麻豆社

Dreams can be wonderful, weird or even upsetting. Frustratingly, sometimes we don't even remember them. When you’re awake, your thoughts have a certain logic to them but when you're asleep, even though your brain is still active, your dreams often make little or no sense. Though there’s no definitive proof, dreams are often autobiographical thoughts based on conversations, your recent activities or other issues in your life.

The reason behind why we dream has been heavily debated through the ages, but beyond that, we're also fascinated by the simple question - what do they mean? On the first Wednesday of every month, Vinny Hurrell and Cate Conway present 'Sleep and Dream, with Vinny & Cate', a specialist programme focusing on what happens in our minds and our bodies, when we sleep. They explore sleep issues including sleep apnoea and insomnia, and delve into the possible meanings, behind our dreams. For this they're regularly joined by dream psychologist, Professor Ian Wallace.

In the series, dream expert Ian Wallace has outlined the 5 most common dreams

1. Being chased. A chase can also be called a pursuit. This dream is all about something that you are pursuing in waking life. It could be within that pursuit you are experiencing some frustrations and challenges, those are symbolised by whoever or whatever is pursing you in the dream. So the action from this dream is to ask yourself; what do you really want to achieve in your life? What big ambition are you pursing and how can you remove the obstacles and frustrations around that so you can achieve that pursuit?

2. Teeth falling out. Teeth symbolise power and confidence. We tend to show our teeth on two main occasions in waking life – when we’re smiling, happy and confident or when we are snarling and asserting ourselves. If you dream that your teeth are falling out, there could be some situations in your waking life where you feel your confidence and power levels are falling in some way. You should try to boost your confidence and step into your power.

3. Not being able to find a toilet. The key part here is what we say when we’re going to the toilet, we say: ‘we need the toilet’. So this dream is all about your needs in waking life. It suggests that in waking life you tend to spend your time looking after the needs of other people and you don’t look after your own needs. Because of that you don’t have personal boundaries and this is represented by that long queue that you have to wait in to get to the toilet. The action from this dream is quite a simple one – sometimes you just have to say ‘no’ to people and put your own needs first before you attend to their needs.

4. Being naked in public. Our clothes symbolise an image which we present to the world. Being naked in public through our dreams, symbolises some situation in waking life where you feel that you’re trying to present a particular image to the world around you but you’re not succeeding. This dream shows that you are concerned about exposing your identity or your character. You are struggling to 'show off' how good you are. The other side of it is that when you do that you can feel vulnerable – you can feel naked. It is a very common dream if you’re going into new job or a new relationship.

5. Being late for an exam/unprepared for an exam. People often think they have this dream because they haven’t studied enough or there is something they need to find out. But in reality this dream is all about being self-critical and examining yourself far too harshly in waking life. The people who have this dream are usually perfectionists, self-critical and they usually analyse things. If you take anything away from this dream it would be to stop examining your performance so critically and to celebrate your achievements instead.

You can listen live to 'Sleep and Dream with Vinny & Cate' on 麻豆社 Radio Ulster on the first Wednesday of the month from 7pm, or download the episodes in 麻豆社 Sounds. Contact the team via email on MeTime@bbc.co.uk.