Did you learn something new today?
If so, you may find yourself reviewing it in a dream you have tonight.
It doesn’t matter what it is: abstract knowledge taught in school; a task that you’ll have to do for your job; something that’s useful to know for a hobby. Whatever it is, you may find yourself dreaming about it.
You’ve heard it before: practice makes perfect. Most people don’t realize that if you believe, deep down, that something is important for you to know, you’ll practice it in your sleep.
Do you know how to drive a car with a manual transmission? If so, when someone was showing you, did they emphasize that you’ve got to press the clutch in before you put the stick into a new gear? Did they tell you how to look at the tachometer to tell when you needed to shift? Did they tell you to pay attention to the sound of the engine? All of these finer points of learning how to drive a car with a manual transmission might be reviewed in your dreams.
Why do you dream about what you’ve learned?
Let’s continue using the example of learning to drive a stick shift, or a car with a manual transmission.
When you’re good at driving a stick shift, you’re relying on muscle memory. You don’t think or debate about pressing in the clutch with your foot. You press the clutch in, and then you move the stick. Progressing from first gear to second to third flows smoothly. Naturally.
When you put the brakes on, your car slows. You won’t mistake the brake for the clutch, which are next to each other on the floor underneath the steering wheel. If you’re driving somewhere hilly, you’re not going to roll back too far. A skilled driver of a manual transmission doesn’t have to think about what to do next too much. It’s as if he or she and the car are one.
Cars are usually important to people. They’re the second-largest purchase someone will make (after a house). Beyond that, there are other fairly large expenses that someone will make like fuel and insurance, and in some places, parking. Having a car means that you have a bit of freedom.
If your subconscious sees a skill as being important, dreaming about it is a way you automatically practice it.
How can remembering your dreams help you learn?
By being aware of your dreams, you’re listening to your subconscious, the part of your mind that does all of the behind-the-scenes work.
If you’re someone who generally doesn’t try to program your own dreams and you find yourself dreaming about something that you’ve just learned, you think that bit of information is important. You want to remember it.
If you didn’t care about remembering it, you’d be bored with it and would find yourself thinking about something else.
Knowing that skill is important to you, or that at least your subconscious thinks it’s important, lets you dial down on it. You’ll know to ask some other questions.
Being aware of the importance of the skill in these learning dreams means that you get to ask some other questions.
- What else about this skill is important to learn?
- Why do I need to know this?
- Is there anything else I need to do in order to really master this skill?
There’s a lot of difference in skill between someone who’s just started to learn to play the piano and Elton John. The learner is going to be picking out scales and getting the feel for where the keys are located. John, on the other hand, writes catchy hit songs and plays them fast and flawlessly. All of that muscle memory comes from practice while awake, but also from dreaming about practicing as well.
New information comes from studying and practicing while awake. Becoming a virtuoso at something important is easier when you know and understand your dreams.
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James Cobb RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. His goal is to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.
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