THAT? YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT? YOU SURE? CAUSE ...OKAY.

HI GUYS THIS IS ANNIE FOR DNEWS.

DO YOU HAVE ANY RECURRING DREAMS THAT YOU SEEM TO HAVE ALL THE TIME? OR DREAMS THAT

YOU WAKE UP FROM THINKING, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ABOUT?

I DREAM ABOUT MY TEETH A LOT, AND TURNS OUT THAT'S ONE OF THE MOST COMMON ONES. SOME OTHERS

ARE BEING NAKED IN PUBLIC...BEING UNABLE TO SPEAK...BEING CHASED...BEING LATE TO THE FIRST

DAY OF SCHOOL. MANY OF THESE ARE ASSOCIATED WITH ANXIETY - THAT DREAM YOU HAVE ABOUT FAILING

A TEST, FOR EXAMPLE, THAT'S OFTEN INTERPRETED AS FEELING UNPREPARED FOR SOMETHING, OR EXPOSED.

BUT WHY ARE CERTAIN RECURRING DREAMS SO COMMON, AND WHAT'S THE RIGHT WAY TO INTERPRET THEM?

THAT'S A QUESTION THAT'S BEEN STUDIED FOR AGES

IN GREECE, DREAMS WERE THOUGHT OF AS OMENS THAT COULD PREDICT EVENTS. IN EGYPT, THEY

WERE ALSO CONSIDERED LINKS TO THE SUPERNATURAL WORLD. AND MANY MODERN THEORIES ORIGINATED

WITH SIGMUND FREUD, WHO SAW THEM AS WISH FULFILLMENT...THAT HAVE A SYSTEM OF SYMBOLS THAT REPRESENT THE

SAME THINGS FOR ALMOST EVERYONE...APPLES....SNAKES....GUNS...ELEVATORS...THEY ALL MEAN SEX.

MORE RECENTLY, A THEORY CALLED ACTIVATION SYNTHESIS CLAIMS THAT DREAMS DON'T REALLY

MEAN ANYTHING...THEY'RE JUST ELECTRICAL IMPULSES THAT PULL RANDOM STUFF FROM OUR MEMORIES.

DREAMS ARE TOUGH TO STUDY PARTLY BECAUSE WE OFTEN DON'T REMEMBER THEM. BUT ONE TEAM FROM

JAPAN TRIED TO RECORD DREAM VISUALS BY WAKING PEOPLE UP DURING DREAM PHASES AND ASKING THEM

TO DESCRIBE THEIR DREAMS.

OF THE 200 REPORTS THEY COLLECTED, THEY FOUND THAT MOST OF THEM WERE ACTUALLY KIND OF BORING...ORDINARY

STUFF, WITH THE OCCASIONAL FORAY INTO THE BIZARRE STUFF. THEN THEY CATEGORIZED THE VISUALS...MAN,

WOMAN, CAR, COMPUTER, STREET. AND WHAT'S INTERESTING IS THAT WHEN THEY SHOWED THE DREAMERS IMAGES

OF THOSE THINGS LATER, THE BRAIN ACTIVITY WAS EXTREMELY SIMILAR TO WHAT IT WAS IN THE

DREAM STATE. MEANING WE "WATCH" OUR DREAMS THE SAME WAY WE DO REAL LIFE EVENTS. AND BASED

ON THOSE BRAIN SCANS, THE SCIENTISTS WERE ABLE TO PREDICT WHAT PEOPLE WERE VISUALIZING

DURING THEIR DREAMS WITH 75 - 80% ACCURACY. CRAZY RIGHT?

WE SPEND ABOUT 2 HOURS OF EVERY NIGHT DREAMING, AND ALTHOUGH THEY'RE STILL NOT THAT WELL UNDERSTOOD

- WE DO KNOW THAT DREAMS ARE IMPORTANT FOR MEMORY. MOST DREAMS HAPPEN DURING REM SLEEP,

WHICH IS ASSOCIATED WITH PRODUCTION OF PROTEINS AND THE RETENTION OF MENTAL SKILLS, AMONG

OTHER THINGS.

SO AS FOR THOSE RECURRING DREAMS...MIGHT AS WELL EMBRACE THEM, BECAUSE THEY'RE NORMAL,

AND PROBABLY GOOD FOR YOU. FOR MORE ON THE MYSTERIOUS SCIENCE OF SLEEP,

CHECK OUT MY REPORT ON THE ASMR PHENOMENON THAT PEOPLE OUT THERE ARE USING TO TREAT INSOMNIA..

DO YOU HAVE RECURRING DREAMS OR NIGHTMARES? WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY MEAN FOR YOU? LET US

KNOW ON TWITTER AT DNEWS OR ON FACEBOOK AT DISCOVERY NEWS. YOU CAN ALSO TWEET ME AT ANNIEGAUS,

OR HEAD OVER TO MY OTHER CHANNEL WTBD.

SWEET DREAMS AND THANKS FOR WATCHING.