won't forget them as easily. You can think back on them later, to search for any useful ideas.

These techniques are not yet scientifically "proven." However, having had lucid dreams, I can say that they are at least entertaining. Also, having used numerous techniques to get good ideas from dreams - and always with more success than when I do nothing - I am convinced that there is some value in this playing with our dreams, whether or not we ever completely understand what dreams mean.

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After waking from your slumber it is commonly asked if you have conversed with grandmaster Zhou. This is something to which you may wonder why. All will be revealed as you read on. It has to do with the Chinese Dream Dictionary and your questions about this will be answered also.

Another name that the grandmaster Zhou is called by is Zhong Gong. The grandmaster Zhou was alive roughly 3000 years ago. The importance of him when it comes to your dreams is that he is known to be the creator of the first Chinese dream dictionary. When it was created the name for it back then was Zhou Gongs book of Auspicious and Inauspicious dreams. Legend says that grandmaster Zhou is also the creator of another book known as the Yi Qing. That is why if you have woken from a dream people around you in China or from a Chinese household will ask you if you visited Grandmaster Zhou.

While reading the Chinese Almanac there is a section of it that is a part of Zhou Gongs book. This is a book that is commonplace in a lot of houses of Chinese people. This book is commonly referred to in Chinese households when someone has woken up and wishes to know the meaning of their dream especially if it a strange one.

The Chinese Almanac has within it 7 categories which is how every kind of dream you could think of is laid out. The categories are astronomy, about the persons home as well as the body, any kinds of music, it includes gods and spirits and the body, as well as living creatures and anything that does not fit into the categories will come under miscellaneous.

The logic of the interpretations can seem like common sense although this is not always the case. Dreams that would come under this category would be things like eating meat that has been cooked rather than eating meat that is raw would be a sign of luck.

Of the dreams that don't seem to make sense or in your eyes could not possibly have a meaning that would be relevant to your waking hours would be the one where you may have a dream about a blue snake. This would also be deemed to bring you luck, where as if you dreamed of sharing an umbrella with someone this could mean that you are about to fall out with or separate from someone.

Some of the interpretations will make you laugh, one of them would be if you were to dream of you and your partner marrying or one that is like a replay of a wedding that has already occurred indicated separation, but dreaming that your partner is with child indicates that she is having an affair.

If you were to take every interpretation as if it were real then you could end up paranoid or maybe hopeful about something which is not to happen so you should see the readings as a guidance yet follow your heart as to what you really feel.

In the emperors' medicine classic and which is over 4000 years old the Meaning of Dreams was used with other kinds of methods to determine medical problems within a patient.

One example of such a diagnosis would be that if someone was to have a dream that had made them frightened or even upset them it would mean that the persons bosy was suffering from an imbalance. If a person was to dream they were falling then this would point out that the top part of the body was lacking in something, where as the bottom of the body would have too much of something.

This may not be your interpretation but this is how a dream is interpreted according to the Chinese dream dictionary.

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