Many people bore easily when another begins to describe the events of their dream, and many have been the subject of boredom themselves, desperately attempting to convey the powerful emotions of a recent dream to a friend who is just not interested.

As I’ve aged however, I’ve gained an increasing fascination with dreams, and today I very much enjoy listening to others recall the adventures of their recent sleep, no matter how bizarre.

In fact, the more bizarre, the better. Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” remains one of my favorite pieces of literature today because of how accurately it portrays the random skipping between nonsensical events our dreams so often subject us to.

Dreams rarely make sense, but things which make perfect sense are simply no fun.

They are the closest we come to feeling, hearing, smelling, maybe even tasting magic in the real world because they are only limited by one’s imagination. As a result, when approached with patience, an open mind and an understanding that they likely won’t be very practical, they make the most spectacular stories.

I would not claim, however, that what we dream should govern our waking decisions. While some search for hidden “messages” in dreams, or meaning, these efforts are beyond me.

If my own dreams are harboring prophetic secrets, my future is filled with an unsettling amount of late arrivals, low grades, and malfunctioning elevators.

We needn’t pick dreams apart or allow their supposed “meaning” to stress us if we accept they are only playgrounds for our brains; wonderlands brought into being by our most miniscule and curious thoughts.

Rather than dissected, they should simply be celebrated, and dreams are best celebrated when their mystery is left intact; it is the mystery which makes them magical.

What really happens while we sleep? Scientists are not completely certain yet, and it’s part of what makes dreaming so fascinating.

Most understand there to be four stages of sleep, the first three preparing the body for the last stage, REM or the rapid eye movement stage. During this time our dreams are at their most powerful and our bodies are physically paralyzed, supposedly to prevent us from physically acting them out.

More often than not, these mystic storylines begin to slip away quietly as we fumble with our alarms and are gone completely by the time we’ve composed ourselves.

Thus when a dream does decide to stick around throughout the day, surely it deserves some attention?

Avid dreamers, don’t be shy about your nighttime voyages. Repeat your dreams in your head as you wake in anticipation of sharing them with the world (or in the very least, a willing friend).

I will always enjoy hearing my friends rant about their dreams and I will always advocate for more of these magical phenomena to be shared.