sleeping and dreaming

Sometime between 1926 and 1928, Carl Jung, a pioneer of modern psychoanalysis, had a whole series of dreams in which he saw a brand new house clinging to his own and wondered over and over again how he might not know about it when he had always lived there.

Finally, he entered the new house and saw a wonderful library filled with books from the 16th and 17th centuries, in leather binding and illustrated with unusual copper engravings.

Jung interpreted these dreams as a symbol of the subconscious. He realized that it was something that belonged to him and that he was not aware of. He later learned that the library was an alchemy that did not interest him at the time but which he would soon set out to study.

Fifteen years later, he had the same library as in his dream.

Ivo Andrić left open his poetic question: What do I dream about and what is happening to me.

And what is a dream?

The search for a complete answer will probably never be completed. But what has been discovered so far, reliably confirms that we cannot do without sleep and that we spend a third of our lives sleeping. Because a good dream:

  • strengthens the heart
  • restores the immune system
  • improves memory
  • restores good mood and thus our inner beauty
  • strengthens physical condition and the ability to more easily accept life’s challenges.

In optimal conditions, you should go to bed at least one hour before midnight and leave behind all the burden of the past day. Calm and cleanse your mind with deep breathing (which we usually forget), prayer, gentle music and faith that tomorrow is a new happy day of our lives.

Scientists have come up with very concrete results in the research of dreams, starting from the fact that our consciousness possesses three basic states: waking, dreaming, and dreamless sleep.

Through all three states of consciousness, there is a change of alpha, beta and theta brain waves.

During sleep, a person goes through four phases that will be repeated several times during the night:

  • as the body relaxes, alpha waves appear in the brain and this lasts for about ten minutes;
  • in the second phase, theta waves occur that are related to dreaming, astral and extrasensory experiences; this phase lasts about fifteen minutes.
  • the third phase means deep sleep without dreams, which is stimulated by delta waves; this phase has an extremely invigorating effect and even enables passive learning in sleep.
  • after almost ninety minutes in this phase where delta waves predominate, one enters the first REM phase where dreams are intense and where alpha waves are amplified. At the same time, the pulse and breathing are accelerated and the mobility of the eyes is very pronounced.

With a normal sleep duration of 6-7 hours, the REM phase is repeated several times during the night. Otherwise, the dreaming process takes place in two phases: REM and n-REM.

Dream interpretation is a basic element of any kind of study of the human psyche. But, as Jung himself emphasized: nothing should be taken for granted. The established archetypes also leave the possibility of various interpretations, bearing in mind that before any interpretation of the image as an archetype, before giving a “universal” meaning, one should consider personal experience and the associations it brings. Here is an example of archetypes from nature:

The sun: the male principle, the source of life

Moon: female principle, mystery

Country: mother, safety, feeding

Sea: subconscious, eternity

Fire: energy, sexuality, destruction

Rain: crying, suffering before relief, purification

Wood: father

Island: loneliness, isolation

Mountain: ambition, spiritual upliftment.

And, again according to Jung, the field of dreams is filled with deep meanings, predictions future and telepathic communication.

And our, personally, field of dreams is endless …

Dream