What we know so far........

After studying some of the scientific literature on dreams, we know how dreams relate to waking life based on comparisons to normative data. That is, a sample of dreams are compared to a large sample of "norms". Research has linked specific dream imagery to waking life circumstances. For example, we know that the dreams of people will a specific illness differ from people without that illness. Research has also examined dream meaning and has found valuable and useful techniques for clinical practice. Dream therapy has become a mainstream tool for both therapist-guided and self-guided therapies. Knowing what you know now about dreams, dream research, and dream therapy, how has this changed your paradigm of the science of dreaming and consciousness (if it has at all!)?

Dream with sexual imagery: What do they mean?

Interestingly, dreams with sexual imagery are one of the most common forms of imagery yet very little empirical research was devoted to them. Writers hypothesized, wrote about and pontificated about them with little empirical evidence of why they occur. More recent research has found that about 20% of dreams with sexual imagery are about a sexual relationship and 80% are about a waking day relationship. The waking day information is generally not sexual in nature. For example, discovery about one's spouse (we need to spend more time together), a co-worker (she is the type of partner I would like in my life) or a family member (I need to forgive someone) is the most common form of meaning. Furthermore, discovery is usually not related to the target in the dream but to a waking day relationship. How might this information help clinicians when working with people in therapy?