What about recurring dreams? Just as repetition compulsions during our waking hours can be important motivators, the recurring dream can lead us to take some action. As I will note in the next essay, with regard to challenging dreams, it might be that repetition is intended to push us, in our dreams, toward taking action when faced with trauma. Perhaps I should have taken some action when starting on the Starved Rock deck. I could have asked my siblings to stop teasing me. Or I could have simply stepped back from the edge of the deck. Our ego sometimes provides us with a chance for amelioration and redemption. We should take advantage of this chance.
This leaves us with the dreams that directly assist us in solving problems, as well as the dreams that provide negative feedback and suggest we start again. I will devote considerable time to this important ego-based function when considering supportive dreams in the next essay in this series. It is indeed remarkable that we can form the committee of sleep identified by Deidre Barrett (2001) and are able, as Barrett suggests, to actually “sleep on an idea” and intentionally wait for an answer or at least a glimpse of the answer. It is also worth noting the value of our ego to declare “uncle” when nothing is emerging from our dreams that is helpful.
There is also the matter of false awakening dreams that serve a transactional function. These dreams often blur the boundaries between sleep and waking life and serve as an important bridge between our dreams and our daytime planning. I find that I am a connoisseur of false awakening dreams. I often seem to be waking up with a fresh idea for something I am writing. I write down this wonderful new idea or written passage. I then discover that I am still dreaming. Inevitably, I lose the idea or the passage, much to my consternation.
