Ideas for Dream Projects
Here's a list of ideas and suggestions for winning Dream Projects. Whether
you're looking for a novel approach for a five minute talk for tomorrow's
class, a new angle for a written review assignment or an idea for an original
research project or experiment, this is the place to start!
Choose your Project Style:
Here are some ideas for Dream Topics suitable for short talks with links
for you to trace for more information:
# Recurring Dreams
A recurring dream is one which keeps coming back. What kind of dreams
recur and why?
~ FAQ's: Q8, Q9
, Dream Index
# Dream Symbols
Why are dreams bizarre? Is it because dreams are symbolic? Why dream in
symbols? Is dream interpretation just about learning the meaning of dream
symbols?
~ FAQ's: Q6, Q7,
Q12, Dream Index,
Dream Gallery, Dream
Interpretation Sample
# Dream Journeys
Why are so many dreams about journeys: different vehicles, different terrains
and different outcomes?
~ FAQ's: Q12, Dream
Index
# Dream Interpretation
Are dreams meaningful? How can they be interpreted? Does a dream dictionary
help, or is dream interpretation more complex? Why should we interpret
dreams?
~ FAQ's: Q6, Q7,
Q8, Q12,
Q13,
Dream Gallery,
Dream Interpretation
Sample
# Story Ideas from Dreams
Dreams can be turned into wonderfully creative stories! Tap into creativity
while you sleep!
~ Dream Index, Dream
Gallery
# Dreams as Metaphors
A metaphor is an imaginative (non-literal) way of describing something
which helps to communicate meaning. A metaphor helps to give you a good
'feel' for true meaning. Dreams do this in exciting ways. They move beyond
literal communication to deliver strong impact.
~ FAQ's: Q6, Q18,
Q19, Dream Puns
& Puzzles, Dream
Index, Dream
Gallery, Dream
Interpretation Sample
# Dream Settings
Why do some dreams take place by the water, some in the air, some in valleys
... what do dream settings mean?
~ Riverwall
Dream, Dream Gallery,
Dream Interpretation
Sample
# Nightmares
What makes a dream a nightmare? How can nightmares be stopped? What do
they mean?
~ FAQ's: Q10, Q11, Dream
Index
# Precognitive Dreams
A precognitive dream is one which gives details about some aspect of the
future in an accurate way.
~ The Shape
of Things to Come
# The Media & Dreams
How does the media treat the subject of dreams and dream interpretation?
~ Books, web sites, radio programmes. Use your Search Engines.
# Movies & Dreams
How many movies make use of dream sequences or dream ideas?
~ Use your Search Engines.
1 Dream Survey & Questionnaire Ideas
An easy way to collect interesting information for a research project
or assignment in dreams is to do a Survey or Questionnaire. Here’s
a simple example of a Survey about Animals in Dreams. You can copy (or
add to) the Animals in Dreams Survey (purple) to use for your project
or you can adapt or extend this idea to collect information about different
areas of dreaming.
Example: Animals in Dreams
Survey on Animals in Dreams
1. Your Name: _____________________
2. Your Age: _____________________
3. Your Sex: M/F
4. How many nights in a week do you remember your dreams? (Circle): 1
2 3 4 5 6 7
5. On a good night, how many dreams do you remember? (Circle) 1 2 3 4
5
6. Please circle any animals in this list which have been in your dreams
at some time in your life:
Wolf, Dog, Cat, Fish, Shark, Bird, Monkey, Whale, Dolphin, Tiger, Lion,
Snake, Bear, Elephant, Crocodile, Eagle, Frog, Spider, Mosquito, Duck,
Parrot, Cockroach, Pig, Ant, Other (Please state: _____________________
)
7. Please circle any of these situations you have dreamed about and write
which animal on the line:
Animals chase me
_____________________
Animals catch me
_____________________
Animals run away from me
_____________________
Animals bite me
_____________________
I hug animals
_____________________
I dream I am an animal
_____________________
I play, run, swim or fly with animals _____________________
Animals talk to me
_____________________
Animals are just there, with me
_____________________
Thank you for taking part in my dream survey.
If you need to ask any questions, please phone me at: ....................
Please return your survey to me by ……...... (date), to ..................(name)
at............................................................(address).
Ideas for Survey Subjects
You can design a survey similar to ‘Animals in Dreams’ for
any dream subject you wish to investigate. Here are some ideas to start
with:
# Recurring Dreams
# Landscapes in Dreams
# Dream Journeys
# Symbols in Dreams……
Choosing a Survey Group
After you’ve chosen your subject and designed your survey, you’ll
need to choose your survey group. Here are some ideas:
Who?
You could choose a group of students, friends or relations. It might
be a good idea to pick only people who generally remember their dreams.
Try to get a good cross-section of people in your sample if you can: different
ages, different sexes etc. If everyone is the same age then this is okay,
but you’ll have to say "this project is about fifteen year old
boys who dream" … or whatever your group description is.
How Many People?
You will need enough people to make your data collection interesting,
informative and meaningful, but not too many otherwise your project will
take too much time! You might need at least 20 people in your survey group.
Distributing your Survey & Getting Answers Back
# You can ask your group to answer the survey in their own time and send
their answers to you by a given date (post or e-mail).
# You can meet each person face-to-face and stay with them as they (or
you) write down their answers, or tape record them.
Looking at Your Results
- Draw up a table ready to collect your results. Tally (count) how many
people tick each question.
- Look for any patterns in the answers.
Presenting Your Results
Choose from: Pie charts, graphs, drawings, art work, a ‘dream’,
stories, scientific analysis, statistical analysis, case histories ……
etc.
2 Case History Ideas
Choose an area of dreaming which interests you and find people to interview
about their experiences. Present your results as individual stories (case
histories) and add your own conclusions (any similarities or differences
you notice).
Example: Life-Changing Dreams
I did this on a large scale to write my second book, "Dream
It: Do It!". I was interested in Life-Changing Dreams –
cases where people had a dream which totally changed their life. I advertised
in various places (radio, newspapers, research groups, my data base of
dreamers etc) for people who had experienced life-changing dreams to volunteer
to be interviewed. I wrote the book as 45 individual stories, each story
featuring a person, the dream they had, what their life was like before
the dream, what the dream meant to them and what their life was like after
the dream. Then I added my own interpretations for each person’s
dream and added some chapters at the beginning of the book as an introduction
and at the end of the book as conclusions. You can do this on a smaller
scale.
Other Case History Subject Ideas:
Nightmares
Dreams which have Solved Problems
Dreams with Spiritual Messages
Other ideas?
3 Dream Experiments
If you have a little more time or you want to be very adventurous, try
a dream experiment. If you choose this option you're probably very imaginative
and don't really need much help from me at all! Here's one example of
an experiment to get you thinking:
Example: Dream Incubation Experiment
Choose a group of people to take part in this experiment to dream about
an object.
Dream Incubation means focussing on something to introduce it into a
dream. There are many ways to do this. Putting in an order for a dream
about a certain subject can be done just for fun, but the usual idea is
to ‘request’ a dream to solve a problem or help the dreamer
to understand something about a subject. For example, someone might have
a relationship problem and use dream incubation to ‘order’ a
dream about the best way of handling the relationship. This is usually
very successful, although the object or subject sometimes turns up in
strange guises in the dream. You can experiment with Dream Incubation
in many ways. This is just one example:
Pick a simple object which is easy to visualise, such as a red cup, a
purple glove or a yellow book. (Or you may wish to experiment with a different
sense: the taste of chocolate, the smell of mown grass, the feel of ice
etc). Ask everyone to focus on the chosen object/sensation as they fall
asleep, repeating to themselves at the same time "I will dream about
this object/sensation tonight and I will remember my dream in the morning."
Ask them to keep paper and pencil by the bed and to write down ALL their
dreams in the morning.
How you handle the results and how you present them up to you!
Further School Project Resources Pages:
Dream Puns & Puzzles
Dream Characters
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