DREAM ON

When you wake and wonder, ‘What did that dream mean?’, you are echoing a question that humans have pondered for eons. Here’s what science believes our night-time imaginings mean today

Throughout recorded history and likely before that, people have found deep meaning in dreams. Influential psychoanalyst Carl Jung said dreaming holds the keys to unlocking our true happiness and sense of purpose. Then there's Sigmund Freud, whose dream theory is rooted in the idea that we all need a way to express or vicariously fulfil our wishes and desires. The truth is that the purpose of dreaming is still a mystery in many ways and decoding them is huge for the scientific community studying sleep. There are sleep institutes, scientific journals and hundreds of millions spent every year as researchers continue to dig into our dreams. Here's what we know.

Instant recall

Some people insist they never dream. However, researchers have discovered a series of techniques that can increase our chance of having lucid dreams (the ones we are more likely to remember), in which the dreamer is aware they're dreaming and can even control the experience. The technique that resulted in the most lucid dreaming was called MILD (mnemonic induction of lucid dreams), which involves waking up after five hours of sleep and then repeating the phrase, "The next time I'm dreaming, I will remember I'm dreaming." Not ideal if you like a full, uninterrupted night's sleep, but worth a try if you rarely remember your dreams and feel curious.

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