Types of Dreams

Whether you’re lucid dreaming or not, there are many types of dreams. Dreams are often classified by their content or the types of emotions you feel when you’re having them. Types of dreams aren’t necessarily categorized scientifically, and if you look in different places, you’re likely to find different types of dreams on a list of types of dreams. However, there are some basic dream types out there, and it can be interesting to know something about these dreams. Here are some of the major dream categories that you may have experienced before:

Recurring Dreams

These dreams are more often like nightmares. They may feature scary or unsettling story lines or themes, and you might have the exact same dream over and over. Sometimes you just get dreams that are very similar, and they can still be considered recurring dreams. Often times, these fall into the nightmare category. Lucid dreaming can be a great way to deal with negative recurring dreams because you can start to control the outcome of the dream, so that you can solve a problem to stop having the same dream in the future, or just redirect the dream each time it starts out.

Nightmares

These are one of the most common types of dreams. Lots of times, they’re related to real-life problems in relationships, at work, or in other personal matters. People with post-traumatic stress disorder are likely to have nightmares often, as are people with psychiatric problems. Infrequent nightmares are a common human experience, but if you’re having nightmares all the time, it’s time to get psychiatric help or to learn to change the content and direction of your dreams by using lucid dreaming techniques.

Precognitive Dreams

These can also be called prophetic dreams. These dreams often foretell future events. There are lots of theories as to why these dreams occur – and why the events in them are eerily likely to come true. Some people explain precognitive dreams on a religious level. Psychologists are more likely to see these dreams as a result of your subconscious mind piecing together pieces of information that already point to future events but that you wouldn’t necessarily put together consciously.

Progressive Dreams

In lucid dreaming, you can make yourself have progressive dreams. Each night, the storyline of the dream moves along a bit. Sometimes these types of dreams just allow you to explore a storyline to the fullest. Often, though, these dreams are meant to help you solve a problem in your personal or professional life by looking at different ways to solve the issue.

Healing Dreams

These are really interesting dreams that can help you notice a physical problem before you actually start having symptoms of that problem. Healing dreams, when you interpret them right, can send you to the doctor before you even know you’re sick, allowing you to catch problems and nip them in the bud. These remarkable types of dreams are one of the really interesting ways your body can speak to you directly through your mind.

Mutual Dreams

Sometimes people who are very close can have mutual dreams, where they are essentially in the same dream. You can achieve mutual dreams on purpose through lucid dreaming, but sometimes they happen by accident.

Just about any of these types of dreams can become lucid. In fact, one of the major advantages of lucid dreaming is that all of these types of dreams can be made more beneficial to you through lucidity. Imagine having a lucid mutual dream with a friend or close relative! All of these types of dreams come from similar places in the mind, but they can all tell you something different about yourself so that you’re always learning and growing through your dreams.