How good are you at dreaming?

Are there actually ways to get better at dreaming?

 

Today we explore the fanciful world of both daydreaming and night dreaming. Sarmad Ali Choman speaks about the two, in a piece for vocal.media: “Daydreaming encourages imagination, problem-solving, and stress relief, while night dreaming facilitates memory consolidation, emotional processing, and self-reflection.” Choman reminds us that “each offers its own magic. Balancing the playfulness of daydreaming with the introspection of night dreaming, you can embark on a journey of self-discovery, inspiration, and a touch of whimsy.”

 

When Your Mind Wanders 

 

Jill Suttie, writing for berkeley.edu, challenges the notion that mind-wandering is always linked to depression and lower productivity. Says Suttie: “Newer science is painting a more nuanced picture of what happens to us when we let our minds wander. Though the research is young and growing, it suggests that daydreaming may actually make us happier and more creative – if we do it the right way.” 

 

Suttie cites research from the University of Calgary’s Julia Kam in which electroencephalogram technology was used to analyze human thoughts while our minds wandered – the key finding: when thoughts are “constrained” (e.g., linked to rumination of a recent event) vs. “freely moving” (e.g., no specific trigger) the free-moving flow led to “increased alpha waves in the brain’s frontal cortex – a remarkable and novel finding,” according to Kam.  

 

So, what’s the “right way?” It begins with thought awareness. Citing Kam, Suttie says that once aware of our thoughts, when we “[stray] into problematic thinking,” we then have an opportunity to “redirect our mind-wandering,” to make it more freewheeling. 

 

A Specialized Memory System?

 

Author and associate professor Patrick McNamara offers an intriguing theorem on night dreams: perhaps we each possess a “specialized memory system available only to the dreaming brain.” If so, he notes, “it would be easier to suppose that dreams have a special function,” producing “a special product for the mind/brain that the mind/brain cannot attain from any other cognitive system.” Adds McNamara: “There is simply no doubt that themes, ideas, episodes, characters, images, and emotions recur consistently – and frequently – across these dream series. This is the case for dream series considered across years and dream series considered across a single night of sleep.” 

 

Night dreaming is “a conversation with the self,” offers author Lauri Loewenberg, as quoted by Natalie Arroyo Camacho and Amelia McBride, writing for wellandgood.com. Loewenberg maintains dreams may help us resolve conflicts. McNamara says they may serve as a practice ground. “Many people have dreams in which they perform (in the dream) some function that they are unfit for, or unable to do, in waking life – and they get progressively better at performing that function over the dream series.”

 

How About Dream Incubation?

 

Writing for healthline.com, Ann Pietrangelo shares a dozen tips, and one caught my eye: change your sleep position: “In a small 2004 study, people who slept on their left side reported having more nightmares than people who slept on their right side.” 

 

Camacho and McBride talk about “dream incubation.” They explain: “Just before you head to bed, (author Stepanie) Gailing suggests using a method called dream incubation to call in positive, helpful dreams. This nighttime intention-setting practice has not only been practiced for thousands of years, but

also has some research supporting its efficacy.” 

 

And here’s one more from Gailing, courtesy of Camacho and McBride: “I encourage people to think about their day or write about it in a journal before bed. By including not just the activities you did, but also, how you may have been feeling (during them), you’re able to process some emotions while awake” so they don’t disturb you at night.  

 

Sweet dreams.