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芝加哥心理医生Jeffrey Sumber说：“关于梦境流传最广的传言，就是梦只是人们日常生活中的琐碎事件的反应。”
But dreams are actually an important part of self-discovery. (More on that later.) Below are a few fascinating facts and findings about dreams.
然而，梦实际上则是自我发现的一个重要部分（后文会有说明）。以下是关于梦境的一些令人惊叹的事实和发现。
1. People with disabilities dream as though they don’t have them.
1.残疾人在梦中是不残疾的。
The following is an excerpt from a person who participated in a dream study:
下面的一段话出自一位参加了一项梦境研究的人。
“I was supposed to and wanted to sing in the choir. I see a stage on which some singers, male and female, are standing… I am asked if I want to sing with them. ‘Me?’ I ask, ‘I don’t know if I am good enough.’ And already I am standing on the stage with the choir. In the front row, I see my mother, she is smiling at me… It is a nice feeling to be on stage and able to chant.”
“我似乎是该去参加一个合唱吧。我看到一个舞台，上面站了一些唱歌的人，有男有女……有人问我是否想和他们一起唱。‘我？’我问道，‘我不知道我是否能行。’然后我就和合唱团一起站在舞台上了。我看到母亲在前排对着我微笑……能够登上舞台而且能够唱歌的感觉真的很好。”
What’s particularly curious about this dream is that the dreamer was born deaf and doesn’t speak. Recently, two studies published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition have found that people with disabilities still dream as though their impairments don’t exist.
令人感到好奇的是，这个人从出生就是聋哑人。最近，发表在《意识与认知》期刊上的两项研究发现，残疾人在梦里是不残疾的。
One of the studies explored the dream diaries of 14 people with impairments (four born with paraplegia and 10 born deaf who can’t speak). Thirty-six able-bodied individuals served as controls. August 2011’s New Scientist featured the research, stating that findings showed that:
其中一项研究调查了十四位残疾人（其中四位先天下肢瘫痪，另外十位是先天聋哑人）的梦境，并和三十六位身体健全的人的梦境做比较。2011年8月份的《新科学》杂志特载了这项研究，研究表明：
About 80 percent of the dream narratives of the deaf participants gave no indication of their impairment: many spoke in their dreams, while others could hear and understand spoken language. The dream reports of the people born paralyzed revealed something similar: they often walked, ran or swam, none of which they had ever done in their waking lives.
聋哑人的梦境描述中大约80%都不能让人联想到他们的残疾：很多人在梦里会说话，其他人则能够听懂别人的话。先天瘫痪者的梦境也有相似之处：他们会走路，跑步或者游泳，而他们在醒着的时候是从来不会的。
Even more interesting, the article states that: “…there was no difference between the number of such bodily movements in the dream reports of the people with paraplegia and in those of the deaf and able-bodied subjects.”
更有趣的是，文章写道：“……在瘫痪者、聋哑人和身体健全的人的梦境中，这些人的身体动作的次数并没有不同。”
The second study found similar results. Researchers looked at the dream reports of 15 people who were either born with paraplegia or had it later in life (because of a spinal-cord injury). They also included 15 able-bodied controls. Their reports revealed that 14 of the participants with paraplegia had dreams that they were physically active. And they dreamed about walking just as often as the able-bodied participants.
第二项研究也有相似的结果。研究者调查了15位先天或后天瘫痪（因为脊椎损伤）的人的梦境报告。他们也以15位身体健全的人做参照。研究结果表明，瘫痪者中的14位在梦中身体都很灵活。身体健全的参与者在梦中走路有多频繁，他们在梦中走路就多频繁。
One of the researchers, Ursula Voss at Germany’s University of Bonn, believes that “dreams are tapping into representations of limbs and movements that exist in the brain and which are independent of our waking reality,” she told the New Scientist. She and researcher Alan Hobson at Harvard Medical School speculate that the key is genetics. According to the magazine:
德国波恩大学的一位研究者认为，“四肢的运动存在于我们的头脑中，与非梦境的现实无关。而梦境则可以调动大脑中的那一部分，并赋予它以形式。”她对《新科学》这样说。她和哈佛医学院的研究员Alan Hobson推测，关键在于基因。据杂志报道：
The pair say the recent dream studies suggest that our brain has the genetically determined ability to generate experiences that mimic life, including fully functioning limbs and senses, and that people who are born deaf or paralysed are likely tapping into these parts of the brain when they dream about things they cannot do while awake.
这两位研究员说，最近的梦境研究暗示，我们的大脑拥有一种由基因决定了的能力，能够产生模仿生活包括健全的四肢和感觉的经历。那些先天聋哑或下肢瘫痪的人们，在做梦时很可能调动了大脑的这一部分，使他们在梦中做到了他们醒着的时候做不到的事情。
2. Younger people report dreaming in color more often than older adults.
2.年轻人的梦境比老年人的更富于色彩。
In a recently published study (one survey conducted in 1993; the follow-up in 2009), researchers found that about 80 percent of participants younger than 30 years old dreamed in color. But by 60 years old, only about 20 percent said they did. (How often participants dreamed in color increased from 1993 to 2009— but only for people in their 20s, 30s and 40s.) The researchers speculated that color TV might play a role in the generational difference.
在最近发表的一项研究中（这项研究在1993年就开展了，2009年又进一步研究），研究者发现，大约80%年龄在30岁以下的人做的梦是彩色的。但是60岁的人中，只有20%的人梦境是彩色的。（2009年与1993年相比，人们做彩色的梦的频率增加了——但是只限于二十多、三十多和四十几多的人。）研究者推测，几代人之间的这个区别，可能是因为彩色电视机在发挥作用。
Another study using both questionnaires and dream diaries found older adults also had more black and white dreams than the younger participants. What seemed to be particularly noteworthy is that older people reported that both their color dreams and black and white dreams were equally as vivid. The younger participants, however, said that their black and white dreams were of poorer quality. As the BPS Research Digest blog noted, "This raises the possibility that the younger participants didn’t really have any black and white dreams at all, but were simply labelling poorly remembered dreams as black and white.”
另外一项研究是采用调查问卷和梦境日记展开的。研究发现，年龄大的人比年轻人更常做黑白色的梦。尤其值得注意的是，年龄大的人说他们黑白的梦境和色彩的梦境一样生动。然而，年轻人则说他们黑白的梦境质量不如彩色梦境。而BPS研究文摘博客则称：“这让人想起了这种可能：年轻人其实并没有做过黑白的梦，他们只是觉得记不清的梦境就是黑白的。”
The blog raised various questions and concerns about the study:
这个博客引起了关于这项研究的各种的疑问和关注：
Several awkward questions are left unanswered by this study. It’s not clear if the older participants really are experiencing more black and white dreams or if it’s their memories or beliefs about dreams that is influencing their reports. Related to this, we don’t know if early exposure to black and white media has really affected the form of the older participants’ dreams or simply their beliefs about dreams. Finally, if differences in media exposure really do explain the current results, we’re still left with the question of how and why early exposure to black and white TV and film has had such an effect on the older participants, even after so many years of exposure to colour media and given that they live every day in a colourful world.
有几个难以解决的疑问，这项研究是回答不了的。首先，是年龄大的人真的做的就是黑白的梦，还是他们关于梦境的记忆和对梦境的观念影响了他们对梦境的描述？其次，和第一条相关联，是否是因为先前接触的都是黑白的媒体，所以老年人做的梦就是黑白的，或者说他们觉得梦就该是黑白的？最后，如果确实是因为接触的媒体不同，所以老年人和年轻人的梦境才不同，那么，老年人生活的世界也是彩色的，也已经接触彩色媒体这么多年，为什么先前黑白媒体还会对他们的梦境有影响？如果有，又是怎样在发挥作用？
Sumber speculates in general why we dream in color and black and white. His theory is that we dream in color “when the process of learning about an aspect of one’s life requires a color association or symbolic, significant color for learning.” He explained that sometimes it might feel like we’re dreaming in black and white, which he attributes to another interesting reason. He said that this “can suggest that the dream content is fading back into the unconscious realm or that we are being symbolically encouraged to associate the dream content or lesson in terms of stark contrasts like black and white.”
关于为什么我们做彩色的梦和黑白的梦，Sumber 从总体上做了猜测。他对我们做彩色的梦的解释是“当关于生活中某一方面的学习的过程需要联系到颜色，或颜色对学习有象征意义时”。关于为什么有时候我们做黑白的梦，他给出了另一个有趣的解释。他说这“说明梦的内容退回了无意识的范围，或是我们被象征性地鼓励把梦的内容和和鲜明的黑白对比联系起来。”
3. Dreams are clues to our identity.
3.梦境暗示了我们身份。
Many of us dismiss our dreams as useless or view them in a negative light. “…Some folks might feel that their dreams are scary, anxiety-provoking and that they’d rather just wake up and feel fine again. Those folks tend to avoid the feelings that the unconscious is pushing them to confront in their dreams,” said Sumber, who also studied global dream mythology at Harvard University and Jungian dream interpretation at the Jung Institute in Zurich.
有人会认为梦境没有什么用，或负面地看待自己的梦境。“……一些人或许感觉他们的梦境很吓人，会引起焦虑，他们宁愿醒过来感觉好一些。这些人倾向于回避他们的潜意识利用梦境让他们面对的情绪，”Sumber 说道。Sumber 在哈佛大学研究梦境神学，也在苏黎世的荣格学院研究荣格梦境解释学。
But dreams can actually lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves. Sumber added, “Dreams represent the opportunity to learn more about ourselves and our path in life. Dreams are typically the unconscious mind attempting to bridge understanding with the conscious mind.”
然而，梦境却可以使我们更好地了解自己。Sumber接着说：“梦境提供给了我们了解自己和自己的人生道路的机会。人的潜意识总是试图和意识架起理解的桥梁，梦境就是一个典型的例子。”
So how do you make sense of your dreams? In another Psych Central article, Sumber offered valuable tips on analyzing your dreams. (By the way, he suggested ditching the dream dictionaries. While there are universal themes, the symbols in a dream depend on the dreamer.)
那么，你怎样解读你的梦境呢？在“心理中心”的另一篇文章中，Sumber 给出了一些分析梦境的宝贵建议。（顺便说一下，他建议人们抛弃梦境词典。虽然说人的梦境的意义有共通之处，但梦境的象征意义是取决于做梦的人。）
Record your dreams. This is the first and most important step in analyzing your dreams, Sumber said. “Taking notes, even a few sentences that encapsulate the dream, literally draws the content of the unconscious out into the realm of the concrete.”
把你的梦境记录下来。这是分析你的梦境的第一步，也是最重要的一步，Sumber说。“记笔记，即使只是几句概括梦境的话，也能够使潜意识的内容变得具体。”
Think you don’t dream or can’t remember your dreams? He suggests simply keeping a journal by your bed, and writing “No dream to record” every morning. “Within two weeks of this process, the person will begin to remember their dreams.” (In fact, “you might open the floodgates!”)
要是你不做梦，或者记不得你的梦境了怎么办？他建议，在床头放一本日记本，每天早上都写下“没有梦可供记录”。“过不了两周，你就会记得你的梦了。”（事实上，“你会打开记忆的阀门！”）
Identify how you were feeling in the dream. For example, Sumber suggests asking yourself: “Was I scared, angry, remorseful, etc.? Do I still feel those feelings the morning after? How comfortable am I feeling these feelings?”
想一想你在梦中是什么感觉。例如，Sumber建议你问自己：“我是害怕，还是生气，懊悔？等等。我在早上醒来还有那种感觉吗？我有这些感觉的时候，心里是否好受？”
C.G. Jung referred to dreams as "feeling-toned complex of ideas." In other words, according to Sumber, “We are always being called by our unconscious self to feel into our ideas, thoughts and actions so as to gain a deeper sense of who we are and where we are going in our lives.”
卡尔·古斯塔夫·荣格认为梦是“被感情渲染了的感觉的集合”。而依据Sumber，梦则是因为“我们的潜意识总是在召唤我们去了解我们的想法，思想和行动，以此来更深入地了解我们是谁，生活中我们要走向哪里。”
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Consider all the elements of a dream. You can show up in your dreams in various ways. Many times, “we can find ourselves, our personalities, in many elements of a dream, even if there is a clear distinction between us and another character in the dream.”
想一想梦中的所有要素。你在梦中可以以各种不同的形式出现。很多时候，“在梦的很多要素中，我们都能够找到我们自己，我们的性格，即使在梦中我们可以把自己和别人分得很清。”
You can ask yourselves these questions, Sumber said: “What is it like to be the villain in the dream? What is it like to be the aggressor, or be passive?”
Sumber说，你可以问自己这些问题：“做梦中那个歹徒会是什么样子呢？做挑衅者又是什么感觉？或者，不反抗呢？”
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You can learn a lot from even the most mundane dreams. You may be thinking that your dreams just aren’t fascinating, flashy or profound enough to explore. But even dreaming about having oatmeal for breakfast can yield thoughtful results, Sumber believes.
即使是在最平淡的梦境中，你也可以了解很多。你可能觉得自己的梦一点都不吸引人，也不华丽也不深刻，不值得去探索。但是Sumber认为，即使是梦到早餐喝麦片，梦都有值得人深思的地方。
As examples, he lists the following questions you can ask:
例如，你可以问自己以下问题：
“Am I alone with my oatmeal? Am I inside or on a veranda with a gentle breeze? Are the oats organic? Overcooked? Is there a horse nearby? How do I feel about the oats? What do oats typically symbolize for me? Are there any memories that I can tie to eating oatmeal? When was the first time I remember eating oatmeal for breakfast? How did my mother make oatmeal and do I make it the same way as an adult?”
“我是一个人喝麦片吗？我是在房间里，还是在吹着柔和的微风的走廊上？这麦片是有机的吗？煮的太过了？附近有没有一匹马？我觉得麦片好喝吗？对我来说，麦片通常象征着什么？我有没有可以和麦片联系起来的记忆？在我记忆中第一次早餐喝麦片是什么时候？妈妈是怎么做麦片的，我长大了之后做的方法和她一样吗？
As Sumber concluded, “People need to have fun with their dreams and take an interest in their dream life as this reflects their level of participation, interest and input in their own life and their own process of self-discovery!”
Sumber总结道：“人们要多想想梦境好玩的地方，对梦境的内容产生兴趣。因为，梦能够反映他们对自己生活以及自我发现过程的参与度、兴趣和投入。”
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