Dr. Sigmund Freud had it wrong -- again. He was of the opinion that dreams allowed our unconscious minds to allow us to know our secret desires. Well, since birds dream, this theory seems unlikely.

Our ancestors believed that dreamtime sent our bodies through the spiritual realm and in this way, we could foretell the future. Oh, and another little reason for dreaming. If we didn't dream at all, we'd go mad!

We may have touched on this before, but it's worth another look. In the third trimester of a baby's development in the mother's womb, all the instincts necessary for its survival when it sees the light of day; fear, confidence, intellect, imagination, etc., are all programmed into its little brain.

Now, the interesting part is that the pre-birth programming, hypnotic trance and Rapid Eye Movement are all connected. If you watch a person under hypnosis, you can sometimes see their eyes fluttering as the pupils move rapidly from one side to the other.

Nature occasionally makes a mistake when programming in those instincts to the tiny baby. It may give it an instinct of low self-esteem. This is where hypnosis is so incredibly useful. A good hypnotherapist, or indeed you yourself after some practice, can place you in trance, therefore in a state of Rapid Eye Movement, or R.E.M. or dreamsleep, and suggest to you that there's absolutely no reason for your lack of self-esteem.

You notice I said 'suggest'. You never tell a person, yourself included, what to do. I listened to a hypnotherapist the other day, and he used words like; 'you WILL go down deeper. You WILL relax'. This is totally wrong. No-one likes being 'told' what to do. 'Perhaps if you were to try relaxing...' is much better. I'm no hypnotherapist, so if someone reads this article, I'm sure they can come up with more suitable hypnotic language, but even my humble effort is better than this character's.

Is there a reason for dreams? For a long time, all sorts of theories have been bandied about regarding the reasons. It wasn't until about 15 years ago, that a brilliant doctor named Joseph Griffin, after ten years of study, came up with the real, cogent reasons for dreaming and their explanations.

During this ten years, he noted down his own dreams, and then collected dreams from hundreds of other people. This gave him the groundwork upon which he began his studies.

The first thing he found out was that dreaming helps to keep your instincts intact. Ever watch your cat dreaming? She's after that mouse! You feed your cat every day, (I hope), and therefore its hunting instinct doesn't come into play. But when she sleeps, back comes that instinct when she's in her R.E.M. stage of her sleep.

The second thing he discovered is that in human beings, our dreams are concentrated on what's emotionally important to us. Actually, this has been fairly obvious for a long time. But the other thing he discovered is that our dreams are always in metaphor. The metaphor may come from watching television or even from your own imagination.

The symbol of the dream isn't necessarily important. What is important is unwrapping your feelings from the previous day. It's the emotion that must be played out.

For instance, supposing you had a knock down drag out with your husband. You both went away and simmered, but then came back and, sensibly, apologized to one another and swore eternal love. That emotion would have been played out.

However, suppose you were as mad as a snake with your boss, but didn't dare roust him, because he might roust you right out of the door. Then there's no fulfillment. But that night, you'll dream it out metaphorically, and complete the emotional circuit, thereby leaving your brain clear for tomorrow's joys.

I do hope you've found this article helpful