The psychology of dreams

Ever wondered about why some people dream more often, or what the content of dream are all about, or whether dreams can be a useful thing to discus with your psychologist or therapist? Our clinical psychologist, Julia Roth, shares some thoughts below about the psychology of dreams and the different ways that dreaming has been understood within psychology over the years.

Gateway to the unconscious or just fragments of the day?

We’ve all had mornings where a dream felt so vivid it lingered all day. While on other days, the night passes in silence and we remember nothing at all. Dreams can be vivid or fragmented, emotionally intense or neutral, frequent or rare. For some, recalling dreams is effortless, while for others, the night seems blank. What accounts for these differences? And what meaning, if any, should we attach to the stories our minds create while we sleep?

Why do some people remember dreams more often?

Not everybody wakes up with an exciting dream to recount. And science suggests this isn’t just about having a good memory. Instead, dream recall seems to be influenced by both personal factors as well as sleep patterns. Recent studies have shown that age, gender, personality traits such as openness, interest in dreams and even how vividly we imagine things while awake, can influence dream recall. On the sleep side, lighter sleep, frequent awakenings, or a more active brain just before waking make it more likely a dream will be remembered. 

From Freud to neuroscience: The psychology of dreams

Sigmund Freud didn’t believe dreams were random. In The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), he argued that behind the surface storyline (the manifest content), lies a hidden layer of unconscious wishes and conflicts (the latent content). Later thinkers, including Erikson and Hartmann, shifted the focus: They saw dreams less as disguised wishes and more as a way to work through unresolved problems and regulate emotions. 

Contemporary theories, like control mastery theory, suggest that dreams let us practice dealing with unresolved problems. By imagining different scenarios, dreams test possible solutions, connecting current emotions and challenges with past experiences.

Neuroscience adds another perspective. Studies show that experiences we make throughout the day often find their way into dreams, especially when they are emotionally important. This can happen almost immediately within one or two days (day-residue effect) or after a delay of up to a week, known as the dream-lag effect. Moreover, studies are suggesting that dreaming might actually play an important role in processing memory and emotional events.

There has been quite some interesting research on influencing dreams with different types of sensory stimulation before and during sleep. It appears that especially smells have a strong impact on dream content. 

So what do dreams really reflect – unconscious desires or daily leftovers? Likely both. Day-to-day experiences often appear in dreams, but highly emotional events, linked to unresolved conflicts or desires, are especially likely to show up.

How dreams can be used in psychotherapy

In psychodynamic psychotherapy, dreams can serve as a window into the inner world. Together with your psychologist, you can untangle which parts of a dream may simply echo everyday events and which might reveal deeper wishes, conflicts, or attempts to work through challenges.

It’s important to mention that you really don’t need to remember every detail for a dream to be useful in therapy. Sometimes a single image, feeling or small detail, is enough to spark a meaningful reflection. For example, a fleeting image of you falling might be connected to general topics around insecurity, self-esteem or feeling out of control. Or a feeling of relief upon awaking, might point toward how strongly a current stressful topic is weighing on your mind. 

Over time, if you bring more dreams into sessions, patterns may emerge, such as recurring struggles, relationship dynamics, or habitual ways of reacting that also show up in daily life. Exploring these connections can open new perspectives and deepen self-awareness.

4 quick tips to remember more of your dreams

If you’d like to remember more of your dreams, try these simple strategies to notice and capture what happens when you sleep:

• Pause when you wake: Stay still with your eyes closed for a few moments. Let any images, feelings, or fragments come to mind before moving.
• Write it down: Write down anything you can remember immediately after waking up. Even a single colour, word, or feeling counts.
• Set an intention: Tell yourself “I will remember my dreams tonight.” This simple mental cue can boost recall.
• Notice emotions: Pay attention to how your dream made you feel. Emotions often linger even if the story fades.

Remember, the goal isn’t to capture every detail. Even small fragments can spark an interesting reflection and enrich therapy sessions.

Final thoughts

Whether vivid, unsettling or fleeting, dreams are worth noticing and bringing into your therapy session. They aren’t about finding a single, hidden meaning, but about exploring how they reflect your personal world, current situation, and ongoing journey of self-discovery. Stay curious, but don’t take them too literally: dreams can shed light on our inner world, or sometimes just reflect the leftovers of the day.