Do dreams come true? What science says about dream interpretation

Dreams continue the day

Most dream content continues the people, events and worries we care about while awake, and people who recur in dreams tend to be emotionally important in waking life (Domhoff, 2003).

Activities that take up more of the day appear in dreams in proportion (Schredl & Hofmann, 2003).

Dreaming may help us process the day

REM sleep, the stage richest in dreams, helps process emotional memories from the day and may soften their intensity (Walker & van der Helm, 2009).

People who napped after learning a maze task and dreamed about it improved the most on waking (Wamsley et al., 2010).

A bad dream is not a bad omen

Dreams contain more negative than positive emotion, and anxiety is the most common (Hall & Van de Castle, 1966).

In a study of medical exam candidates, dreaming about the exam beforehand was common, and students who did so actually scored slightly better (Arnulf et al., 2014).

Ancient writers didn't believe every dream either

Wang Fu of the Eastern Han sorted dreams into ten kinds, including dreams that mean the opposite, dreams caused by illness and dreams born of worry. Not every dream was expected to come true.

So what is dream reading for?

Use a dream like a mirror: it pictures what has been on your mind. DreamSeer readings give both the traditional view from Zhou Gong's Book of Dreams and the view from psychology research, with sources shown under each paragraph so you can judge for yourself. Readings are for entertainment and are not medical or psychological advice.

Related dreams

• Exams
• Teeth falling out
• Deceased loved ones
• Being chased
• Falling
• Flying
• Why do I keep having the same dream?
• How ancient China classified dreams: the six and the ten
• Hatsuyume: Japan's first dream of the year
• The 2027 Year of the Goat and your dreams

References

• 王符《潜夫论·梦列》
• Domhoff, G. W. (2003). The Scientific Study of Dreams: Neural Networks, Cognitive Development, and Content Analysis. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Schredl, M., & Hofmann, F. (2003). Continuity between waking activities and dream activities. Consciousness and Cognition, 12(2), 298–308.
• Walker, M. P., & van der Helm, E. (2009). Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing. Psychological Bulletin, 135(5), 731–748.
• Wamsley, E. J., Tucker, M., Payne, J. D., Benavides, J. A., & Stickgold, R. (2010). Dreaming of a learning task is associated with enhanced sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Current Biology, 20(9), 850–855.
• Arnulf, I., Grosliere, L., Le Corvec, T., et al. (2014). Will students pass a competitive exam that they failed in their dreams? Consciousness and Cognition, 29, 36–47.
• Hall, C. S., & Van de Castle, R. L. (1966). The Content Analysis of Dreams. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.