Look at this painting. It’s a visual representation of someone’s dream.
What do you think this person’s dream was about?
Do you remember your dreams?
I either remember nothing of my dreams or have dreams so vivid that they could almost be mistaken for reality! Even though we might not recall dreaming, everyone dreams and it is thought that we each have between 3 and 6 dreams per night.
Have you ever questioned why we dream?
There are several theories about why we have dreams. Dreaming could be a method of processing the events of each day or it could just be the result of random signals from our brain and body during sleep. Some people believe that dreams represent our subconscious desires and wishes.
Have you seen the movie Inception?
Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, is a thriller that follows the story of a dream thief (Leonardo DiCaprio). A dream thief enters other people’s dreams to steal or sometimes put ideas into people’s minds.
In the movie DiCaprio’s character knows that he is in a dream and is able to control the dream. We can’t enter other people’s dreams in real life but some people do know when they are dreaming and can control their actions in their dreams, it’s called lucid dreaming. In fact Christopher Nolan took inspiration for Inception from his own lucid dreams!
Vocabulary
Look at the words and phrases in bold in the above text. What do you think they mean?
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vivid (adj.) very strong, clear, and detailed
mistake (v) to be wrong
several (determiner) an inexact amount, some
method (n.) a way of doing something
random (adj.) happening by chance, not planned
represent (v.) to be something
subconscious (n.) the part of your mind that you don’t actively control that can influence your behaviour without you realizing it
desire (n.) a strong feeling for something
thriller (n.) a book, play, or film that has a story that is exciting and frightening, thrillers are often about solving a crime
lucid dream (n.) a dream in which you know you are dreaming
to take inspiration from something (ph.) to get ideas to do something from someone or something
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Have you ever had a lucid dream?
If you have had a lucid dream, what was it like?
If you’ve not had a lucid dream, would you like to be able to control your dreams?