Do Dreams & Nightmares Reflect What Happens to Us in Our Daily Lives?

This article discusses the argument of whether dreams and nightmares reflect what happens in our daily lives. While it is not completely true, dreams tend to reflect what a person thinks and believes. Dreams are a reflection of the inner thoughts of a person and can be related to real life experiences. The content of dreams can be associated with daily activities and can impact a person's emotional state.

Fundamentals of
psychology

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................1
Argument- Do dreams & nightmares reflect what happens to us in our daily lives...........................1
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Psychology is a science of behaviour and mind that includes the principals of
conscious and unconscious phenomena. Psychological knowledge is often applied to access
the treatments and the thought process of an individual. The argument in which discussion is
carried is upon Do dreams & nightmares reflect what happens to us in our daily lives. Many
arguments over this topic is discussed and listed below. Additionally, it is true that dreams
and nightmare reflect to what happens in the real life.
Argument- Do dreams & nightmares reflect what happens to us in our daily
lives
Dreams are a just story that is created by our mind while we sleep. Dream can be said
as a human experience that occurs during sleep. It cannot be controlled and some people tend
to believe that dreams are reflection of what happens in the reality. The content of dream is
somewhat related to what a person’s think before falling asleep. It is examined and observed
that if a person sleep while studying they are likely to observe dreams related to study
content (Bodenheimer, 2018). From the psychological fact, it is not proved that what is
observed in dreams will happen in reality. Some of the recent experiences or memories that
are encoded in humans’ memory may occur in a dream (Gerard, 2017). Dreams are related to
daily activities and they often occur during REM sleep, in which state the heart beat and
blood pressure increases and brain still remain active. Dreams can be messy, complicated
emotional or unhealthy but it is related to what a mind thinks in their unconscious mind.
Dreams are related to the wishes that a person is looking to be fulfilled (Gerard, 2017). It is
true that dreams are the reflection of what our mind is thinking and it also helps in predicting
the real life situations. Dream is just a composition of what a person thinks and renders about
the environment (Kerr, et. al, 2014). It is seen that dreams often create probability of certain

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scenarios and prepare an individual (Malinowski & Horton, C.2014). Dreams or nightmares
can make a person emotionally weak about the situation that never occurred in reality.
Dream is just a personal creation by an individual by their memories or thoughts. Memories
can sometimes get linked with what happened in reality or something about upcoming
events. Dreams are different but they are reflection of life experiences that are coloured by
desires and fears. Dreams are somewhere related to the spark of present scenario and experts
claimed that nightmares reflect our daily struggles and show the aspects of our daily lives
(Kerr, et. al, 2014). The sign of recurring dreams is that show the daily stress that is
occurring in the people life. It is researched and found that mostly stressful experience
causes nightmares that serve to diffuse tension and increase the emotional ordeals
(Brazelton, 2018). Dream is a general anxiety that is seen when an individual is stressed.
Dreams are just an imagination that an individual creates and recurring dreams are the one
that have a regular pattern of occurring and can threaten a person’s life (Malinowski &
Horton, C.2014).
Dreaming is a process that might take place in conscious and unconscious state of mind and
it somewhere relates to real life condition. Dream sometimes relates to the beliefs that take
place in the real life and also connects to the conflicts and stress that take place (Malinowski
& Horton, C.2014). Dreams just reflect the feeling and beliefs about a person’s perceptive
rather than the relation of what is happening in reality. Dreams just occur when a person
thinks about a situation or an event repeatedly. Dreams reflect the activity or profession that
is followed in daily life. Dreams sometimes relate to daily activities and they play a
significant role. Many scientists believed that dreams are tend to reflect our lives and vice
versa (Kerr, et. al, 2014). For example, dreams get affected by our daily activities like from
what an individual eat, the daily conversation, arguments and problems that are faced
(Bodenheimer, 2018). The dreams are related to the basic beliefs, communication or long

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past events that happened in a person’s life. Dreams are of many sorts and Ot completely
depends on the ability of a person thinking. If the sleep is weak a person tends to get a vision
of reality as they think with the sub conscious mind. Dreams are the simple messages related
to daily life that cannot be interpreted (Robert & Zadra, 2014). It is said that dreams are
completely related to a person psychology and it requires special attention. It is suggested
that one should pay attention to their dreams so that they can analyse their fears and thought
process of their mind. The day time activities affect the type of dream and the content of
dream. It was reached that if a person tends to spend more time in reading they would like to
get similar dreams. Nightmares sometimes tend to reflect what might happen to us in daily
life as it is related to the activities that a person practice (Mcnamakaran, 2016). It is true that
dreams tend to reflect the well-being of a person. Dreams can be full of events that are about
to happen in person life but this is due to the fact they might be thinking about that event
regularly or before sleeping. The nightmares can have a bad or a negative influence in an
individual’s life as what a person see tends to believe. Some of the negative thoughts affect
life of a person in such that they start believing that it might happen in reality which can
develop fear among them. Some dreams are fragmented of daily activities thus jumping
rapidly to the conclusion can be problematic (Mcnamakaran, 2016). Some dreams also
move forward in a more coherent story that might happen in future or had already happened
in the past.
It is true that dreams and nightmares are sometimes related to our real life as dreams tell
about something that a person really feels or think. It is just a reflection of the inner mind
though of a person. Dreams are related to real life and the brain affects the emotional state
of a person. It is noticed that if a person watches or looks at some things they tend to get
dreams like that (Mcnamakaran, 2016).

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Dream is a state of subconscious mind in which a person desire is reflected and it is related
to the wishes or fear that is experienced by mind. Dreams can be related to you or to
someone else it is just about that your mind thinks. Dream is a feeling that is observed by the
subconscious mind that shows the personal experiences or the things that happened around
directly or indirectly in terms of physically, mentally or emotionally way (McLaren, 2015).
There are many examples of the fact that a dream come true and is related to what we think.
AS people once see the things in dreams try to work upon it so that it can be achieved. It is
said that it is not exactly related to daily activities but it it’s a saying that whatever you wish
to achieve anything your desire will impact in the dreams. Thus, it can be said that dreams
are related to what happens in real life (Lanza. 2016). It can be said that there is a real
connection of what happens in dreams and what is directly linked with real life experience.
The reason behind this is hallucination that is a way in which our neurons work. It is induced
due to the thinking process and mental stability (McLaren, 2015).
In case of nightmares the dreamer may develop the uncanny sense due to which they wake
up and gets threatened because they believe this has happened to them in the past. Thus,
content of dream can be associated with the real life facts (Fassin, 2014).

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Conclusion
Dreams can be said as a story or set of images that is created by our mind while we
sleep. Dreams can be vivid and can cause change in any mood like can make a person sad,
happy or scared. In this article a discussion is carried out on a fact that do dreams &
nightmares reflect what happens to us in our daily lives. This is not completely true but we
tend to see things in the dreams that we have experienced in real life. A person sees in dream
regarding what they think and believe. Thus, it can be said as a reflection of humans mind
and regarding what they think.

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References
Bodenheimer, R. (2018). The real life of Mary Ann Evans: George Eliot, her letters and
fiction. Cornell University Press.
Brazelton, T. B. (2018). The earliest relationship: Parents, infants and the drama of early
attachment. Routledge.
Fassin, D. (2014). True life, real lives: Revisiting the boundaries between ethnography and
fiction. American Ethnologist, 41(1), 40-55.
Gerard, P. (2017). Creative nonfiction: Researching and crafting stories of real life.
Waveland Press, 21(4), 41-44.
Kerr, C. W., Donnelly, J. P., Wright, S. T., Kuszczak, S. M., Banas, A., Grant, P. C., &
Luczkiewicz, D. L. (2014). End-of-life dreams and visions: A longitudinal study of
hospice patients' experiences. Journal of palliative medicine, 17(3), 296-303.
Lanza. R. (2016). Are Dreams an Extension of Physical Reality. Retrieved from .
Malinowski, J. E., & Horton, C. L. (2014). Memory sources of dreams: the incorporation of
autobiographical rather than episodic experiences. Journal of Sleep Research, 23(4),
441-447.
Malinowski, J., & Horton, C. L. (2014). Evidence for the preferential incorporation of
emotional waking-life experiences into dreams. Dreaming, 24(1), 18.
McLaren, P. (2015). Life in schools: An introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations
of education. Routledge.

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Mcnamakaran. (2016). Dream and Reality. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-catcher/201106/dream-and-reality.
Robert, G., & Zadra, A. (2014). Thematic and content analysis of idiopathic nightmares and
bad dreams. Sleep, 37(2), 409-417.
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