B2 – Upper Intermediate
Paying attention to our dreams can offer valuable insights into our subconscious thoughts, emotions, and concerns. While some view dreams as random mental chatter, others believe they hold significant meaning and that they can provide clues to unresolved issues or desires.
Psychologists and researchers often explore the potential connections between dreams and waking life, studying patterns and themes to understand their potential impact on our mental well-being.
Ultimately, the importance of paying attention to dreams varies from person to person, but many find that acknowledging and reflecting on their dreams can offer unique perspectives and foster personal growth.
Read the article about how much should we be paying attention to our dreams and some benefits of keeping a dream log. Be ready to answer the questions that follow.
Vocabulary Questions:
- What does the verb “decipher” mean, “People have been recording, analyzing, and attempting to decipher dreams for centuries, as is seen in evidence of cave drawings and early literature.”? Give two synonyms and use ‘decipher’ in a sentence.
- What does “omen” mean, “Some believed they were prophecies from God, others interpreted dreams as omens from demonic forces”? Give two synonyms and use ‘omen’ in a sentence.
- What does “wiring” mean in the sentence, “Keeping a dream log is just one more way we can get to know ourselves and better understand our unique wiring.”? Use this word in a sentence.
Discussion Questions:
- Do you typically remember your dreams? How do you perceive the importance of dreams in your life?
- What are your thoughts on making a dream log? How might keeping one contribute to personal growth or understanding oneself better?
- Do you believe dreams have psychological significance, or do you see them as random brain activity during sleep? Explain.
- Have you experienced instances where your dreams seemed influenced by your activities or thoughts before sleep? How do you think external factors affect dream content?
- What are your thoughts on the idea that dreams might reflect physical health or conditions in the body? Do you find this concept plausible or far-fetched? Explain.
2 replies on “Paying Attention to Our Dreams”
1. Do you typically remember your dreams? How do you perceive the importance of dreams in your life?
I usually don’t remember my dreams, only remember some of them, maybe the nightmares or the more estranges ones. I don’t thing at all they are important in my life, II see them like a part of data processing of our brains.
2. What are your thoughts on making a dream log? How might keeping one contribute to personal growth or understanding oneself better?
I’m not very keen on that, maybe for creative reasons is ok, because there are very interesting dreams, but not for personal growth reasons. I believe dreams use data and information mostly information of the day before that we didn’t process at a conscious level, information that shock us or affect us.
3. Do you believe dreams have psychological significance, or do you see them as random brain activity during sleep? Explain.
As I said before, I thing dreams are part of our daily live as part of the activity of our brain, so we dream in information of data of the day before, also in things that we are afraid of and so forth. According to my experience all of us usually dream thing related with the day before that really didn’t process at conscious level, for example if you are walking on the street and suddenly you see a wild boar and you don’t talk about it, you will probably dream about this event in order to process the rare information and save it with some kind of significance or explanation in your memory.
4. Have you experienced instances where your dreams seemed influenced by your activities or thoughts before sleep? How do you think external factors affect dream content?
It is just like I said, I absolutely agree with that… Our brains process information, data, etc… so for them the experience, the external factor are their food, if the process the information during the day, there is not a reason to process it during the night, but some kind of information that is not process, remain in the brain and will be process during the night like a dream…
5. What are your thoughts on the idea that dreams might reflect physical health or conditions in the body? Do you find this concept plausible or far-fetched? Explain.
Well, is a very interesting topic, why not? If some organs of your body emit information during the night, this information, these data, probably will be process during the night like a kind of dream, won’t they? I think it will be possible as part of the need of the brain to process information as well as other kind of inputs that we receive during the night and that our brain process at a kind of sub-level… (i.e.: if your child cry you will awake even if you are dreaming in that moment.)
Good job with your answers to these questions.
Look at the words you can replace some of the expressions you used in your sentence to be a bit more accurate:
Continue doing this consistently.