Dream Minding (The Secret Language of Sleep)

A fascinating guide to understanding dreams—from their narratives and symbolism to the intense reactions they provoke—in order to lead a healthier and more fulfilling life, from a groundbreaking psychotherapist

In her practice, psychotherapist Annie Armstrong Miyao is bringing dream analysis to the modern age. She teaches us how we can tend to the self by using dreams as a portal of insight. She helps us read deeply into our psyches to identify issues that often elude us in our waking lives.

Rooting her practice in a long history of culture, psychological theory, and contemporary neuroscience, Miyao parses and processes dreams with her patients to help guide them through their mental health, self-understanding, and emotional healing. She calls this practice—using dreams as a vessel to live more peacefully and wholeheartedly—dream minding. From Lou, a career-driven wife and mother whose dreams of a caged canary taught her to quell her controlling tendencies, to Ida, a twenty-something art gallery assistant whose dreams of a framework of a house taught her to navigate life transitions, and more, Miyao chronicles real-life patient stories to show us the groundbreaking effect of using dreams to answer life's questions.

Miyao helps us understand what we should be looking for in our dreams, and how to get the most out of recording and analyzing the sometimes absurd scenes that play in our minds as we sleep. Science has shown that dreams help us synthesize information we’ve taken in during waking hours. Our dreams, and our reactions to them, should not be ignored, but rather studied like a manual for our psyches.

Both riveting and enlightening, Dream Minding teaches us how to use our dreams—our own internal signals—as a meaningful compass to understand our deep or confusing emotions and navigate life with a sense of direction, purpose, and well-being.