Dreams and their "meanings."

[noblecaboose]

Last night I dreamt that I had a loose tooth, much like those I had when I was a child. Throughout the dream, while the major plotline unfolded, it got more and more loose. Eventually, I was able to pull it out. The sensations were so vivid that when i awoke, I quickly ran my tongue over my molars to see if there was a tender gap where a tooth ought to be.

This happens in my dreams quite often.

I took Introduction to Psychology in college and I remember learning about Freudian interpretations of dreams. Before that, I used to look in books about dream interpretation (mostly from new-age bookstores, my favorite childhood hangouts) for explanations. Never once did I read a believable interpretation or corresponding dream image to the one I described in the above paragraph. It was always supposed to mean, "Fear of loss of physical beauty," or something stupid like that. For me, the tooth loosening is almost never a source of anxiety in my dream, but one of annoyance, discomfort and frustration. When it is finally yanked out, I'm usually relieved. In high school, a friend suggested that the loose tooth dream meant that I felt the need for change and new growth. This is the only interpretation that ever rang true for me.

I don't think there's any real "deep meaning" to my dreams anymore and I'm pretty sold on the idea that Freud was wrong about almost everything, but I still search for meaning in these little mental movies.
My question is this: If dreams are just reactions to various stimuli that we experience in our sleep, or some sort of phenomenon of the brain making sense of random neurons firing (or whatever the current explanation of dreams is), is there any point in trying to interpret dreams? Have there been any good studies done on recurring dreams, and possible causes for their recurrence?

-Noble Caboose

 

[DRBUZZ0]

That's interesting. Is this tooth a bit loose or out of place, or maybe you have developed the habbit of flicking it with your tongue?

I have had a few dreams with enviornmental factors coming in. For example, dreaming that my hand was in contact with electricity which made it tingle and sting and waking up to find my hand was under my head and was "asleep." I have also had the alarm clock sound show up in my dream as a fire alarm or something. One time I fell asleep with the news on and the next day I could not remember what had actually happened and what I had dreamed of world events.

The whole thing about wanting to grow and move on seems a bit dubious to me, unless you attach a significant meaning to your teeth. It seems like it's not the kind of thing that would show up there unless there were some kind of undertones.

I'd tend to think it is something environmental. Perhaps you breath out your mouth when asleep, and that causes your tooth and gums to feel funny. Or maybe you floss before bed and it leaves a sensation? Or maybe you grind your teeth at night?

 

[baron]

...is there any point in trying to interpret dreams?

Not at all, beyond the obvious. The idea of a hidden meaning for every dream element is without foundation. I've kept a dream diary, on and off, for over 20 years, and found absolutely no evidence of hidden significance.

Of course, I could apply random criterion to every single dream and come up with some superficially credible woo-age blather, but it would have no basis in fact.

 

[wipeout]

I find dreams often originate from brief, unresolved thoughts from the previous day.

 

[Mercutio]

Actually, Freud wrote specifically about dreaming of losing a tooth. No surprise, it is a sex dream. The tooth getting looser (in his version, anyway) is usually accompanied by wiggling it repeatedly; virtually any repetitious motion in a Freudian dream is symbolic of the rhythmic movements of coitus. At the end, of course, the tooth comes out. But what could be symbolic about something (a tooth) warm, wet (it was in your mouth, after all), and white being expelled from your body?

To answer your question--there are shelves full of books on the topic, and journals dedicated to it as well. More than that I cannot speak to, because it has been forever since I have looked at the subject in this sense; there are many different reasons to look at dreams.

 

[Dark Jaguar]

You see this is the sort of thing that makes me suspicious. With such loose criteria, ANYTHING could be sexually charged (in your example's case). I recall a discussion I had online with one of those people who is absolutely convinced that the reason guns are shaped like they are is because of some sort of phallic obsession. The fact that one shaped like a crazy straw couldn't function in the least and questions as to how such a thing could work in any shape BUT a straight pipe were ignored. He went on about how it was "long and discharged". I explained that in a rifle, the longer the barrel the straighter the shot (from my limited TV knowledge of ballistics I confess, I was willing to learn), and then asked him that if a fire arm didn't discharge anything, what function could it possibly have? Indeed, there's a good reason we have the weapon at all to begin with, which is that the further you are from enemies with swords while still being able to kill them, the better. At any rate, there was no getting through to him. Guns exist entirely as sexual symbols and there's nothing that could convince him that they HAVE to have that shape to function. The idea that guns are, to most people, just symbols of violence was just ludicrous though.

Anyway, with that sort of criteria (long bar shapes and the ability to have something fall out of it), you'd have to conclude that the universe itself has a phallic obsession, I mean look at a volcano.

 

[skeptifem]

Ive had waaaaaay too many disturbing tooth dreams. I've heard your teeth represent your words, holds pretty true to my dreams, and made sense to me because they are in your mouth. Ive often had dreams about my teeth rotting out of my head at an alarming rate when I have said something I regretted. Maybe I heard that and then my dreams followed suit? I dont know, either way maybe it applies to your dream. Like theres something you really want to say but cant seem to get it out?

Its really personal, but Ive had some dreams that still stick with me and I like thinking about them. I dont consider interpreting dreams a science or anything like that. its better to interpret them yourself, the person having the dreams knows more about their lives than freud. He thought like 90% of dreams were about sex anyway.

 

[Apathia]

I've had such tooth dreams, and a visit to the dentist found cavities in those teeth. But this is merely circumstantial.

 

[Forty-Two]

Count me as another person who has loose tooth dreams.

As for dream interpretation, I think it's so personal that it's probably pointless to try to make generalizations about symbolism and so on. I know that if I'm anxious about something, it'll often show up in my dreams. I've also had those dreams where it seems as though my brain is ejecting superfluous information and everything from the past week gets jumbled together (I'll be a Renaissance courtesan on the Enterprise D speaking German to my husband while explaining music theory to Calvin and Hobbes, or something equally as bizarre).

Then there are "pee dreams," where suddenly the plot of the dream revolves around my (unsuccessful) quest for a toilet. I know I'm not the only one who has occasional dreams like that.

 

[Schneibster]

Hmmmmm.

My favorite was the one where the clock radio came on and I dozed off listening to it, and dreamt I was rushing around behind the bleachers plucking the struts to make the notes from the guitar in the song on the radio. Brief but vivid. I credit it with my eventually satisfied craving to learn to play.

 

[TobiasTheViking]

I wonder what my dream meant...

Oh well.

 

[Roboramma]

I had a similar dream two nights ago - I dreamed that my front teeth were crooked (or more crooked than usual ) and that I reached in to my mouth to straighten them. Somehow they were really easy to move, but I did it poorly and messed them up and the tooth ended up coming out. I woke up from that feeling really upset, then realised it was a dream and laughed about it a little.

Dreams are weird. Usually I dream that I'm a super hero of some sort.

 

[Corpse Cruncher]

I find all this dream and dream interpretation just a bunch of twaddle.

If I am not dreaming of food, I am dreaming of food and Barry Manilow or Oliver Reed. Although last night I dreamt I discovered a new form of amoeba. I was pleased about it.

Go ahead interrpt that, make my day.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

When you are asleep and dreaming, you have all the experiences you have saved up in your brain, especially from that day, just kind of whipping around and making random weird appearances since you are not conscious.

Right before you wake up, you begin to incorporate outside noises and sensations into your dreams.

I once didn't wake up when my alarm went off. Instead, I was dreaming that I had bashed it to bits, but this one small piece just kept on buzzing and buzzing, no matter what I did to try to destroy it. Argh.

Usually, parts of the brain are shut down while we sleep. Out of REM sleep, though, we can dream indiscriminantly about past and present experiences/sensations all mashed together. We can try to make sense of them, and have some control as parts of our brain wake up right before we actually wake up. Then we try to put the sensations into some logical cognizance. We mostly remember dreams that illicit an emotional response, or that have strong sensory experiences.

Trying to interpret this crazy sleepy state of the mind is stupid. I just simply enjoy them when they are not unpleasant, and resent them when they are painful, cause fear, or cause worry/anxiety.

Dreams result from brain activation during sleep. The source of activation is the reticular formation, as it is in the waking state, but the chemical modulation is different: it is cholinergic in REM sleep and serotonergic and noradrenergic in waking. Dr. Hobson also considers another fundamental theme of psychoanalysis—dissociation—and demonstrates how this can be understood in terms of brain anatomy and physiology.

http://www.psychservices.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/54/9/1293

If you understand all the physiological changes of the brain during sleep, then you can understand why we dream, and why they certainly don't usually mean a darn thing (except that one topic that you dream about -including fears- may be preoccupying you for possibly a good or no good reason). Certainly, if you keep dreaming about a bad past experience, then you are thinking about it wayyy too much, and it's preoccupying your poor mind during the one sleep stage as well. That's reallly not a good thing. However, that doesn't happen often. Most dreams are just a mishmash of experiences... usually recent with sensory junk thrown in as you associate them (during the stage right before you wake up).

 

[baron]

I once didn't wake up when my alarm went off. Instead, I was dreaming that I had bashed it to bits, but this one small piece just kept on buzzing and buzzing, no matter what I did to try to destroy it. Argh.

I remember a documentary some years ago that featured a woman with a certain sleep disorder (can't recall what) who suffered from extremely vivid false awakenings. She'd get up, shower, have breakfast, go to work, have lunch, basically go through her whole day - then suddenly wake up and realise the whole thing was a dream (kind of like "Dallas"). So she'd get up, have breakfast, go to work... and the same thing would happen again. And again. She said that when she was truly awake it would sometimes be evening before she could safely say she wasn't dreaming.

Lucid dreaming is my favourite. I've been able to lucid dream almost at will all my life. I think it's something everybody should try; consciously studying how your brain creates and maintains believable environments is a truly amazing experience.

 

[EHLO]

I've always had a lot of anxiety about my teeth and visiting the dentist, so dreams about my teeth falling out usually come about when I'm worried about a possible dental problem or my upcoming check up.

The dreams used to really freak me out as in most cases it wasn't just one or two teeth falling out but whole segments of my jaw and pallet. I'd try and put them back but couldn't line them up so my mouth wouldn't shut and I'd start to gag and choke.

I'd wake up very distressed, although relieved that it was just a dream. These days my fears and dreams are better controlled so (just recently) the same dream ended with me just pulling the offending teeth right out and carrying on undeterred.

Although I'd agree that dreams certainly reflect what's currently on your mind, I don't buy into generic dream interpretation.

 

[quixotecoyote]

Lucid dreaming is great, but i think it may be tied to false awakenings. I did both a lot when I was younger, I'd dream that I got up and got ready for school. Usually I woke up as I was going out the door, sometimes I got to school before I woke up. It was annoying. I've had less of both as I've gotten older, and I'd have to say that on balance, it's better that way.

 

[hcmom]

My sister once looked, in a semi-serious manner, into dream interpretation. I think that dreaming of losing teeth indicated having children, or in more general terms, worry about major life changes.

 

[Bikewer]

Here in St. Louis, we have (or perhaps had...) a group styled The School Of Metaphysics. They were heavily into dream interpretation, and used to wangle appearances on local call-in radio shows to analyze caller's dreams.
Funny stuff, for the most part; driving in a car was supposed to indicate which direction your life was going...

For the most part, contemporary neuroscientists believe that dreams result for the most part from the brain trying to make sense of random sensory input and neural firing during sleep. Amazingly inventive, the brain often incorporates outside stimuli as well.

Years ago, the old Omni magazine did a reader survey on lucid dreaming. A surprising number of respondents (some 30%) claimed to experience the phenomenon at least occasionally, and could often influence the direction of the dream.
My wife has been able to do this for years, and her "nightmares" result when she is no longer able to control things.

 

[Schneibster]

These days my fears and dreams are better controlled so (just recently) the same dream ended with me just pulling the offending teeth right out and carrying on undeterred.

This seems to be a common experience people go through with respect to dreams. Robert Heinlein tells a story attributed to his character Lazarus Long in which Long tells of his grandfather curing him of monster dreams by letting him shoot his .45 Colt Navy- known as "Ol' Billy," presumably for the kick- into flour bags, then tucking the (apparently unloaded) piece under his pillow that night. I have often suspected the story of being either directly or indirectly reminiscent of an experience Heinlein himself had had.

For another example, I used to get "caught up" in nightmares of various sorts- but over the last thirty years or so, it's become very rare that I do, I am generally aware that it's a dream and not overly concerned, despite some rather vivid dreams at various times.