Dream Survey: it would really help me :)

Yes to all except 7, 9, 10, 11, and 17.

Psychoanalytic sounds close. I find myself in situations I haven’t faced in years, in houses I haven’t been in for years, or with people I haven’t seen for a long time, that I don’t necessarily miss.

Thank you @filmfann. I agree I identify with psychoanalytic the most because I feel as if not all my dreams are random, I can place meaning to most of them, and most of them are of an urge or desire I’d wish to have or happen.

All of them. I dream vividly and often.
I would most agree with Biological.

Yes: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 19

No: 2, 8, 10, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20

I find the psychoanalytic theory highly dubious. The cognitive theory is tempting, but I’m not sure we have any reason at present to think that dreams are anything but epiphenomenal. As such, I’ll say that the biological theory is the one I most agree with out of the options you present. I cannot claim to be an expert on dreams, however.

@blueiiznh wonderful thanks! You know I’ve thought of that as well. There are some dreams that we forget about so when I took the survey I’m sure some of the ones I left out I actually did in fact have a dream about them. So I think I should’ve picked them all as well lol

yes 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 16, 17, 20

no 1, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 18, 19

I think it’s a combination of the biological and cognitive explanations. Memories are kind of haphazard; a lot of the time, random details that seem insignificant stand out later on. Maybe the information we gather throughout the day always ends up jumbled. It gets mixed in with earlier memories and subconscious thoughts and the end result is chaotic dream imagery.

1–6 Yes Fourth too often, Fifth not enough
7 Nothing comes to mind but cooking or trying to get food happens
8 I also don’t think so
9 Yes but often more metaphorically then literally, an animal death that I associate with a person and emotions and actions that would not make sense if it were a random animal
10 No but I often hide or flee
11 Nope
12 More frequently drowning
13 Just in the random animal death I associated with a person,
14 Yes
15 No
16–18 Yes
19 Being on a plane or trying to fly but never I have wings
20 No

I believe all three can contribute to varying degrees to people’s dreams.

@rosehips I agree and can relate with your explanation for one through six lol! But can you give me the theory in which to you sounds most plausible if we are just trying to generalize?

This such sounds like a homework assignment!

I have dreamed of: Falling, being attacked, School, teachers, Sexual experiences, Eating, Being frozen in terror, Death of a loved one, Being nude in public, Fire, Seeing yourself as dead.

Biological- due to the misfiring of neurons in our brain during REM stage in dreaming, our dreams are us trying to make sense of the jumbled information.

@JoeyOhSoClever I guess my interpretation of psychoanalyst, biological, and differ slightly.

Cognitive is pretty straightforward, we are trying to problem solve, we are facing new situations or we have anxiety about how we dealt with something and we want to figure out a better approach. A repeated scenario in which you change things slightly each time.

Biological I would say has more to do with food we ate or disruption to life patterns that just bring on some random oddness that have no discernible meaning or symbolism. No problem solving it could be a random association of things you saw or did before you went to bed put in a spinner.

Psychoanalyst dream is could be about anything but when you look at it is less then straightforward. Like the falling and feeling trapped fires are more interpretative and common and represent where we are mentally. They reveal things like our true feelings that we have either suppressed or repressed. They help discover ourselves.

@Dr_Lawrence For research purposes. Surveys are fun anyways lol

@Dr_Lawrence Yes, but it’s a homework assignment with dream interpretation! In a way, it’s the perfect question. ;-)

@Haleth Yeah it is! Lol I would understand if I was asking for help solving a math problem I could’ve just studied for. This is a fun survey, it’s different.

@JoeyOhSoClever Dream interpretation questions and homework questions are kind of a… tradition here, and they’re sort of frowned upon. This one lets us talk about ourselves, which is everyone’s favorite subject, so it’s totally different

Thank everyone who has participated and future participants :) You guys helped a great deal in my research.

1— yes
2— yes
3— yes (repeatedly trying to fly and failing)
4— yes (work)
5— yes
6— no
7— preparing food yes, eating it no.
8— no
9— yes
10— yes but I always shortly escape. (this dream normally in full color)
11— no
12— no
13— no
14— no
15— no
16— yes
17— no
18— no
19— yes
20— no (when I die in dreams I get a game over and play again video game style screen)

1~No
2~yes
3~no
4~yes
5~no
6~yes
7~yes
8~no
9~yes
10~no
11~yes
12~no
13~no
14~no
15~no
16~no
17~no
18~no
19~yes
20~yes

Yes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 14, 16, 18, 19

No: 6, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15,17, 20

I would go biological.

I very rarely recall any dreams I may have had & those I do are truly fucking weird with no beginning, middle or end, just random snapshots really.
They usually involve something freaky like cows with giraffe necks playing pool in a trouser suit…work that shit out!

I’m in my late 40s, so my dreams have changed over time.
1) I sometimes get that sensation of falling as I drift to sleep and then jerk awake, but I don’t consider it a dream.
2) Yes. I used to have lucid dreams in which Freddy Kruger from Nightmare on Elm Street was chasing me; if I didn’t like a choice I’d made, I could go back and make a different choice. I had these dreams when I was repressing the impact of having been molested in childhood. Since coming to terms with that, I almost never have scary dreams.
4) I used to have dreams about being unprepared for class. I sometimes have dreams about being at work with colleagues past and present, but there is no angst to them – we are just going about our days.
5) Seldom do I have sexual dreams, and more often than not the other participant is not anyone I know to exist in real life.
6) I don’t recall dreams of being too late, just being unprepared (noted in #4).
7) I don’t recall dreams where I dream the physical sensation of eating, but I do know I have dreamt about being in restaurants, so I must have eaten but didn’t have the sensory smells, tastes and textures.
8) Unable to move or speak, yes – but not “terror”. More like my senses were reeling and I’d lost control, and I’d get very frustrated. It’s usually a social situation, and I attributed this to my feeling that I was unheard and disregarded and unimportant. Haven’t had these in years.
16) Yes; at school or social functions when I was younger.
17) Once I had a dream that my home was on fire.
19) Yes. Taking off like superman to go somewhere, and also of flying like a bird. Sometimes I dream that the wind current is taking me a little too high, but I don’t fall.
No recollection of 3), 9), 10), 11), 12), 13), 14), 15), 18), or 20).
You didn’t ask about teeth falling out – I’ve had that a couple times.
I also have had rage-filled dreams directed toward my mother – whom I have held a lot of blame for not knowing something was wrong with me when I was being molested, and for not protecting me. Those also subsided as I overcame these issues in my conscious life.

I believe they’re psychoanalytic when there’s stressors in our lives. As mentioned, many dreams I’ve had occurred during stressful times in my life, when I did have issues of being a victim and of feeling inadequate.
When things are good and our minds are at peace, it could also be biological/cognitive, and my dreams are incredibly random and I rarely remember them.

Funny thing: I don’t remember ever dreaming of eating before, but after this question, I had a dream where I tasted honey. It always freaks me out when dreams incorporate more than sight and hearing. Years ago, I had a dream where I was in a car accident, and the car fell into a lake. I felt the pressure on my body increase as I sank. It took months to get over that dream.

@filmfann I remember a dream of falling and usually I wake up before I hit the ground or right when I hit so I won’t feel the somewhat metaphorical pain. But there was one time I was falling and I hit the ground did not wake up until after I could feel the pain of the fall. It was terrible pain

Having dreams of death, and actually being dead, are the hardest. I have had that happen several times. That is why I joke about it so much in dream interpretation.

1.Falling: Just as I am getting off to sleep I often wake with a start as if I have just stepped off the kerb when walking. Is that why they say ‘falling’ asleep?

2.being attacked pursued: I get this one occasionally. I am running to escape something I cannot see clearly. Less frightening than it sounds and I never get caught.

3.Trying to repeatedly do something: No

4.School, work, teachers, studying: I sometimes dream I have an exam coming up and I haven’t studied enough. It is a relief to realize I passed those exams many years ago and will never have to sit another.

5.Sexual experiences: fairly frequently

6.Arriving too late: no. I am always on time in real life.

7.Eating: no

8.Being frozen in terror: never

9.Death of a loved one: no

10.Being locked up: no

11.Finding money: I dreamed this a few times as a kid. I don’t have this dream any more.

12.Swimming: I dream I am swimming though tropical seas sometimes, often underwater. Sometimes I am swimming through the air.

13.Snakes: no

14.Being dressed inappropriately: I have dreamed of being in public in my underpants and was very embarrassed.

15.Being smothered: no

16.Being nude in public: no

17.Fire: no

18.Failing a test: no

19.Flying: I sometimes dream I am running fast and getting lighter and with just a little effort I push myself off the ground and fly through the air. It is quite exhilarating while it lasts.

20.Seeing yourself as dead: no

I think there is some truth in all those theories of dreams. I don’t think they are mutually exclusive.