Dreams in colour are rarer in comparison to others. The question of colour in dreams has been proved of absorbing interest; and there has been much research into the subject. We often claim to have dreamed in colour but when we are questioned we fail to clearly tell which colours we have dreamed in or what was the colour of a particular object or so. This, to some extent, is because of our tendency to forget our dream once we are awakened.

Every colour possesses its own symbolism for everyone of us. Colours play an important psycho-physiological role in our daytime lives. Hereunder we are giving details in regard to the different colours we see in our dreams and their significance.

Red:
Lighter shades of red can be representative of excitement (especially sexually), passion, energy, and life. However, deeper or “weighed down” shades of red may be indicitive of anger and vengence. Notice how the stop sign is red; possibly a hint from your subconscious to cease and desist in a certain activity?

Orange:
Orange is considered to be a color of warmth, thoughtfulness, wisdom and sociability. Muddier shades of orange may be representative of pride or vanity, while golden orange denotes self-control.

Yellow:
A bright yellow color represents “sunniness,” joy, optimism, and intuition and mental stimulation. Muddier shades of yellow may mean blocked intuition, betrayal, treachery, and faithlessness. This color may be used by your subsconscious to help ease you out of depression.

Green:
This is the color of nature. It is also the color of development and growth. Lighter shades of green tending towards blue represent healing. Darker, muddier shades of greens represent envy and greed, as well as a stubborn and/or self-opinionated attitude. This color is also representative of money.

Blue:
Blue is a cool, calming color, often used for relaxation and meditation. It is a very spiritual color, and is representative of truth, intellect, and justice. Muddy shades of blue may denote depression or moodiness. When this color appears in your dreams, it is probably a message from your subconscious telling you to relax and take things more slowly.

Violet:
Darker shades of violet may denote a person who feels misunderstood or has obstacles to overcome. It too is a spiritual color, and brighter shades help inspire and stimulate, especially in relation to dream activity.

Black:
Because this color is often regarded as the color of death, its appearance in our dreams may represent the death of old ideas or change. Another possible explanation is that it represents a hidden or rejected aspect of the dreamer. It is the color of mystery, the unconscious, and sometimes even protection.

White:
White is often regarded as the color of purity and truth. Seeing this in your dreams may be a message from your subconscious telling you to regard the truth of a certain situation. It is also the color of completeness and innocence.

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A 45-minute midday nap can help boost your memory and remember facts, but only if you learned them well in the first place, a new study suggests.

This type of memory is called “declarative memory” and applies to standard textbook learning and knowledge, in contrast to “procedural memory,” which applies to skills. Sleep appears to help “set” these declarative memories and make them easier to recall, the researchers said.

“Sleep appears to have an impact on what is learned well, but not so much when one is not motivated to learn,” said lead researcher Matthew A. Tucker, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Sleep and Cognition.

For the study, 33 people were trained with certain declarative memory tasks. After the training, 16 took a non-REM nap, while 17 stayed awake and watched a movie. Later the same day, all the participants were tested. The tests included memorizing words, memorizing a maze and memorizing a complex line drawing.

Tucker’s team found that over three very different declarative memory tasks, taking a nap improved performance compared with staying awake. However, napping only worked for people who had really learned the task well in the first place.

“The nap group performed better overall than the awake group, but the difference wasn’t significant,” Tucker said. “However, when we looked at individual performance during training, we found those who did better during training benefited from napping,” he said.

In addition, people appeared to perform well on one task only, but not all three, Tucker said. “There is likely a basic level of learning that has to be attained before sleep can have an impact on performance,” he said.

The findings were published in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Sleep.

Tucker thinks that taking a nap may actually improve one’s memory of facts if one is motivated to learn. “There is a lot of data starting to come in that there are benefits from naps on memory,” he said.

Sara Mednick, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego’s Laboratory of Sleep and Behavioral Neuroscience, said the new study is further proof of the role of sleep on memory and learning.

“This paper is further evidence of how sleep, specifically naps, can be a tool for memory consolidation,” she said. “Interestingly, the data shows that not all subjects utilize sleep for consolidation to a similar extent.”

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1. Half a whole-wheat English muffin or raisin bagel drizzled with honey.

2. Two cups of air-popped popcorn.

3. A small slice of angel food cake topped with berries.

4. A toasted frozen whole-wheat waffle with maple syrup.

5. A half-cup of pretzels.

6. Fresh strawberries dunked in a little fat-free chocolate syrup.

7. A half-cup of pasta topped with marinara sauce.

8. A 4-ounce baked potato topped with salsa.

9. A handful of oyster crackers and a piece of fruit.

10. Canned mandarin oranges sprinkled with crystallized ginger.

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By Cheryll Gillespie

How did you sleep last night? If you tossed, turned and fretted – unable to get a good night’s rest – it could be because you don’t have a sturdy headboard behind your bed. The head of the bed is your bedroom’s focal point and is the most important treatment in this private space designed for relaxation and comfort.

The headboard you choose for your bed sets the tone for the mood and style of this dreamy space. Feng shui masters strongly advise us to have a sturdy headboard. Feng shui, the art of placing objects in relation to energy flows in order to heighten positive energies and minimize the negative ones, demands placing the headboard against a solid wall.
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I had a dream that I was watching the finale of American Idol.  I was in the audience but it was an outside venue because the crowd had grew to the size of a football stadium.  I swear I was just at an outdoor concert in the summer.  None of the contestants are people that I’ve seen before and all of the songs were songs I’ve never heard before.  They each had a special celebrity guest that they could use in their performance to help out with tv ratings.  1 girl was singing a western song and had Brad Pitt riding a mechanical bull while she sang.

The show was great and I was having fun mingling with the people in the crowd until I hear some people pass me and say, “You better vote for my favorite.”  There were thugs in the crowd trying to convince us to vote for their singer.  Next thing I heard was “FIGHT FIGHT!”  I walked over to where the crowd fled from and saw 3 dead bodies lying on the ground.

Ryan Seacrest stopped the show and told the crowd that since the voters were threatened by death if they didn’t vote a certain way and since there were actual fatalities, the show was canceled.  He made the announcement and then ran behind stage and began climbing. The crowd turned into an angry mob and started to rush the stage.  Ryan reached the top of the stage and a helicopter threw down a rope to him.   He barely escaped the crowd.  While the helicopter was trying to reel him in, the mob found a rope and was trying to throw it at Ryan Seacrest, missing him by inches.

The person that was reeling Ryan in was Mario Lopez.

But in my dream he had coral colored lipstick on.  The gayest color a man could ever wear. Turns out that there were crips, bloods, and punks in the competition who decided to win by any means necessary.  No convictions were made.

I woke up feeling traumatized.

No one actually knows why people dream. Doctors have theories though. One theory that doctors have is: When you are at school, home, or somewhere, there are so many things that are going on that you don’t think about during the day, night, etc. When you sleep, in other words dream, you think about all of the things that have happened. Also, during the day or night, if you are worried or upset, or feeling something about someone, something, etc., it all comes out. You think/ dream about it when asleep.

When people ask doctors and/or scientists,” Does everyone dream?” Scientists and/or doctors say no. Some say that they are not sure. Some people don’t dream. They can skip the 1st stage of sleep: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. Scientists and/or doctors don’t really know why some people can do this. But they can.

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Dreaming is a “mood regulatory system,” says Rosalind Cartwright, PhD, chairman of the psychology department at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She’s found that dreams help people work through the day’s emotional quandaries. “It’s like having a built-in therapist,” says Cartwright. While we sleep, dreams compare new emotional experience to old memories, creating plaid-like patterns of old images laid on top of new ones. As she puts it, “You may wake up and think, What was Uncle Harry doing in my dream? I haven’t seen him for 50 years. But the old and new images are emotionally related.” It’s the job of the conscious mind to figure out the relationship.

In fact, dream emotions can help real therapists treat patients undergoing traumatic life events. In a new study of 30 recently divorced adults, Cartwright tracked their dreams over a five-month period, measuring their feelings toward their ex-spouses. She discovered that those who were angriest at the spouse while dreaming had the best chance of successfully coping with divorce. “If their dreams were bland,” Cartwright says, “they hadn’t started to work through their emotions and deal with the divorce.” For therapists, this finding will help determine whether divorced men or women need counseling or have already dreamed their troubles away.

 What Dreams Can Do for You
Psychologists have long known that people can solve their problems at work and home by “sleeping on it.” The challenge has always been to train yourself to dream up the solutions. Deirdre Barrett, PhD, an assistant psychology professor at Harvard Medical School and editor of the journal Dreaming, advises individuals to ponder questions just before falling asleep (Should I take this job? Should I marry that guy?) and then let the subconscious provide the answers. “I’ve known artists looking for inspiration who simply dream up a future show of their art and wake up with plenty of new painting ideas,” says Barrett. “More and more people are learning these techniques to control their dreams.”

Some researchers believe that you can guide your dreams while you’re sleeping. In recent years, Stephen LaBerge, PhD, has pioneered a way of directing the sleeping mind through “lucid dreaming,” in which a sleeping person realizes he or she is dreaming while it is happening. Lucid dreamers can experience fantasy adventures — like flying to the moon, traveling through time or making love on a beach — while being fully aware that they’re dreaming. “It’s like a poor man’s Tahiti,” says LaBerge, a psychophysiologist who directs the Lucidity Institute in Palo Alto, California. “Just being in a lucid dream is a turn-on for people.”

According to LaBerge, lucid dreamers can use the experience for a variety of purposes: problem solving, developing creative ideas and healing. Patricia Keelin, a 55-year-old graphic cartographer from northern California, has used lucid dreaming for everything from talking to her long-dead father to gorging on sweets. “Chocolate always tastes better in a lucid dream because you don’t have to worry about the calories,” she says. A weak swimmer in her waking life, she often likes to go skin diving when she realizes she’s having a lucid dream, diving to the bottom of the dream ocean without worrying about breathing (or her swimming skills). “It’s exhilarating,” she says. “Lucid dreaming is great because it’s free and available to everybody.”

Well, not entirely free. Although everyone has the potential to dream lucidly, it rarely happens routinely without special training or temperament. The Lucidity Institute operates instructional workshops and retreats to spread the gospel. LaBerge has even developed a $500 device — called the NovaDreamer (novadreamer.com) — which helps individuals become participants in their dreams. Once the sleep-mask-like device recognizes the wearer is experiencing REM sleep characteristic of dreaming, it emits a flashing red light that is designed to seep into the person’s dream. “It’s like being at the opera and realizing the flashing lights at intermission mean the opera is about to start again,” says LaBerge. “The cue says that you’re dreaming so you can open yourself up to any kind of experience you want. After all, it’s your dream.”

Indeed, your dreams are like private movies where you are the star, director and writer all at once. And as the latest research indicates, you are also the most insightful movie critic — without the need of a couch. The best interpreter of your dreams is you.

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My assignment for the week is to document my dreams.

I saw my entire family lynched.

I somehow got away but they started looking for me soon after I escaped. I walked down the street of my old neighborhood and I was sobbing and disoriented. I heard a woman I had just passed say, “She went that way.” All of a sudden shots rang out and I began to run. The shooters kept missing me and hitting other people. I saw numerous people get shot down in the streets and I kept running. That’s when I woke up with a bad headache. I have no clue why my dream starred Irene Cara.

One of the worst nightmares I’ve had in a long time.

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Lynching
To see a lynching in your dream, represents feelings of self-guilt. 

The word “nightmare” has been derived from an Anglo-Saxon word “maere” which is used to describe an evil spirit who descends upon sleeping persons. Its intent is either sexual in nature or there to suffocate the sleeper.More often than not nightmares are a result of a person’s anxieties in waking life. These anxieties most likely went without being addressed during a time when that person was having anxiety dreams. If anxiety dreams are left go, they do result in a more severe nightmare form.

Nightmares sometimes feature a chase and pursuit scenario. Here too, if chase dreams are left go, this is how they end up.

Another form of a nightmare, definitely a more drastic and more serious form, is the night terror. Night terrors are nightmares that are accompanied by powerful physiological effects. The content is often shown as suffocating, choking or entrapment.

Nightmares occur during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep while night terrors occur during deep NON REM sleep. If you experience night terrors, you might want to seek out sleep therapists who can help aid in adjusting sleep habits.

Ways to help diminish nightmares:

1. Some nightmares are prophetic in nature. These dreams can aid in avoiding whatever scenario they are depicting.

2. If past waking life experiences are depicted, try to understand why you are dreaming about them by asking yourself if you’ve truly dealt with these issues.

3. Nightmares can actually help you narrow in on your current real life problems so you can deal with them.

4. Nightmares may be rooted in phobias. If this is the case, these dreams may be pushing you to tackle these phobias in waking life.

5. Specific medications could be a cause to the onset of some nightmares. Speak with a doctor if you think this is happening.

6. Dream catchers are a good item to place above your bed if you have nightmares. Native American in origin, dream catchers feature a large central net representing the world. These nets capture bad dreams before they disturb the sleeper.

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I went to college and had the best time of my life. I met a couple of people but had absolutely no friends. I was a loner and I was okay with that. The Roots came to our college to throw a concert and at the last second it was canceled due to flooding conditions.

Bilal called me on my cell and apologized for not playing at the concert. The name of the school showed up on my cell but I can’t remember it.

I walked around and ran into Mario.

We sang together on a grassy hill and tried to harmonize to “2 train“. I loved singing with him but I really didn’t hang out with him often. It turned to night. I roamed around campus and watched a couple of white boys breakdance. I was at a historically black college so they were seen as rarities. They were foreign and were trying to “act black” just because they were into hip-hop. Everybody else thought they were funny.. I thought they were interesting. I watched them while I got a bite to eat.

It was time for my class. The classroom was full of children. All of the students started to fill the room and I realized that I had written down the name of 2 books on a piece of paper. Each child had a book. Awkward as hell. Of course, I was one of the only students who had 2 books that matched up to 2 kids. I compromised. I told both of the children to sit next to each other and I’d read both books to them. They seemed happy with that. I made sure I learned their names. Michelle was a little black girl and Meagan was a little white girl with glasses and freckles.. they were both around 5 years old.

I opened the page of the first book and the sun began to eclipse. We were now outside instead of in a classroom and everyone was looking at the sky. The 2 kids that were with me admired the sun. When I looked up, I saw 2 moons in the sky. Everybody gasped and admired the many moons. The sun began to set and the moons turned an odd blue color with polka dots all over it.. like a bird’s egg. Then there were 5 moons. The moons danced in the sky and changed positions, then they all sat on the horizon. I took many pictures. The kids took off running and I ran after them. A security guard stopped me when I came to a gate and I yelled out, “Meagan, Michelle.. they won’t let me in!” I got really scared that I had lost them. The two girls turned around and came back. I hugged them both. Class was over.

The sun rose again and my phone rang. I told them about how I just saw 5 moons and they didn’t believe it. “I have pictures,” I said. “Hope they’re not too dark so I can see this time.” I felt like I was insane but I realized that other people had seen them too… mostly children though.

I woke up thinking about dodo’s eggs and power struggles.

Definitions:
To dream that you are at a concert, represents harmony and cooperation in a situation or relationship of your waking life. You are experiencing an uplift in your spirits.

To see a raging flood with its muddy debris, signifies that you will have much unsettling occurrences and tribulations in life. Your repressed emotions may be overwhelming you. To dream that you are swept away by a flood, forewarns that someone is trying to use you. To see a gentle flood, indicates that your worries over a certain matter will be soon be swept away.

The moon is an interesting symbol that connotes feminine energy; it is associated with the irrational and the intuitive. The moon effects the ocean tides, and it has been linked to madness or lunacy. As a dream symbol is can represent all of these things and more. As always, pay attention to the details in the dream before making conclusions. The moon could represent romance and our earthly impulses and passions. It could reveal things about the nature of soul and the unconscious. For those lucky people, the moon can reflect their inner peace and feelings of serenity and security.
If the moon is peculiar or weird then you will meet with many disappointments and a cheating spouse. To see the moon in your your dream, represents something hidden, mystery and the feminine aspect of your self. In particular, a full moon signifies completion.

A bright, waxing moon in a clear sky forecasts a new and exciting project (or change).A full moon means unusual success in love matters, and a harvest moon signifies unusually good returns on your investments of either energy or money. Very bright moonlight is a prophecy of family unity and/or domestic happiness.

Children in dreams could symbolize a need and an eagerness to learn, simplicity, intuition, new endeavors and many other positive attributes of childhood.
The most obvious symbolic meanings of seeing children in a dream are playfulness, innocence, and amazement. Is this the way you’re approaching life at the moment? Do you feel playful and innocent? Are you amazed by everything you see in your life?

Meagan = pearl
Michelle = who is like god

Robins and bluebirds have blue eggs.

Imagine these rolling around in the sky

Causing death has very diverse meaning depending on who dies, why and how they die, and what interpretive framework seems to fit the death. The changing ethic of death in our society may also begin to effect death in dreams. In recent years, the assisted suicide and euthanasia movements have begun to effect dream presentations of death.
The id is often revealed as a mass murderer in dreams. This is because anger and aggression that cannot be displayed publicly works its way into dreams of wish-fulfillment. Recently, stress has been popularly defined as “choking the life out of someone.”

Fortunately, the id can do for you in dreaming what the rest of you would like to do while you’re awake.

If you killed a stranger, you may well have been trying to assault a facet of your own personality that is particularly troubling, self-destructive, or shameful to you. By killing the stranger, you are showing your desire to excommunicate this bad aspect from your life. This can be valuable.

To see murder committed in your dreams, foretells much sorrow arising from the misdeeds of others. Affair will assume dulness. Violent deaths will come under your notice.

To dream that you witness a murder, indicates deep-seated anger towards somebody. Consider how the victim represents aspects of yourself that you want to destroy or eliminate.

To dream that you are murdered, suggests that some important and significant relationship has been severed and you are trying to disconnect yourself from your emotions. It also represents your unused talents.

To dream that you have been killed, suggests that your actions are disconnected from your emotions. Alternatively, it refers to drastic changes that are happening in your life. This dream may also represent a part of you or your life that you wish would leave you alone and stop creating a nuisance. Killing may represent the killing off of old parts of yourself and old habits.