BY ELLIE KAPCAR
It’s the end of the world. You’re being chased by a hamster which suddenly turns into a zombie. It’s a zombie apocalypse. You wake up in a sweat, relieved when you realize it was just a dream.
Sometimes we remember them in vivid detail; sometimes we wake up groggy, losing remnants of dreams as eyes adjust to the morning light. Some of us dream in black and white, some in color. Dreams are crazy and often unexplainable.
Psychology teacher Mrs. Leatherwood offers her take on the function of dreams. “We know many theories about why we dream and one of the most prominent ones is that it helps us work through our experiences and helps help us in the future. Dreams also play a part in learning and memory,” she says.
Students in Leatherwood’s Psychology class have been studying dreams and exploring their own dream interpretations.
“Dream analysis is highly subjective and not something that is supported by research. But it’s cool because it gives us insight about the things we might be experiencing. A lot of my students’ interpretations are about them feeling out of control and anxious about changes in their life,” Leatherwood says.
Using the online resource, The Curious Dreamer, students tried to make sense of their dreams and determine whether they reflected their current reality.
See if you can match the following dreams with their interpretations.
DREAMS
1) “I was in a volcano like Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings. Gollum was in there with me and I had my baby blanket my mom made me. It was stretched out like a parachute over my head, and there were rocks falling. I was trying to run away and Gollum was chasing me and watching me.”
2) “Mrs. Baas made me go on a field trip to a jewelry store with my elderly neighbor; she was telling us how they market different kinds of jewelry; then she just stopped and got all silent and did her Debbie Baas cackle. She threw a bunch of paper bags at my elderly neighbor and told us to run. I said ‘No, I don’t want to steal all the jewelry.’ Then her eyes turned into cat eyes and she screamed, ‘TAKE ALL OF IT, TAKE IT ALL!'”
3) “I have this dream about every other week: A hamster turns into a zombie and then the whole dream becomes a zombie apocalypse, and I die.”
4) “Four kidnappers tied me up and took my family members away. But I got out and used taekwondo against the kidnappers. But then I woke up before being glorified as a hero.”
5) “I have a recurring nightmare where I’m forced to knock down 100 pins bowling or else these robots will kill me. And every time I knock down all of them, except one. I always wake up before I know whether or not they kill me.”
6) “Our entire musical cast of Singing in the Rain was on a plane, and there was also a wedding. So we sang for a wedding, and there were also cats on the plane.”
7) “This is a recurring dream where a big, horned goat breaks into the back door of my house; it runs up the stairs, goes into my bedroom, and tramples me while I’m on my bed.”
INTERPRETATIONS & RESPONSES
A) You may be feeling independent, strongly-opinionated, lithe, adaptable, or mysterious. This dream may represent self expression, the essence of your soul, having a voice in the world, creativity, communication, freedom, inhibition, nourishment or spiritual presence, cleansing, or starting anew. You may be experiencing a culmination or milestone in a romantic relationship. Maybe recently you’ve experienced a family gathering or party, a shared experience- an event or life experience you have in common with a group of people.
“I think it’s a little far fetched because it’s random symbols, but some of the things are optimistic and that’s matched my mood recently.” (Sarah Feeney)
B) Elements in this dream represent the way a person wants to portray themselves to the world or something of value to you. You may be independent, strongly-opinionated, lithe, adaptable, or mysterious. Something is connected to a person’s soul or essence, inner wisdom, or self expression, including inner vision, knowing, understanding, clarity, awareness. You may be feeling that life is very demanding right now and you feel manipulated. You feel someone owes you somehow or you have an important need that requires attention.
Reaction: “I think the dream means I’m worried about losing control in life because that was an example about not having control about anything I do.” (Alex Wilson)
C) You may be experiencing a temporary quick fix or an attempt to control or contain a situation; someone or something in your life might lack human characteristics such as emotion, compassion, subtle judgement, responsiveness, or warmth.
Reaction: “I think it does apply to my life; emotions trying to ; control emotions but emotions are typing to fight back could apply it to my life; interesting.” (Jackson Comer)
D) Maybe you’re experiencing overwhelm, intimidation, dread. A project or task might need to be done; or you may be facing a challenge, hurdle, or obstacle. You may be feeling your boundaries have been crossed or your integrity has been compromised. Also, you may be experiencing the success of conquering a challenge or coming up with a solution for a problem.
Reaction: “I think I dreamt this around the time when I started feeling the pressure about school and scholarships, so I think the challenge part is definitely accurate.” (Erin Cash)
E) This might be a reflection of overwhelm, loss of control, destruction, a feared situation in your life involving chaos and loss of control. You may be curious, nosey, or focusing on the small things can bring big results. Someone in your life may not be “alive” emotionally or not in touch with their humanity, compassion, or feelings; this may also represent subconscious fears.
Reaction: “I don’t think someone’s threatening me in real life, but I guess school can be overwhelming.” (Charlie Geers)
F) Aspects of this dream call our your inner thoughts or relationship within yourself; emotional safety & security; security in one’s self, the ability to climb or make progress; self-defense or self-preservation, aggression, masculinity; devil-like; less than perfect, impaired, ineffective, useless. Your emotions may feel out of control, overwhelmed, angry, enraged.
Reaction: “I guess these are obviously so general that’s what we talked about in psych too. I interpreted it as my security within myself ; I’m overconfident and too much self-security and I know who I am that it’s so overbearing and that it harms me that’s what I got from the goat tampling me; i don’t feel like i’m that insecure; thinking of the goat as representing my own self confidence beating me down for some reason.” (Matthew McGrory)
G) You may be feeling particularly helpful right now or that you need to help others to boost your ego and self-worth. You may have a need for order or organization in your life; you may be feeling balanced, even, or symmetrical. You feel restricted or limited somehow in your life.
Reaction: “It’s vague enough that it can be applied… there’s some truth to it maybe half of it.” (Amelia Popowics)
DREAM INTERPRETATION KEY
- D
- B
- E
- G
- C
- A
- F