Seeing hidden messages in your sleep? You must be dreaming!
Dreams don’t contain universal symbols, according to Harvard Medical School psychologist, Deirdre Barrett. General themes may be present where dreamers share cultural metaphors, but many symbols have opposite meanings to people. Barrett’s example is that of a dog: where one person sees “man’s best friend”, another sees “a threat”.
So, what are dreams?
Scientists believe they provide clues to how the external world is influencing our subconscious mind. A dream interpretation app, uDreamed, studied trends from life appearing in dreams during students’ exam periods. More than 22% of students’ dreams referenced personal internal conflict, 19.8% included relationship concerns, while 16.3% related to family worries.
