Why don't Americans value their dreams? I mean when you dream in your sleep.

[raccoon]

Some Native Americans do, and I'm sure some other cultures too.

But to Americans, they don't value them any more than yesterday's paper. Or not as much, because they'll use yesterday's paper for the puppy.

[mike_c]

1. I think the CONTENT of dreams is essentially meaningless...

...in terms of direct relevance to waking life. My perspective, admittedly biological, is that dreams are an adaptive and safe way to entrain neural networks, so they're important, even in an evolutionary context, but that the specific contents of dreams are just the narrative drawn from experience, imagination, etc that's used to run entrainment scenarios on the wetware.

[Brickbat]

2. I love dreaming, and thinking about them. I am often a lucid dreamer (I can control what happens,

to some extent) and I spend a little time in the morning thinking about my dreams, and whether my brain might be trying to tell me something.

[RebelOne]

3. My dreams are important because often when I have a vivid dream,

something will occur in my life relating to that dream. I have had many instances of that.

[havocmom]

4. I have arrived at solutions to so many problems via dreams that I keep paper and pen at bedside

And I have become aware of details missed in my waking hours. Often that dream 'replay' focusing on details I needed to pay attention to helped much in dealing with problems or even getting to the root of them before they actually became issues.

Works well for health monitoring, as well as becoming aware of things others might be dealing with.

I know the difference between my dreams that are just 'mental bubble gum' and the ones that are bringing important info to my conscious mind. Lucid dreamers can hone many skills for accessing what lies just beneath their conscious mind.

And the really funny dreams do much to keep my spirits up. When 'real life' gives me lemons, dreams often turn them into the juggling balls of clowns. ;)

[begin_within]

5. I don't know how to interpret them. I had a dream

about a week ago that I was at José Feliciano's house and I was helping him put on his Christmas party, although I have no idea why. I've never met him. I was in his kitchen and opened the cupboard and every single glass, bowl, utensil was the same clay material in a bright lime green, and each piece had some sort of small logo on it in black which I assumed was his personal logo or something. Like he bought his entire kitchen from one supplier that custom-made it all for him. I just stood there thinking, "well, what am I supposed to do?" Then I woke up. I have no idea what it meant.

[raccoon]

7. Think about what Jose Feliciano means to you.

For instance, in one of my dreams Brian Wilson represented a utopian dream, BOb Dylan the grim reality.

[begin_within]

8. Frankly I only think about him

whenever "Feliz Navidad" comes on the radio, or a friend of mine sings "Police Never Knock" to the same tune. I remember that he had a recording studio in Orange, California, the town I grew up in, but I never saw him even when passing by that place. I guess he represents to me the possiblity of becoming a widely-known and respected artist in spite of a disability (blindness in his case, but it could be applied to anyone with something that might be seen a limiting them). I guess that's what he represents to me.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Because they're meaningless and boring.

Sure, there's some seemingly interesting imagery on the surface. But if you kept track of dreams it's just a load of random, meaninglesss nonsense.

[arbusto_baboso]

9. Beacuse the American Dream is dead.

[LaraMN]

10. Personally, I'm not a fan of tooth loss, zombie vampires,

flesh-rotting plagues, or grocery shopping. Which is what most of my dreams seem to be about. I would totally value a good dream!

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. My cat's breath smells like cat food, even in my dreams.