The 10 types of dreams (and their characteristics)

A classification of the types of dreams that exist and how we experience them when we sleep.

We spend a good part of our lives sleeping and, while we sleep, we are presented with all kinds of visions, images and scenes, in other words, we dream.

Dreams are very diverse. We can dream about practically anything, any situation, any person... There are those who claim to have dreamt the same thing as an acquaintance of theirs, others who have had premonitions or that a relative who has gone to the afterlife has shown up in their dream world to ask them to finish their last wishes.

We could make an almost infinite list of different kinds of dreams according to what is shown to us in them; however, we have chosen to create a classification of dreams according to their nature. Let's discover what types of dreams exist.

What are dreams and how can they be classified?

We spend about 25 years of our lives sleeping. Of all that time we sleep, it is inevitable that at some point we will dream, with the estimate being that we spend about 8 years of our lives immersed in our dream world. What we dream varies from person to person and of course, as they say, "dreams are dreams".

But what do we mean by dream? The most precise and scientific definition is that are projections of images that our brain generates and that we "see" while we are asleepAt this time, our mind seems to be resting, but at the same time, we remain in a state of consciousness, although disconnected from what is happening around us.

Although we sleep to rest, this does not mean that we turn off our brain. Our brain never stops (it would be very worrying if it did) and, in fact, it has been shown that during the night our mind can be very active.

Our sleep is divided into two phases: REM and non-REM. The REM phase ("rapid eyes movements") is the phase in which rapid eye movements occur. This phase represents about 25% of the sleep cycle, and we enter it about 4 or 5 times each night, entering it for the first time about 90 minutes after falling asleep. In contrast, the non-REM phase represents about 75% of the sleep cycle and is the stage without rapid eye movements.

It is during the REM phase that memory is consolidated, being the time when we select what will become part of our long-term memory. In other words, while we are in REM phase we are forgetting or retaining information that has been captured during wakefulness, information with which we can dream..

Everyone is free to attribute meaning to their dreams. Regardless of what they may mean, it is a fact that dreams are fascinating because, despite being so commonplace, they are also sources of mystery and great questions, something that has motivated some people to try to interpret them, while science is not very optimistic about whether they really have a real meaning.

The diversity of dreams that we can have is immense, since they are based on our imagination. based on our imagination, we can dream about anything, any situation and any person.. We can be the protagonist of our dreams or we can make another person, real or invented, the protagonist. Whatever we dream about, the truth is that dreams can be classified according to how they are presented and their nature. We can speak of different types of dreams, which we will see below.

The types of dreams (explained).

Now that we have understood what dreams are, we will go on to talk about what types exist. The categories that we will see next do not conform an official classification, but rather a grouping of the different groups in which we can include those visions that appear to us while we sleep.

1. Conventional dreams

Conventional dreams are those more common, those that deal with subjects of our daily life or that interest us. In them, people, experiences and things that are part of our daily lives take center stage, even though when we wake up, we usually forget about their content.

We may dream of our family, of going on a trip to a new place, flying, being chased, taking an ESO math test... anything and any situation can appear in them, but they have in common that they are more or less conventional, typical situations.

2. Recurrent dreams

Recurrent dreams are those that are repeated several times, either on the same night or on different nights..

They are curious dreams that are experienced more or less exactly the same over and over again, repeating the same actions, with the same people and the same situations each time. They are not always exact copies of each other, but the degree of alteration is usually miniscule.

3. Nightmares

Nightmares are unpleasant dreams in which situations of danger, panic and discomfort may appear to us.. For this reason, they constitute one of the most popularly known types of dreams.

We do not like to have this type of dreams, something evidenced in the strongly negative emotional response they generate, especially in the form of fear, sadness and anxiety. They are dreams that induce us to have terror?

What causes them is very varied, but among the main causes are having experienced traumatic events, being sick, having had a copious dinner, having bad eating habits, having little sleep, being on medication or suffering from a sleep disorder. Also they can appear without apparent cause and, if we have nightmares very occasionally, we should not worry because everybody has them sometime.

4. Lucid dreams

The lucid dreams are daydreams in which we are totally conscious of that we are dreaming.. As a general rule we wake up at the moment when we realize that we are dreaming, although this is not always the case and, surprising as it may seem, we can train and practice the ability to convert our dreams into lucid dreams.

It is striking to know that there are people who have such lucid dreams that they are not simply aware that they are dreaming, but that they can also control the dream, what it is about and what they are doing while they are dreaming it. During lucid dreams we can control our body, thoughts and events within the dream.

5. Precognitive dreams

Some call them precognitive dreams, but by proxy we can call them prophetic dreams or dreamlike premonitions. They are those dreams in which we see something that, after some time has passed since we had the dream, that which we dreamed seems that it has become reality..

They are dreams that one could well say mystical, paranormal, visions that predict the future although science is more inclined to consider that it is simply a coincidence, that we have dreamed of something and then it has happened as it might not have happened.

There are those who say that rather than being prophecies, what actually happens is that our subconscious is preparing for something that is probably going to happen, without us realizing it. Our subconscious "speaks" to us in dreams causing us to dream about it and, after a while, what it had predicted would most likely happen happens.

But precognitive dreams are not the only apparently paranormal dreams that are said to exist. There are many people who report having lived mystical experiences while sleeping, in which they claimed to have tuned into other people's minds or to have been visited by otherworldly specters. Among these we have:

• Telepathic dreams: dreaming that they are communicating with us, be it a person or something.
• Shared dreams: that two or more people dream of the same thing at the same time.
• Dreams of visitation: to dream that a loved one who has died visits us while we sleep, in a very lucid way, to transmit their will to us before leaving for the afterlife.

6. False awakenings

Sometimes it happens that we dream about life itself. We wake up, look at the time on our cell phone, make ourselves a cup of tea, take a shower and bam! We discover that we are still in bed and all that has not happened..

This is called false awakening, a type of dream in which we see, with total lucidity, how we wake up and start the day like every morning to later realize that in reality it has been our subconscious that has played a trick on us. These are dreams in which we dream that we wake up. Curious, isn't it?

7. Daydreams

Daydreams involve dreaming while we are awake. Some say they are dreams, while others say they are not, because the person is awake.. Whatever they are, what is clear is that they are related to dreams and we can consider them as a special type of dreams.

We say that a person has a "daydream" when he/she perceives the immediate reality in a diluted form, as if he/she were having a very lucid dream in spite of being awake. It is as if they were in a kind of hypnotic trance, receiving visual stimuli but perceiving them in an unreal way, as if they were hallucinations or something alien to them.

8. Healing dreams

Healing dreams are those in which we are immersed in a situation in which we have the gift of being able to heal other people, either by means of telepathy, telekinesis or magical gift. These are dreams that manifest our desire to be able to help others, to cure life-threatening illnessesThey are dreams that manifest our desire to be able to help others, to cure life-threatening illnesses or to solve a problem, disorder or disease we are suffering from.

9. Metaphorical dreams

Metaphorical dreams, also called symbolic dreams, are those dreams that daydreams that represent something of our life in the form of a situation that represents it, but not in a direct way.. For example, let's say that a person is going through a very difficult time, in which everything is going uphill. Maybe, when sleeping, he dreams that he is climbing a mountain, a geographical feature that represents the difficulties of his day to day life.

Metaphorical dreams are preferred by the psychological and parapsychological currents that consider that dreams can be interpreted. In fact, those who are in favor of dream interpretation consider as metaphorical dreams practically anything we dream about. Each one is free to believe if what we dream really has some symbolism or if it is nothing more than simple images and random scenes...

10. Creative and inspiring dreams

There are some dreams that are very inspiring and, moreover, bring with them creative ideas or the answer to our day-to-day problems for which we have not been able to find a solution while we were awake.. They are dreams that, at the moment of awakening, are lived as if they had been revelations.

A famous case of this type of dream was experienced by Paul McCartney, who claims that one day he dreamt of a melody that, with a few adjustments, would become the famous song "Yesterday" by the Beatles. Another example is what happened to James Watson, who dreamed of two snakes coiling around each other, a revelation that would become his model of the DNA for which he would win the Nobel Prize.