Every day, we wake up in the morning.

Sometimes, we remember them. Sometimes, they’re so vivid we feel like they’re real-but they’re not, they’re just dreams, figments of our subconscious. But they are still a part of us.

For years, I have been fascinated with dreams; looking up what my dreams mean online as well as in dream dictionaries. I have read up on how to self-analyze dreams, and at one point I even kept a dream diary.

For those of you who say dreams are not important, I disagree with you. Dreams are very important.

They give you insight to what you are truly feeling and if you understand them correctly, you will have a better understanding of your true self. They can help you realize issues you have in your daily life. They can even be the key to the future.

I will give an example. I have always had reoccurring dreams about my teeth. They either are all falling out, the dentist is pulling them out or they feel loose in my mouth.

After looking up the meaning to this dream a few years ago, I found out that these teeth dreams mean I am a little self-conscious about my appearance, and I tend to worry about what others think of me.

I will admit it-I do sometimes worry about my appearance and what others think about me. It is only natural. I have been doing it for as long as I remember.

But everyone’s dreams mean something different to them.

I will give another example.

For smokers who have recently quit, or are trying to quit smoking, when they dream about going back to smoking cigarettes, this simply means the obvious-that they miss the cigarettes.

But for me, a non-smoker, the smoking dream means something incredibly different.

I began to grow a little paranoid because I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, and have no intentions to start. But after having continuous dreams about lighting up a cigarette, enjoying the cigarette, smoking with friends, sometimes strangers, smoking more than one cigarette-I decided to do a little investigating to see what it really meant.

For non-smokers like me, the smoking dream means that I need a break.

And I definitely know I do, having two jobs, being co-president of a registered student organization, five classes, doing

homework. it all adds up.

Dreams can even serve as premonitions into the future. They may not be major premonitions, but it’s possible.

Heres my last example.

When I was in high school, we had an important project due for class. I had a dream a few nights before the project was due.

The dream was vivid; I was walking down the hallways, passing people I knew, and when I finally got to the class and opened my backpack to get the project, I realized that I had forgotten it at home.

And sure enough, the same exact thing happened in real life. I passed the same people in the hallways. And the same feeling of horror crossed my mind when I realized I had left the project at home.

The most important thing to remember about your dreams is this: The more you pay attention to them, the more you will understand what they are trying to tell you.

Sam Sottosanto is a junior journalism

major and can be reached at

DENopinions@gmail.com or at 581-7942