After a day that’s too long, sometimes the only prospect I have to look forward to is finally sleeping the whole day away. And not just sleeping and waking up to a new day, but dreaming of something else completely. Something that isn’t what you’re used to, but what your mind longs for.

Dreams take you to a place you create, where you control what happens. They let us see into our deepest desires and allow us to imagine a place that offers us refuge.

Sometimes they don’t make sense to us right away, but there always seems to be an underlying meaning. Whether they’re just an anecdote to share or something that causes us to ponder what we’re really thinking, dreams are interesting views into what our subconscious is focusing on.

I’ve heard many times that dreams help us to work through problems as we are sleeping. What seems like a string of random events, faces, or tasks is our way of understanding and accepting things.

Sometimes I’ll be surprised to find that someone or something I hadn’t thought of in a while appears in my dreams. It makes me wonder what about that person or thing is troubling me, and why I need to settle something related to them.

A lot of the time I don’t know if I dreamed on a given night. People have told me that you always dream; whether or not you remember it is a different story.

Most regularly, I remember the nightmares more than the dreams, things that stand out to me. When something’s nice and ideal it doesn’t hang over me. Maybe I’ll remember it right when I wake up, but it’s not something I’m going to be able to repeat to my friends the next day, or recall years later.

For those dreams that I can remember, they are always jam-packed with details. A dream that may have only lasted 30 seconds can take much longer to tell to another. There are so many things in dreams that are just implied: something you understand in the dream and don’t question, but that stands out to you later, once you are awake.

There are even those times when I’m not sure if something I dreamed was actually a dream or something that really happened. I’ve asked my friends and family numerous times whether or not this or that happened, or if they said something that I recall but am not sure if it’s a dream or reality.

It’s times like these that frighten me the most. Things that are unrealistic aren’t so bad. Sure, they may scare me, but ultimately I know they’ll never happen. But things that are so close to reality can worry me. It makes the likelihood of its truth seem greater, regardless of what that might be.

I always feel really lucky whenever I can remember my dreams. Even if it’s just for a minute, I enjoy carrying over my dreams into my waking life. Dreams are personal excerpts of our hopes, fears, and secrets. Sometimes they surprise even us, and other times they’re just too strange to comprehend.

Even if I can’t be promised that my dreams will always be serene, I’d never give up the chance to understand myself a little bit better. A nightmare or a fairy tale, all of my dreams are welcome.