So you're walking down Shortlidge Road naked or you fall down the Willard Building steps when your foot suddenly goes out from under you. Then you wake up. But what do seemingly bizarre dreams like these mean?

Aaron Pincus, associate professor of psychology, said the meaning of dreams can vary. "I subscribe to the thought that some dreams are meaningful, some are part meaningful and some are just random," he said.

Some students like Elizabeth Hess (junior-human development and family studies) have dreams about the future.

"I think about getting married a lot and ending up with someone and having a happy marriage and fun wedding," she said.

Oh, what can it mean to a book dream believer...

However, just because you always dream about weddings does not mean it has only one specific meaning behind it, Pincus said.

"Don't approach it like that," he said. "I don't believe there is any evidence to show that there are universal dream symbols. Symbols are unique to each dream. Dreams that mean something aren't a book in a different language that can be translated word for word."

Robert J. Hoss, president of the Association for the Study of Dreams (ASD), said dream symbols are quite erroneous.

"The imagery in a dream really, for the most part, has a personal meaning, whereas with the imagery in those books, only one or two meanings are attributed to it," he said.

"And they're usually someone else's meaning for it," he added, laughing.

Jamie Bertha (senior-biology) has used a dream symbol book before. "I think there's some basis to it," she said.

Hoss discouraged using such books to interpret dreams. "[ASD] warns against those kind of things because they're misleading and harmful," he said. "Our philosophy is that the meaning of dreams comes from the dreamer.

"If you're interested in buying books, stick with people recognized in the field that have credentials so you can avoid getting books on this means this and that means that," he said.

But just because objects are not symbolic of specific emotions in dreams does not mean there aren't any explanations behind common themes.

"If you're on a boat and there's something underneath and you can't see what it is, you may be exploring yourself or trying to look for something," Pincus said. "Or if it's dark, it's often a searching dream. You may be searching for something about yourself."

In your wildest dreams...

As a psychotherapist, Pincus has had patients report the events of an entire dream to him. "It's not about starting from the beginning and this happened here and there," he said. "It's about what feelings the dream left you with. In therapy, we may talk about one aspect of the dream as opposed to the whole sequence.

"There may be different elements and people in the dream that may be parts of the dreamer. If I'm me in a dream and I encounter someone I know, it may just be an aspect of myself to work out or that I have feelings about. Ask yourself if the different parts of the dream are different parts of the dreamer."

Nightmares, Pincus said, are consistent with the level of emotional issues involved in generating a dream.

"Dreams are disguised," he said. "Less disguised dreams are more emotionally relevant. So if a dream has a stronger negative emotion, it is likely a nightmare."

There are four stages of sleep, each progressively deeper, Pincus said. Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, or the second stage of sleep when people dream, occurs during the lighter stages of sleep. In the deeper stages of sleep, such as stage four, dreams do not occur. "We cycle through [the stages during] the night -- up and down, lighter and deeper," Pincus said.

He said one reason it's difficult to recall dreams is that a dream is a product of how the mind has evolved. Just because you may not recall a dream does not mean didn't dream.

"You wake up and if the dream is too disturbing, you can't remember it," he said. "It's the perfect way to protect yourself from underlying emotions. Also, some say they may not have had a dream, but physiological data [taken from tests] show that those who can't remember really have dreams too."

I go falling in my dreams...

There is even a specific explanation to something almost everyone has experienced before -- the real feeling of falling after your foot has gone out from under you.

"This is called hypnopompic or hypnogogic [hallucinations]," Pincus said. "It occurs during stage one, the lightest stage of sleep, when you go right from being awake to sleeping. You may feel like you've stepped off a curb or fell off a bike -- it's a physiological jolt. Your body, physiologically, can still move, but the nerves are innervated."

The body is paralyzed, however, during REM sleep, he said. "It's a good thing," he said, laughing. "If you're dreaming about flying and running, you're not moving all around."

Alcohol and drugs, however, play a part in lack of REM sleep, Pincus said.

"If you drink too much, it stops you from having REM sleep," he said. "Alcohol and drugs are likely to inhibit dream activity."

Unfortunately, Pincus said, decreasing REM sleep is not good for one's health.

"Dreams are necessary," he said. "Science shows you become physically and psychologically ill if you deprive yourself of REM sleep. We don't know why, but it's related to health."

It was only in my dreams...

Caffeine and chocolate may also play a role in disturbing one's sleep.

Robert D. Vorona, assistant professor of internal medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, published a case study in 2000 about a man with REM Sleep Behavior Disorder that was seemingly caused by consuming chocolate.

"Listening to him and his wife when taking down his history, they said, 'This is something we've picked up on,' " Vorona said. "Whenever he had chocolate, he exacerbated [the REM Sleep Behavior Disorder]."

Vorona said he had seen a previous report linking caffeine to REM Sleep Behavior Disorder. "Since caffeine is in chocolate, I thought, 'Something is going on there.' "

In REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, Vorona said, people act out their dreams to some extent.

"Dreams can be of fearful content -- if they're being attacked or they're trying to defend themselves -- but they can injure themselves and their bed partners.

"It's a fascinating disorder," he said. "And it's not that rare, but most of the time people aren't aware that they're doing it."

Vorona said REM Sleep Behavior Disorder can be treated effectively with medication, making sleeping safer for the patient and their bed partner. "Patients rest better and it's gratifying from that standpoint."

In the future, Vorona said, he would like to see more scientific studies done on REM Sleep Behavior Disorder.

"When I get more time I would like to do a larger study looking at more people to see if caffeine and chocolate, in particular, affect REM Sleep Behavior Disorder," he said. "I've heard from people in Texas, in England ... they've found the same connection. When they stopped consuming chocolate, the bad dreams went away. It would be good to look at it more systematically."

California dreamin'

For those who have a strong interest in dreams, there are many groups you can join, such as ASD, which is based in California.

Hoss said the study of dreams is important for a number of reasons.

"There are a lot of really very good uses for dreams in therapy," he said. "It's one of the quickest ways to understanding what's going on inside and get to the heart of problems that can be worked on."

ASD, Hoss said, even encourages people to use dreams in aesthetic ways.

"Our organization, for the most part, wants to introduce dreams to the general public in a way that people can understand their own inner-self through their dreams," he said. "There are other people like artists and dancers that like to incorporate dreams into art and dance and we invite that discipline in."

To support the scientific study of dreams, Hoss said ASD holds conferences each year.

Dream on

Pincus suggested writing down your dreams as soon as you wake up.

"We do things in the morning and tend to forget dreams," he said. "Write it down, not to translate it literally, but to free associate. What was most interesting or scary? What reminds you of something else? You tend to discover more if you break out of the linear mode."

Hoss also encouraged keeping a dream journal.

"The best thing anyone can do is starting a dream journal," he said. "Start writing dreams down in a journal and drawing a picture of the scene in a dream and any colors you saw. Begin trying to relate what occurred in the dream to an event or situation.

"The idea of the dream might give you insight into how you're approaching your waking life situation," he added.

"If you understand how to work on a dream, once you do, you always discover something pretty important about the way you approach something in waking life in your dreams," he said. "It's also usually something you're not willing to admit to yourself the day before. It's a nice surprise and a different way to think about things. Dreams reveal the hidden meaning behind your actions."