Dream Disturbances

Nothing could be madder, more irresponsible, more dangerous than this guidance of men by dreams. - George Santayana Our dreams disturb us because they refuse to pander to our fondest notions of ourselves. The closer one looks, the more they seem to insist upon a challenging proposition: You must live truthfully. Right now. And always. Few forces in life present, with an equal sense of inevitability, the bare- knuckle facts of who we are, and the demands of what we might become. - Marc Ian Barasch, Healing Dreams It is impracticable, however, to keep our sleep free from stimuli; they impinge upon the sleeper from all sides - like the germs of life which Mephistopheles complained - from without and from within and even from parts of his body which are quite unnoticed in waking life. Thus sleep is disturbed; first one corner of the mind is shaken into wakefulness and then another; the mind functions for a brief moment with its awakened portion and is then glad to fall asleep once more. Dreams are a reaction to the disturbance of sleep brought about by a stimulus - a reaction, incidentally, which is quite superfluous.

Problem-Solving Dreams

Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. -Anonymous In addition to the personal relevance of dreams it is becoming increasingly clear that they are also a source of knowledge for understanding issues beyond the individual concerns of a given dreamer. Social problems, some physical diseases, parallels with the findings of modern physics are a few of the domains that we know dreams address.. - J. Gary Sparks I took the family alarm clock and went into the spare bedroom that night, and set it for an hour and a half. And thereafter when I was working on a story I would waken myself every hour and a half through the night - force myself to wake up, think of the story, try to solve it, and even as I as thinking about it I would fall back asleep. And in the morning there would be a solution for that particular story problem. Now, that's penetrating the sub-conscious in my opinion. It's penetrating it in a way that I don't think they'll be able to do any better, thirty centuries from now. - A. E. van Vogt, in Dream Makers Both Thomas Edison and Harry Truman had one thing in common. Whenever they faced a problem for which they had no solution, they excused themselves and took naps. When they awoke, each invariably had the answer to his problem. - Dusty Bunker I have known advocates who have pleaded in dreams, mathematicians who have sought to solve problems; and poets who have composed verses. I have made some myself which are very passable. It is therefore incontestable that constructive ideas occur in sleep as well as when we are awake. - Voltaire On one level the personality attempts to solve problems through dream construction... and often this gives freedom to actions that cannot be expressed within the confines of waking life. - Seth (by Jane Roberts) The fact is indisputable that when our ordinary waking consciousness or will goes to sleep or rest, or even dozes, that instant an entirely different power takes command of the myriad forces of memory. ... This power ... knows things hidden from Me, and can do what I cannot. - Charles Leland, the historian of witchcraft

Dreaming about getting fired.

Dreaming of getting fired from a job may indicate that you subconciously want to end some relationship or situation in your waking life. This dream also suggests that you are repressing what you really desire most.

While these kinds of dreams may highlight your subconscious emotional reactions to situations at work, they can also present solutions to these situations by representing your subconscious emotional state, both in your work-life and beyond it. Dreaming about being at work in general most obviously indicates a feeling of being overworked, or of being overwhelmed by career issues. It can also be a sign that you need to be more productive at work.

Dreaming about having to make an unexpected presentation.

Being unprepared in front of a crowd can symbolize a fear of being exposed, or a fear that those around you know things about you they are not telling you about. Often the occasion of the speaking or the audience members will suggest something to you about an area of your life where people are looking too closely for your comfort. This dream is similar to the nudity dream in that exposure and inadequacy are themes in the dream. The dream may be an attempt to expose a weakness that you are covering up and close scrutiny often reveals trouble where you thought everything was fine.