When you keep a dream journal for a while—and take the time to understand the dreams—you’ll note that sometimes two or more consecutive dreams are related.
On the surface, they may or may not have the same subjects in them. Rather, it’s the meaning or the category that’s related.
It’s not unlike a series of lectures from a university professor. He’ll make a statement: “Price is (usually) inversely correlated with demand.” When the price of something goes up, the demand goes down.
Then he draws an illustration on an overhead projection:
Then, the professor gives examples of where this is true. “This is called an elastic demand curve.”
Then, he gives another example, one where the supply can’t increase. “This is an inelastic demand curve.”
Then he might tell a story to drive home the concept.
If the professor was your subconscious ruminating about life, all together the dreams would be considered a “dream season.” Next week, you’ll be on to another class.
Unlike the course at the university, it’ll be the same professor.
Dreams
You might have five dreams about your friend. They aren’t necessarily directly about your friend. Rather, they’re inspired by your relationship with her.
In the first dream, the point seems to be that people should try to communicate clearly. In the dream, people are speaking fast, and you can’t understand what they’re saying. Your friend struggles to understand others and to be understood too.
In another, birds are coming home to roost. That, too, is about your friend who has done a lot of things that are leading to problems.
In a third dream, a baby sits in the middle of a sidewalk crying and abandoned. That too is about your friend who seems to be immature and about to be abandoned by the family whom she neglected.
You’re not being hard on your friend. You’re noticing things about her from an outside perspective. You’re learning, and it’s good to learn from others. It beats the hell out of making all those mistakes for yourself. Whatever we can learn from observing our environment and from others’ mistakes helps us to make good decisions. Your friend is one of those “beautiful trainwrecks” we meet in life but you like her despite her being a little screwed up.
Common dream seasons concern relationships with others (friends and family), basic human needs, the future, and your job.
Characteristics of Dream Seasons
Seasons usually run consecutively. You might have several dreams that deal with your job and coworkers and your place in the group. The season may come to an end, interrupted by a one-off, a dream that’s single, stands alone, and is unrelated to others. Conversely, one dream season might end and another immediately start.
What the dreams are about on the surface doesn’t matter. The underlying focus of the dream makes for the season. For example, two seasons might feature dreams about your job and coworkers, but the focus behind the dreams changes.
Biff in accounting and Sally in operations can be the main characters, but one dream season deals with your place in the office, and the other deals with what you want to do with the rest of your career.
Over time, the length of seasons will change. When I was younger, the seasons would stretch to a week or more. As I grew older, and maybe more practiced at thinking about these situations, they grew shorter and I cycled through dreaming about different topics.
This fits a pattern of life. With your first serious relationship, your first job you’re learning a lot more. The changes aren’t so drastic when you’ve changed workplaces a few times. You learn more about people and bosses.
Seasons are best noticed in retrospect
It’s important to realize the topic of a dream doesn’t make for a season, rather, the underlying concern does.
On the surface, one dream can be about someone you know named Jack, another can be about Tina, and another can be about otters in outer space. Only until you take the time to understand the dreams do you realize that you’re trying to figure out how you can have fun on a budget. Jack can do this, Tina can’t, and the otters in space represent something you’d want to save up for. You realize that space travel, while expensive, would be pretty cool. And otters, well, they seem like a thrifty animal to you.
Do what Jack does. Don’t do what Tina does. And maybe you can have a good impact on the world while having cool experiences.
Why does it pay to notice dream seasons?
It’s organization. It’s the difference between having something broken in your house and knowing right where the tool you need to fix it is located.
If you can’t find the tool, you can’t fix anything.
You uncover all kinds of stuff about yourself in dreams, namely what you are concerned with. When you’ve gotten to the point of why you’ve dreamed about what you dreamed about, you can refer to it. You’ve become more self-aware.
Damnit, I like feeling secure in my job and with my career! Maybe I need to remove this existential threat to my place in the company!
Jake treats Marlene like shit! He doesn’t appreciate what he’s got. I’m not going to make that mistake with Eunice no matter how crazy she acts.
You can also use your knowledge of your dream seasons to try to explain yourself to others.
I’m sorry if I’ve seemed so standoffish lately. It’s just that I’ve been worried about my job/ the direction of the country/ what I’m going to do with the rest of my life/ (fill in the blank).
Julifer, I’m worried about you. You don’t seem to be applying yourself in school. I’ve made that mistake; I’ve regretted it. You don’t realize that you’ve got a lot riding on the line. (and then you’re able to tell Julifer what you remember about being her age and feeling stir-crazy in school. You’ve been reminded of what it feels like because of your dreams).
Look at the trends in your dream journal and see the seasons. What you see may surprise you.
James Cobb RN, MSN is a dream expert and the founder of one of the top sleep blogs on the Internet.
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