EP22: Dreams in Midlife - My Take on Dream Theory as a Psychologist

Dreams aren’t just stories we forget when the alarm clock goes off. For Scott Asmar, they’re part memory lab, part survival training, and sometimes, part mystery that can’t be explained.

In this episode, Scott shares how an old dissertation he wrote back in 1999 opened the door to a fresh look at dream theory. Growing up in a family where dreams carried meaning—his great-grandmother once dreamed of him standing by a white lamb, and later dreamed of her late son comforting her—Scott learned early that dreams can heal, warn, and guide. Revisiting his work decades later, he asks: what do researchers say about dreams now?

From theories that see dreams as survival rehearsals, to those that mirror daily stress or act as emotional “housekeeping,” Scott explores the many ways science has tried to explain what happens when we sleep. Technology has even entered the mix, with AI now able to turn dream reports into 3D visualizations. Still, Scott comes back to a simple truth: just as no two people are alike, no two dream lives are either.

On #WorldMentalHealthDay, this episode invites you to pause, reflect, and consider what your own dreams might be saying about your mind, your heart, and your healing.

Quotes

• “I grew up in a family that always valued their dreams. For whatever reason, they valued their dreams. My grandmother had dreams. My great grandmother had dreams. And in fact, two distinct dreams that my great grandmother had was she would tell me that when I was born, she had a dream of me as a toddler standing next to a white lamb. And that was a dream that always stuck with me.(01:53 | Scott Asmar)
• “From the time I've done my research to the present, dreams are no longer just mystical messaging or random noise. And we've got to remember that dreams were also in biblical times and ancient times and dreams are from the beginning of time.” (08:29 | Scott Asmar)
• “We’ll never understand dreams. That is just one concept.” (09:40 | Scott Asmar)
• “ We are all wired differently…I think just as we're different, we dream different.” (09:51 | Scott Asmar)
• “Sleep Good and Dream Big.” (11:01 | Scott Asmar)

Links

World Mental Health Day: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day

Connect with Scott Asmar:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottasmar5/

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm