电影《青木瓜之香》(The Scent of Green Papaya；1993)中，老佣人告诉小佣人：年轻真好，我现在都没有梦了。

梦境不断的我，担心有一天，梦会永远消失。

在梦里，我又见到了奶奶… （我从来没有见到过外公、外婆。）

在梦里，我见到了妈妈… （老爸，你什么时候能出现在我的梦中？）

在梦里，我有过千奇百怪的历险记…

如果我有一天我决定尝试写小说，我会写“梦”。

好了，言归正传。下面是我想与你分享的文章。

关于梦境的 7 个惊人事实

——我们为什么会做梦以及梦境意味着什么

原文：

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/02/nx-s1-4987258/dreams-dreaming-interpretation-meaning-anxiety

我昨晚做了一个噩梦。

它的开始和我的许多梦一样——我和家人、亲戚们一起度假。这一次，我们在澳大利亚，在一所大房子里拜访家人朋友。事情发生了转折，因为我卷入了这个澳大利亚家庭的珠宝盗窃和走私行动——我无法用某种方式解释。我在亲戚面前撒了谎，以保护自己和我的同谋。在我醒来之前，我很害怕自己会被送进监狱。

这个梦似乎很奇怪，但当我把故事分开时，我发现它与我清醒时的生活有着明显的联系。例如，我最近听了一个播客，在一次家庭聚会中，一对漂亮的发夹可疑地失踪了。此外，我明天就要搬家了，还得收拾东西。如果搬家工人早上来的时候我还没收拾好，我就要面对准备不足的后果——至少对我的潜意识来说，这是一种“罪行”。

神经外科医生、神经科学家、《这就是你做梦的原因：你的睡眠大脑揭示了你清醒时的生活》的作者拉胡尔·詹迪亚尔博士（Dr. Jandial）说，这些生动的梦境的主要主题和图像值得关注，并可以试图从中寻找其含意。（对我来说，我决定下次搬家时，前一天就休假！）

我和詹迪亚尔博士谈论了我们还能从梦中学到什么，包括现代科学关于做梦大脑的一些最了不起的发现和理论。

1. 梦境并非随机

从古埃及和中国的梦境日记到亚马逊人类学家的报告，再到对现代美国人的调查，证据表明我们的梦境有很多共同点。例如，被追赶和坠落是相当一致的。

“噩梦和色情梦的报道几乎无处不在，”Jandial 说，而人们很少报告梦到数学。Jandial 说，梦中缺乏数学是有道理的，因为大脑中主要负责逻辑的部分——前额叶皮层——通常不参与做梦。

2. 当我们做梦时，我们的大脑非常活跃

Jandial 在进行脑部手术的过程中，学到了一些关于梦境的基本知识。

这是让病人清醒的手术——他麻醉了病人的头皮并打开了部分头骨。（大脑本身感觉不到疼痛）。Jandial 正在对左颞叶进行手术，语言通常位于此处。为了避免损伤，他小心翼翼地操作，一毫米一毫米地刺激神经元，并要求患者在他接触每个点的时候数一到十。

但一次电击之后，Jandial 的病人做了一个从童年开始就经常发生的噩梦。

研究证实，噩梦和所有的梦都源于大脑活动。“现在我们从不同的电击力和代谢使用测量中知道，睡眠和做梦的大脑是灼热的。它发出电火花。我们可能在睡觉，但大脑却在“燃烧”，”Jandial 说。

3. 当你刚醒来，或者在你昏昏欲睡的时候，是创造力的沃土

萨尔瓦多达利（Salvador Dali，西班牙艺术家）有一种在入睡时捕捉自己想法的方法，Jandial 在《这就是你做梦的原因》中讲述了这一点。这位艺术家会坐在椅子上，手里拿着一把大钥匙，钥匙下面的地上有一个盘子。当他打瞌睡时，钥匙会掉在盘子上，把他吵醒。然后，他会勾勒出他从睡眠的最后几分钟所记得的东西——这是他超现实主义绘画的灵感来源。Jandial 说，大脑成像研究支持睡眠进入作为顿悟时刻的潜力。

幸运的是，对于那些喜欢睡着并一直睡着的人来说，谢天谢地，当你刚醒来时，你也可以从梦境中获得灵感。“我的所有想法都是当我慢慢醒来时产生的，”詹迪亚尔说。他会在醒来后的最初几分钟内写下他记得的东西，然后再查看新闻或Instagram。并不是所有的东西都是伟大的东西，“但如果有好的想法，那都是从那个时候产生的。而不是从我下午两点钟喝着浓缩咖啡的时候产生的，”他说。

4. 噩梦？写个新剧本

Jandial 说，偶尔做噩梦，比如我梦到珠宝被抢，通常不必担心。但如果你陷入了反复做噩梦的循环中，你可以试试意象排演疗法。

这是你可以和治疗师一起做的。“如果 [患者] 反复做爆炸或飞机坠毁的噩梦，他们会去找治疗师画出梦境地图，如果你愿意的话，可以画出梦境，然后他们会排演飞机安全着陆，”或者他们开车回家而不是坠机，Jandial 解释说。一段时间后，他说许多患者发现他们的噩梦发生了变化。

5. 梦见“出轨”是正常的。这并不意味着你的恋爱关系出了问题

在调查中，大多数人报告了色情梦。对于处于恋爱关系中的人来说，这些梦境“包含着很高的不忠率，无论人们声称自己处于健康的还是不健康的关系中”，Jandial 说。

但这种梦也有规则。“当你观察色情梦的模式时，你会发现这些行为似乎很疯狂，但角色却出奇地狭隘。名人、甚至家庭成员、令人厌恶的老板；这只是一小部分人的模式。”Jandial 和其他人推测，梦见与我们熟悉的人有关可能是我们大脑进化而来的一个特征，目的是让我们对生育持开放态度，并增加物种生存的可能性。

6. 接近生命终点时，梦境可以带来安慰

在洛杉矶希望之城癌症中心治疗患者时，Jandial 观察到一种他称之为“梦来拯救”的现象。对于一些接近生命终点的患者来说，“即使这一天充满了挣扎，他们的梦境也是和解、希望和积极情绪的。我很惊讶地发现，临终梦境很常见，而且它们倾向于积极。”

Jandial说，有证据表明，死亡可能伴随着最后一个梦。“一旦心脏停止跳动，最后一股血液从颈动脉涌向大脑，在心脏死亡后一两分钟内，大脑的电流就会爆发……这些模式看起来像是做梦和回忆的广阔的脑电波模式，” Jandial说。

7. 梦境可以成为“通往内心的门户”——以及心理健康

每个人都会时不时地做焦虑梦。Jandial说，有些梦境是真实的，比如梦见自己赤身裸体站在讲台上，而实际上第二天你必须发表演讲。但其他梦境可能更具象征意义，值得关注。

Jandial记得他在疫情期间做过的一个梦。在现实生活中，他刚刚学会了航海。在梦中，他驾驶着一艘船，“有一个巨大的瀑布”，他回忆道。“我当时在水平航行，我必须不断保持舵或方向盘的逆流，才能保持直线航行而不掉下来。”

他将其解读为大脑帮助他度过困难时期的方式。在人们对新冠疫情的恐惧中，他是十几岁的孩子的父亲，并担任癌症外科医生。“当时，我在许多方面都面临着战争。而我所做的就是避免越过瀑布，你做到了。”

他说，如果你做了一个强烈的梦，就值得思考为什么。“带有强烈情感和强大中心形象的梦，是不能忽视的，”他说。“做梦的大脑正在发挥一种功能，如果它给你一个情感和视觉梦，那就反思一下。这是通往你自己的门户，没有治疗师能到达。”

至于反复的焦虑梦，他说：“我认为这是需要注意的。这可能是你心理健康的重要信号。”

7 surprising facts about dreams — why we have them and what they mean

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/02/nx-s1-4987258/dreams-dreaming-interpretation-meaning-anxiety

I had a nightmare last night.

It began like many of my dreams do – I was on vacation with my extended family. This time, we were in Australia, visiting family friends in a big house. Things took a turn when — in some way that I can’t quite explain — I got mixed up in this Australian family’s jewelry theft and smuggling operation. And I lied about it in front of my relatives, to protect myself and my co-conspirators. Before I woke up, I was terrified I’d be sent to prison.

The dream seems bizarre, but when I pick the narrative apart, there are clear connections to my waking life. For instance, I recently listened to a podcast where a pair of fancy hairpins suspiciously go missing during a family gathering. Moreover, I’m moving tomorrow and still have packing to do. When the movers arrive in the morning, if I haven't finished packing, I'll face the consequences of my lack of preparedness – a crime, at least to my subconscious.

Dr. Rahul Jandial, neurosurgeon, neuroscientist and author of This is Why You Dream: What Your Sleeping Brain Reveals About Your Waking Life, says the major themes and images of vivid dreams like these are worth paying attention to, and trying to derive meaning from. (For me, I decided that the next time I have to move, I’m taking the day before off!)

I spoke with Dr. Jandial about what else we can learn from our dreams, including some of modern science’s most remarkable findings, and theories, about the dreaming brain.

1. Dreams are not random

From dream diaries recorded in ancient Egypt and China to reports from anthropologists in the Amazon, to surveys of modern Americans, evidence shows our dreams have a lot in common. For example, being chased and falling are pretty consistent. 

“Reports of nightmares and erotic dreams are nearly universal,” Jandial says, while people rarely report dreaming about math. Jandial says the lack of math makes sense because the part of your brain primarily responsible for logic — the prefrontal cortex — is typically not involved in dreaming.

2. Our brains are super active when we dream

Jandial learned something fundamental about dreams in the midst of performing brain surgery.

It was awake surgery – he’d numbed the scalp and partially opened the skull. (The brain does not feel pain). Jandial was operating on the left temporal lobe, where language is typically located. Working carefully to avoid damage, he went millimeter by millimeter, stimulating the neurons, and asking the patient to count to ten at each spot.

But after one such zap of electricity, Jandial’s patient experienced a nightmare that had recurred for him since childhood.

Research has since confirmed that nightmares, and all dreams, arise from brain activity. “Now we know from different measurements of electricity and metabolic usage, the sleeping-dreaming brain is burning hot. It's sparking with electricity. We might be asleep, but the brain is on fire,” Jandial says.

3. When you first wake up, or while you're drifting off, is fertile time for creativity

Salvador Dali had a method for capturing his thoughts just as he was falling asleep, which Jandial recounts in This is Why You Dream. The artist would sit in a chair holding a large key above a plate on the floor. When he nodded off, the key would drop on the plate and wake him up. Then he’d sketch what he remembered from the last few moments of sleep – an inspiration for his surrealist paintings. Brain imaging studies support the potential of sleep-entry as a moment of insight, says Jandial.

Fortunately for those of us who prefer to fall asleep and stay there, thank you very much, you can also get inspiration from your dreams when you first wake up. “I get all my ideas when I wake slowly,” Jandial says. He writes down what he remembers in the first few minutes after waking, before checking the news or Instagram. It’s not all great stuff, “But when there are good ideas, it's from that time. It's not from two o'clock with my espresso,” he says.

4. Nightmares? Write a new script

Jandial says nightmares around occasional stressful events, like my dream about the jewelry heist – are usually not cause for concern. But if you’re stuck in a loop of recurring fearful dreams, there is something you can try: Imagery Rehearsal Therapy.

This is something you can do with a therapist. “If [a patient has] a recurrent nightmare of an explosion or an airplane crashing, they'll go to the therapist to draw out the map of the dream, the dreamscape, if you will, and then they'll rehearse that the airplane landed safely,” or that they arrived home from a drive instead of crashing, Jandial explains. After time, he says many patients see their nightmares change.

5. Dreams about cheating are normal. They don’t mean there's something wrong with your relationship

In surveys, a majority of people report erotic dreams. And for people in relationships, these dreams contain “high rates of infidelity, whether people report being in healthy relationships or unhealthy relationships,” Jandial says.

But sexy dreams have rules too. “When you look at the pattern of erotic dreams, the acts seem to be wild, but the characters are surprisingly narrow. Celebrities, even family members, repellent bosses; it's a small collection of people as a pattern.” Jandial and others theorize that having sexual dreams about people familiar to us may be a feature our brains evolved to keep us open to procreation and increase the likelihood of the species’ survival.

6. Near the end of life, dreams can provide comfort

Treating patients at City of Hope cancer center in Los Angeles, Jandial observes a phenomenon he calls “dreams to the rescue.” For some patients near the end of their lives, “even though the day is filled with struggle, the dreams are of reconciliation, of hope, of positive emotions. I was surprised to find that end-of-life dreams are a common thing, and they lean positive.”

Jandial says there’s evidence that death may come with one final dream. “Once the heart stops, with the last gush of blood up the carotid [artery] to the brain, the brain's electricity explodes in the minute or two after cardiac death…Those patterns look like expansive electrical brainwave patterns of dreaming and memory recall,” Jandial says.

7. Dreams can be ‘a portal to your inner self’ — and mental health

Everyone has anxiety dreams from time to time. Some are literal, like dreaming you’re on a podium naked when you actually have to give a speech the next day, says Jandial. But others can be more symbolic, and these are worth tuning in to.

Jandial remembers one he had during the pandemic. In waking life, he’d just learned to sail. In the dream he was sailing a boat and, “there was a massive waterfall,” he recounts. “And I was sailing horizontally and I had to constantly keep the helm, or the wheel, up-river just to go straight and not fall off.”

He interprets it as his brain’s way of helping him process a difficult time. He was raising teenagers and working as a cancer surgeon amid COVID fears. “There were wars on many fronts for me at that time. And what I walked away with is just by avoiding going all over the waterfall, you're doing it.”

He says if you have a powerful dream, it’s worth thinking about why. “Dreams with a strong emotion and a powerful central image, those are ones not to ignore,” he says. “The dreaming brain is serving a function, and if it gives you a nugget of an emotional and visual dream, reflect on that. That's a portal to yourself that no therapist can even get to.”

And repeated anxiety dreams, he says “I think that's something to pay attention to. That might be a vital sign for your mental health.”