83 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
83 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
Taken from AMERICAN HEALTH July/August 1987.
|
|
|
|
How to problem-solve in your dreams
|
|
-----------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Your dreams are "written" in your own private vocabulary; that's why
|
|
their menaing is often unclear (and why dream books you buy at the corner
|
|
newsstand won't explain your own visions). Moreover, the language of dreams
|
|
is sensory and visual, whereareas the language of daily life is verbal. You
|
|
need to translate a dream much as you would a foreign language.
|
|
Unfortunately, the same force s that make us disguise problems in our
|
|
dreams are likely to hinder our recognizing them whne we're awake. Even
|
|
Freud had trouble with self-analysis. So an impartial listener - atrained
|
|
therapist - can help. "It's a collaborative process," says New York
|
|
psychoanalyst Walter Bonime, author of the classic text, THE CLINICAL USE OF
|
|
DREAMS (Da Capo Press, $29.50)
|
|
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't explore your dreams alone or with a
|
|
partner. People who keep dream journals say that over time, patterns often
|
|
emerge.
|
|
To put your dreams to work solving problems, try this routine:
|
|
|
|
o Program yourself to wake up after every REM period. I did it while
|
|
writing this article simply by telling myself I wanted to at bedtime. But
|
|
don't make it a regular habit. "The ability to maintain consciousness
|
|
during sleep can backfire," says Dr. Neil Kavey, director of the
|
|
Columbia-Presbyterian sleep lab. "If you can't shut it off, you may have
|
|
trouble remaining asleep, or you may sleep so poorly that you feel you
|
|
didn't sleep at all."
|
|
|
|
o Put a notebook and pen or tape recorder at your bedside.
|
|
|
|
o At bedtime, select a problem and sum it up with a question, such as
|
|
"Should I take this new job?" Write it down and list possible solutions.
|
|
|
|
o Turn off the lights and reflect on these solutions. Stick with it until
|
|
you drift off to sleep.
|
|
|
|
o When you wake up - during the night or in the morning - lie still. To jog
|
|
your memory, pretend you're a detective interviewing an eyewitness.
|
|
What's the last thingyou remember? Before that? Going backward can help
|
|
you more easily reconstruct a dream.
|
|
|
|
o Write down or tape record all that you remember. Do it before you shower
|
|
and have breakfast.
|
|
|
|
o If you have trouble catching dreams, try sleeping late on weekends
|
|
The longest dreams occur in the last part of sleep and many of us cut
|
|
sleep short on week nights.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Once you've recorder your dream, how do you decode it? Tell it to yourself
|
|
in the third person, suggest psychologist Lillie Weiss in DREAM ANALYSIS IN
|
|
PSYCHOTHERAPY (Pergamon Press, $11.95). This may give you some distance from
|
|
the dream and help you see the actions more clearly. Then look at the part
|
|
of the dream that is the most mysterious. "Frequently the most incongruous
|
|
part provides the dream message," Weiss says.
|
|
In her dream-therapy study, Cartwright asks participants to examine and
|
|
try to change repetitive, troublesome dreams along seven dimensions:
|
|
|
|
o Time orientation. Do all your dreams take place in the past? Try
|
|
positioning them in the present or future.
|
|
|
|
o Competence to affect the outcome. Try finding a positive way to resolve a
|
|
dream.
|
|
|
|
o Self-blame. In yor dreams, do you hold yourself responsible when things
|
|
go wrong? Must you?
|
|
|
|
o Relation to former role: If your divorced, do you still dream of yourself
|
|
as married? If you have lost your job, do you still see yourself at work?
|
|
Consider alternatives.
|
|
|
|
o Motivation. Do you dream of being nurtured? Can you think of a way to
|
|
take care of yourself?
|
|
|
|
o Mood. What would make a dream more pleasant?
|
|
|
|
o Dream roles: Do you like the part you play in your dreams? What role
|
|
would you prefer?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|