Posted on by seasonsshadow

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

You may be familiar with the story of how Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, was written based on a dream she had. According to her, chapter 13, called Confessions, is essentially a transcript of that very dream. But what other books and media were based on dreams? This has been on my mind lately, so I decided to take a bit of a deeper look.

Here is a list of SOME books, video games, and TV and screen media that are all allegedly based on dreams.

  • Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
  • Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Tintin in Tibet by Georges Prosper Remi
  • Misery by Stephen King
  • Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
  • The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
  • The Returned by Jason Mott
  • Stuart Little by E.B. White
  • Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
  • Beyond the Wall of Sleep by H.P. Lovecraft
  • The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
  • 3 Women by Robert Altman
  • The Terminator by James Cameron
  • Over the Garden Wall by Patrick McHale
  • Deltarune by Toby Fox
  • Omori by developer Omocat
  • Salesforce by Marc Benioff

Now, this is an impressive list. I don’t know about you, but my dreams are often things like being on a beach, collecting pencils someone stuck in the sand to pay for some hippies to let an elephant out of their campervan. Either that, or my degree is being revoked because I missed a math test I didn’t know I needed to take. Please note that I graduated more than ten years ago.

No part of either of those things would make for a good book. Or at least not a book I personally would write. In addition, I was under the impression that adults didn’t really dream all that much anyway. Turns out, I was wrong.

On average, people can recall having dreamed 1-3 times per week, and those who report not dreaming AT ALL are the minority, only up to 6.5% of the population.

The ability to report your dreams depends on several factors.

First of all, for all those who suffer from broken sleep, good news! The more you wake up in the night, the more dreams you are likely to recall. If you are the kind of person who wakes up right in the middle of your REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, that chance is even higher. Fun fact, this is what fuelled the hypothesis that humans only dream during the REM stage of the sleep cycle. Surprise! We actually dream during all stages of sleep.

Stressed individuals tend to be able to recall and report their dreams more. My own personal theory on this is that when you have dreams while you are stressed, those dreams tend to be awkward and embarrassing. We are hardwired to remember things that are awkward and embarrassing. This is an unfair advantage for stress dreams, if you ask me.

Another thing that can affect your ability to recall your dreams is whether you are woken up abruptly or whether you are woken up gradually and naturally. If your sleep is interrupted, you are better able to recall dreams. Gradually and slowly, the dreams tend to fade faster. If you think about a dream right as you regain consciousness, this helps solidify details of the dream in your brain.

The ability to remember your dreams is also linked to creativity and intelligence.

So, what kind of dreams do people have? What are the available “genres,” so to speak? How come some people have dreams about sparkly vampires, bringing back the dead, and time-traveling robot hitmen, when the best MY brain can do is trying to chase a mouse on a pogo stick?

A popular theory is that there are seven main genres of dreams.

  • Nightmares- Distressing dreams that cause the dreamer to feel stress, fear, or other elevated negative emotions.
  • Lucid Dreams – When you have some sort of conscious control or apply agency to a dream that would otherwise progress without input.
  • Current Event Dreams – Things that have happened, you have read about, or imagined in the last day or two.
  • Metaphorical or Symbolic Dreams – Dreams that help an individual emotionally or mentally process life events from the present or the past. These dreams often have similar emotional weight to the original life event, but the subject matter may differ.
  • Fantasy or Comfort Dreams – Aspirations, compensations, or wish-fulfillments to evoke positive emotions and comfort, or a sense of control over a situation that otherwise may make an individual feel hopeless or depressed. This may be a self-soothing activity.
  • Creative and Problem-Solving Dreams – Dreams that the dreamer feels to be inspirational or give some kind of epiphany in things that can translate to real-life problems or situations.
  • Supernatural Dreams – The kind of dreams people feel are premonitions, telepathic, shared with other people, or where they believe they are visited by someone deceased.

If anyone out there has any tips on how to increase the instances of fantasy or comfort dreams and/or creative and problem-solving dreams, I’m all ears! My personal projects will certainly thank you.

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