Why do certain dreams occur from what happened during the day?

I'm sure we've all recalled dreams that we had, which could be linked to the activities the day before. That is to say, you talk to your friend about something like pirates and then that night or early in the morning, one of your dreams involves pirates or anything related to pirates, like being on a large boat in an ocean. I am curious as to why something like this would show up, while other things that same day you spoke about pirates did not show up.

I think if someone found out why something like this occurs, he/she could find a way to also set up a lucid dream because it would show up in one or more dreams later that night/early morning. I don't think it's restricted to a time of day, however, because I've had moments where I could connect what I dreamed about with something either happening in the morning, or noon, or night. Is it an attitude? If so, what kind of attitude is necessary to imprint this in one's mind to cause it to occur that very night/early morning in one's dream?

I don't know if anyone knows or thought about this, or if there is even a name for it. All I know is that all day awareness or reality checks occur throughout the day, so the possibility of these appearing in one's dreams is increased, allowing the possibility of lucid dreaming, more specifically, DILDs. So if one could figure out how and why certain activities show up in dreams, I think one could lucid dream much easier.

It's called dream incubation and it's indeed can be used for lucid dreaming. Though i personally not have much luck/experience with this, dream incubation haven't worked much for me. :-?

Ah, well I've heard of that before. Of course, I thought dream incubation was more of a process, not much of some random occurrence during the day that ends up in one's dream.

^ It's called Day Residue (I guess you haven't read your ETWOLD? Highly recommended if you're interested in this stuff). Dream incubation is when you're able to visualize something just before sleep and then dream about it - which is a way to use day residue to create a particular dream, so it does fit into this thread in a way.

Essentially when the mind creates dreams it uses material from your memory, including day residue as well as long term memory and mixes it together with whatever dream schema it's cooking up, then finishes with pure creative imagination to fill in whatever blanks are left. This explains precisely why dreams are so psychologically revealing - they reveal our thoughts and feelings through familiar imagery from our lives.

Ah, didn't heard about that term before apparently, either way i very rarely encounter anything from day residue in dreams even if i was doing something through whole day, no clue why. Maybe that's the same reason dream incubation don't works much for me as well. :-?

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

^ It's called Day Residue (I guess you haven't read your ETWOLD? Highly recommended if you're interested in this stuff). Dream incubation is when you're able to visualize something just before sleep and then dream about it - which is a way to use day residue to create a particular dream, so it does fit into this thread in a way.

Essentially when the mind creates dreams it uses material from your memory, including day residue as well as long term memory and mixes it together with whatever dream schema it's cooking up, then finishes with pure creative imagination to fill in whatever blanks are left. This explains precisely why dreams are so psychologically revealing - they reveal our thoughts and feelings through familiar imagery from our lives.

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I can't say I have read about that, but a friend once told me that dreams are nothing but a residue from your waking life. I thought it was an interesting take because I don't see dreams as having any meaning, unless one interprets his/her own dreams. I'll try to find this ETWOLD, though. Thanks.

It stands for Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, written by Stephen LaBerge. Heh sorry, Im so used to just writing ETWOLD.

They do consist laregely of waking life residue, but not entirely - they're also problem solving and sorting through memories to consolidate which ones get to become long term memory and which ones get discarded. The problem solving aspect is really interesting, because frequently if you're experiencing something that needs to be solved your subconscious will compare and contrast recent expriences (the problem) with past experiences (similar situations that might be able to provide a solution). So you'll often find dreams consisting of a recent situation that's messing with you blending with past experiences that are in some way similar.