Workplace Dream Analysis

 Sigmund Freud Museum at Příbor. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

      Large companies such as Google or Zappos have introduced innovative ideas such as free lunch, gyms, and nap pods.   Employees are a company's greatest resource.  Why not tap into it and develop it for the mutual benefit of the employee and the business?   The innovations geared toward the employee are a great investment for a company to make.

      As I was thinking along these lines recently, it occurred to me that perhaps delving into the subconscious world of employees could be a useful way to come up with exciting ideas for the company as well as a means of allowing the employees to understand their own problems and concerns that dreams reveal.  A company could establish a psychological aspect to human resources to help employees study their dreams for self-help and as a tool for developing on the job ideas.

       Standard practices concerning confidentiality between patient and psychologist would have to be in place in order to protect the patient in regard to the personal issues that would be revealed by such analysis.   Also, employees would probably need to undergo certain classes or educational procedures to assist them in dealing with the concepts of dream analysis as a personal help as well as a creative tool that they could use for themselves and the company.

       The legal implications would be of vital concern to both employer and employee and need to be considered.    Questions of  employee privacy or ownership of new ideas the company uses would have to be addressed. Bonus plans, incentives, or other types of remuneration could be implemented, but then again it might be considered part of the job upon hiring.

        Dreams are a natural human resource that could be mined for the use of the individual as well as the company.   The idea holds exciting prospects as well as scary possibilities.  Maybe one day extricating new ideas from dreams will be the norm in employee-employer relationships.  Then again it could be a component of a brave new world of spying and idea stealing that could be totalitarian society that most of us would not want to live in.

         Would you like to have access to confidential psychological or psychiatric treatment that was provided by your employer?    If there was a possibility of receiving large bonuses or lucrative payouts from your ideas, would you allow your company to engage in dream mining?    What dangers could you foresee in allowing an employer to gain access to your subconscious mind?

Related articles

• HR Advisor
• Should Companies Provide Free Lunch to Their Employees?
• GPA Announces Partner Session at DscoopX
• Office perks: What employees really want

Quips ( #atozchallenge )

Dream Journal - Material things (Photo credit: AlisonQuine)

      There is usually not much dialogue that I can remember in my dreams.  Typically my dream activities seem to be done in silence.  Every once in a while there will be a closing quip right before I awaken.  This will be a sort of summarizing statement or a punchline to the dream.

       Offhand I can't remember any of these except for one.  In a dream with my father he states, "That's what you get for being a smart aleck."  This is a statement he used to admonish me with at times when I had received my comeuppance for something I had done that he didn't like.  I'm not sure what the dream activity had been to deserve this, but it probably related to something I had done in the past.

       Some of the other dream quips are recorded in my old dream journals, but most were never recorded and have been lost.  This is too bad as I wish I had saved these.  There were actually some funny lines delivered in those dreams as well as some very ambiguous references.  If these were compiled, some meaning might be derived from them.

        The more enigmatic quips probably do have some sort of symbolism related to what was said.  Other quips may represent personal assessments about something I've done in waking life or something that is happening or may be going to happen.  The quips may be common statements that I've heard in waking life like the one from my father or they may be statements that are mostly original to the dream and sound appropriate in the context of that dream.

        The meaning or purpose of dream quips is more than likely dependent on the content of the quip and context where it has been used.

         Have you ever "heard" quips spoken in your dreams?   Who usually says them?  Do they make sense? What do you think our minds are telling us in these quips?

Related articles

• Inclusion (#atozchallenge 2013)
• Exits
• Dream Experts Reveal How Tax Day Can Affect Dreams
• Juggling (#atozchallenge 2013)

Sickness Sleeping

English: sleeping Japanese macaques in Kanba falls
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

         No, I didn't reverse the words in my title.  I meant exactly what I wrote:  Sickness Sleeping--those long expanses of sleep time during which may dream and dream some more.  Sometimes when fever accompanies ones sleep while ill this is referred to as fever dreams.

          Last week, when I was quite ill and spent much time in bed, I would sleep for hours throughout the day and during the night.  As I slept, I dreamed seemingly long dreams that would continue even after awakening and then returning to sleep.

           Now I don't recall what any of those dreams were, only that I had dreamed them.  I wanted to write them down, but in the dull ache of illness I had no desire to be writing dreams.  My brief sorties to the computer were spent checking emails.   I did compose my brief blog notices why I didn't feel like posting anything, but I was in no mood to be recording dreams in any way.

           I can recall having dreams during sick times when I was a child and later in life as well.  Dreams would be expected during these times since so much sleep can be involved with being sick.   Often it seems that the dreams during sickness are stranger and more vivid.  Perhaps this is partially due to the fact that being bedridden we are confronted with less realistic events during the waking hours--less for our mind to interpret or sort out.  Our waking hours may consist of more television watching, reading, or just suffering through our discomforts.  In these times of sickness the dream times are almost as equally real and important as our waking times.

          Have you experienced more vivid and prolonged dream sessions when bedridden with illness?  What types of sickness dreams do you tend to experience?   

Related articles

• The Strange & Surprising Science of Sleep
• Dream: Awakening The Sleeping Ones
• Can't stop lucid dreaming

Back to School

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

          Here is a recent dream that may have occurred over a period of an hour or two before waking.  As I dreamed this I woke up a number of times and then returned to sleep and back to the continuation of the dream. 

          In my dream I am at my cousin's house.  It is a very large convoluted place beside what appears to be a lake.  There seem to be many people present.  In the house I have my own room which seems to have one wall missing and opened onto a deck area overlooking the lake.

            I have to leave for some reason and find myself in a vast shopping mall-like place.  After I've gone to do whatever it was I needed to do I start looking for my room.  At first I find it readily, but then go back and make repeated attempts to find my room.  Each time it gets more difficult to find it.   The shopping mall begins to seem more like an indoor city as there are more than just stores.

            Eventually I am back in my room and realize I have to get ready to go to school.  I have the understanding in the dream that somehow some of my high school credits were invalid and I have to return to high school to get my degree.  My wife helps me get dressed in some clothes that seem very strange for me.  They are in garish colors and have a mod sort of design.  I have problems putting my belt on because of the way the belt loops are made and my wife helps me put the belt on.

          Then my "room" becomes the classroom.  It is very large with no back wall and the lake in the background.   There are numerous tables that are like picnic tables made of a plastic-like substance and well over a hundred students are sitting at the tables or milling about the classroom.   No classroom study activities seem to be occurring, but there is much socializing.  I see no teacher presence and the students seem to be running this environment.  

            A couple of well dressed young men that I know to be drug dealers are circulating the tables selling their merchandise.   They are very clean-cut looking young men.  One has a natty suit and a smart fedora and a bright toothy smile that makes him look very friendly.  His associate not as well dressed but still dressed very fashionably and he has the same exact smile so that the two almost look like brothers though I know that they're not.  I'm curious about the drugs they are selling and hope they will approach me.

           Beside me a very cute petite teenage girl is flirting with me.  I become very interested in her.  I briefly think that she is far too young for me.  But then I realize that all the students are accepting me as one of them. They see me as cool and having authority, but I feel more their age than my waking life age and start to believe that I too am a teenager.   I am having very positive feelings about being back in school and I feel young.

            There are a number of  themes present in the dream that have a commonality with other dreams that I've had, including the big house, the large shopping center, and the meandering city that seems to be enclosed.   Then there is the back to school scenario.  I have often dreamed that I was back in school again as a student.  Sometimes it is college while other times it is high school.   Frequently the dreams have to do with being unprepared for a test, being lost in the school, or a situation where other students look up to me.  Anxiety is usually short-lived in these dreams and everything usually becomes very positive.  

               Do you ever dream of being back in school?   Are they anxiety ridden dreams or are they pleasant dreams?    How do your school dreams compare with how your actual school experience was?   Are there rooms in your dreams that have a wall missing?

Related articles

• In which I mourn the loss of my youth

  ---

• Old Friends, Lost Boots, Groceries, Mother, Child, and a Dream Interpreted

  ---

• Dream State

  ---

• A year inside Joplin's 'mall school'

  ---

To Remember or Not To Remember?

Art by Ada Zdanowicz

        How many times have you heard someone say or you yourself say:  "I don't dream." or "I can never remember my dreams."?

         Though it is not uncommon to not remember dreams, studies show that everyone dreams during sleep and dreams frequently throughout the sleep cycles.  Sleep research studies have indicated that sleep deprivation can lead to serious physical and mental consequences including confusion and hallucinations.  In essence, if we are not permitted to dream during sleep our minds will begin to "dream" in wakefulness through what is termed lucid dreaming.

          Some of us prefer not to remember our dreams and possibly create a subconscious mental block that makes us believe we have not dreamed.  Yet research indicates that even those who consider themselves to be non-dreamers will show changes in brain activity during certain sleep cycles that suggest dream activity is occurring.

           Remembering dreams can be achieved through self-training which requires time in the morning that most of us are not willing to set aside.   We are too busy trying to get ready for the day ahead, eat breakfast, or whatever it is we do in the morning.  However, if dreams are not remembered immediately they will typically be forgotten very quickly.

           Keeping a pen and notebook close at hand can help dream memory training.  One should write down their morning thoughts that may be related to something they were dreaming.  If there are any dream memories write those down as well.  Focusing on these memories for a few minutes might begin to evoke the memories of what had been dreamed prior to awakening

        These actions may allow one to begin to develop a greater consciousness about what they might have dreamed.   However we typically don't have the patience or put aside the time to develop dream memory.  A drive to develop dream memory must be present.  It is a discipline that must be practiced on an ongoing basis in order for remembering ones dreams to become easier.

          You do dream whether you remember or not.  People who don't remember dreams may have had a traumatic childhood memory that has created a fear of remembering dreams; may be trying to repress troubling thoughts that recur in their dreams; may have merely conditioned their minds not to remember; or any number of other reasons.

          If you want to remember your dreams but can't, it might require extensive self-examination or even analysis by a professional such as one trained in psychology or sleep study.  Remembering your dreams is not crucial to getting by in life, but it can be enlightening to study them to try to understand what they are telling you.   If you are not experiencing dream recall, you might be missing some important messages that your mind or body are trying to tell you.

         Have you ever kept or do you now keep a dream journal?   If you are one who believes you don't dream, can you recall a time when you did or do you remember a traumatic dream event that frightened you a great deal?   Have you ever experienced hallucinations due to sleep deprivation?





       

Related articles

• Do you usually remember your dreams? (blatherskiteblog.com)
• Remembering Dreams (ebenezerjmalyi.wordpress.com)
• How to Bear in Mind Your Dreams (socyberty.com)
• Remembering Dreams (laurieanichols.wordpress.com)
• Remembering Dreams (misswhiplash.wordpress.com)
• Lucid Dreaming Training (zazenlife.com)
• Lucid dreams (karunamettacat.wordpress.com)
• How to Keep The Dreams in Mind (socyberty.com)
• How to remember your dreams (oneirolog.wordpress.com)
• What's Behind The Dream (socyberty.com)
• Lucid Dreams (healthymemory.wordpress.com)
• Lucid dreamers could offer an 'insight into consciousness' (time4sleep.co.uk)
• Lucid Dreamers, MRI Provide Window Into Dreams (psychcentral.com)
• How to shake off vivid dreams in the morning... (ask.metafilter.com)