A dream that led to a cancer diagnosis, can the sleeping brain really give us a message?

In 2011, Adeline had a dream that changed her life.

She was feeling very sad and missing her mother, who had died three years ago.

‘Meanwhile, she came to me in my dream one night,’ says Adeline, whose name has been changed, from Hong Kong.

He elaborated: ‘I remember I said, ‘Oh mum, I finally got to meet you, how are you?’

And she replied, ‘I’m fine, but I want to tell you something. Please get your medical checked up as soon as possible.’

Adeline says she took the ‘very strong message’ seriously and immediately made an appointment with a doctor. He was later diagnosed with stage one cancer, which was curable because it was diagnosed at an early stage.

‘I’m so grateful,’ says Adeline. Otherwise, I would never have gone for a medical examination like this myself.’

People have been interpreting their dreams for thousands of years in different cultures of the world. Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Babylonian societies believed that dreams could also be a source of prophecy.

In Abrahamic religions, dreams from God are considered ‘visions’ or divine visions. While in some local cultures, dreams are considered visits to spiritual helpers.

Adeline says she was aware of the traditional Chinese belief that ancestors can give messages through dreams, but she never thought it could happen to her.

Now the interest has shifted from dreams to the online world. Users share how to interpret their dreams on the Hong Kong forum Discus, while hundreds of Reddit users report using ChatGPT to analyze their dreams.

But what can dreams like Adeline tell us? And according to scientists and psychologists, how seriously should we take these dreams?

Our mind likes to dream.

When we are in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, we are ‘almost certainly dreaming,’ according to Dr Abidemi Otaiko, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London.

This means that we can spend about a third of our total sleep time dreaming.

In fact, if we can’t dream because of a lack of deep sleep, the brain makes us dream more vividly and vividly the next time, a process called REM rebound.

Dr. Abidemi Otaiko adds, ‘The body actually wants to dream, and as soon as it gets the chance, it compensates for this deficiency.’

Why we finally sleep has remained a mystery to science. Overall, however, researchers believe that sleep helps the brain recover and gives it time to process the day’s memories.

Brain scans have shown that brain settings change during sleep, which determines how we dream while we sleep.

When we are dreaming, the frontal lobes of the brain, which help us make logical and rational decisions, become largely inactive.

Conversely, the limbic system, which is associated with emotion, becomes overactive.

‘This is one of the main reasons why our dreams are often so strange and seemingly incomprehensible,’ says Dr Otaiko.

Research shows that the content of our dreams can lead us to make better decisions in the waking state.

One study found that people who had quit smoking and saw themselves smoking again in their dreams were less likely to start smoking again. Similarly, another study of divorced people found that those who dreamed about their ex-spouse were mentally healthier a year later.

“They’re working on something that’s emotionally difficult,” says American dream researcher and psychologist Dr. Dylan Selterman. And the important thing is that it does not matter whether the content of the dream is positive or negative.’

In fact, both studies also showed that sometimes negative dreams are more effective than positive dreams in helping people deal with their problems.

‘You’re making sense of the experience and dealing with it constructively,’ explains Dr. Dylan Selterman.

Dreams can also help us solve problems. A Harvard University study found that participants who were asked to solve a ‘puzzle’ performed better than those who had dreamed about it.

According to Dr. Dylan Selterman, this may be due to a ‘powerful combination’ in the brain of having extra time to work on a problem on the one hand, and the ability to see it more creatively through dreams on the other.

It can manifest itself in everyday life in such a way that we have a sudden idea or solution to a problem that we were already thinking about in awareness.

“Dreams seem to give them a little nudge in that direction,” says Dr. Dylan Selterman.

This does not necessarily mean that dreams reflect our hidden or real emotions, but it simply means that the sleeping mind is also interested in the same topics that our waking mind thinks about.

Dr. Dylan Selterman says that while researching dreams, he has also seen people who separated from their spouses based on dreams. However, all of these individuals had already identified problems in their relationships.

‘The dream just gave them that extra push they needed,’ he explains. They felt as if they understood themselves better, but this understanding was actually consistent with what they already believed.’

So should we be concerned when we dream about an unexpected person?

Dr. Dylan Selterman says, ‘If you’re in a happy, loving, successful relationship, and one night you dream about making out with someone else, that’s perfectly fine. This is normal.’

He further says that ‘You don’t need to be ashamed of it. This is not necessarily a sign or indicator of a problem.’

Our brains are particularly sensitive to the fact that when a dream seems to predict the future, we immediately feel it and then remember it, especially when the dream coincides with a real-life event.

‘Whenever you have a dream and it doesn’t correspond to the real world, you usually forget it,’ says neuroscientist Dr Abidemi Otaiko.

But there may be another possible reason why dreams feel ‘psychic’ or prophetic, linked in some theories to the brain’s capacity for ‘introception’.

‘Some people call it our sixth sense,’ explains Dr Otaiko. Basically it is the ability of the mind to perceive the internal state of the body.’

Interestingly, the parts of the brain involved in introception are often confused with the parts involved in dreaming. Some researchers believe that this may be the reason why certain dreams seem to predispose us to illness or physical damage.

‘This appears to be a plausible mechanism, which may explain these experiments,’ says Dr Abidemi Otaiko.

A growing body of research by neuroscientists, particularly Dr. Abidemi Otaiko, indicates that our dreams may indicate our risk of developing certain mental illnesses.

‘The more frequently you have nightmares, the higher your risk of developing diseases such as dementia and Parkinson’s,’ says Dr Otaiko.

According to him, there are three possible reasons: ‘nightmares may be an early symptom of these diseases, nightmares themselves may affect health, or nightmares and these diseases may have a common cause, such as genetic factors. More research is currently needed to determine which of these theories is correct.’

Dr. Abidemi Otaiko says that we should not be disappointed by these results, but they are a good opportunity to improve our health. They say: reducing stress, getting quality and restful sleep, avoiding scary movies before bed can all help reduce nightmares.

There are other methods for serious situations.

In image rehearsal therapy, patients practice mentally altering the ending of a recurring nightmare.

Also, the blood pressure drug Prazosin can prevent nightmares.

Dr. Otaiko adds, ‘It is highly plausible that treating nightmares may be beneficial to our health not only in the immediate but also in the long term.’

Finding a fixed or static symbolic meaning in dreams can be dangerous, says Dr. Dylan Selterman, because it ignores the individual’s personal circumstances and background.

He explains: ‘A shark might mean something to a marine biologist, while it might mean something completely different to a dentist.’

However, he says that considering themes rather than symptoms can help us understand ourselves better.

“You may be having recurring dreams about a loved one who has passed away, or about a job you want to get in the future,” he says. Or about your friends and close relations.’

According to Dr. Selterman, keeping track of these themes helps us better understand our own personalities and our relationships, and relationships are the topics we dream about the most.

He adds that ‘if dreams have any significance, it is probably related to our social life.’

Adeline says she now pays more attention to her dreams than before and uses them as a reminder to think about her feelings.

“We just have to believe what the message is,” she says. Look deep within yourself, there you will find the answer.’