Here’s what to know about this strange dream phenomenon. Déjà rêvé—or feeling like you dreamed something that happened in real life—is one type of precognitive dream that seems to be relatively common, especially when we’re young. (More on those below!) Other precognitive dreams can relay everything from specific and incidental circumstances of an event to more vague things like feelings or emotions. Say you dreamed about feeling very unsettled, and the next day, found yourself having that same unsettled feeling; Some might argue that was a precognitive dream, though there isn’t any way to back that up. And that’s just one example—here are some more famous ones. Or take famed psychiatrist Carl Jung, who was very interested in the predictive ability of dreams; He claimed to have had a dream that predicted his own mother’s death. And of course, we can’t forget Abraham Lincoln, who is said to have dreamt of his own death 10 days before his assassination. “[Your dream is] not a deterministic oracle that can predict what’s going to happen, but rather it’s a very sophisticated, probabilistic, neurobiological machine” that simulates possible futures based on what happened in the past, he explains to mbg. In other words, our dreams are constantly putting out potential scenarios for what the future could look like, based on what our brains know of the past. Think of it like this: We know that dreams (and sleep in general) play a role in consolidating memories. In doing so, they help us learn and prepare for the future and are “a source of new ideas and creativity,” Ribeiro says. “On top of the neurological processes at play, you have the dream level that’s symbolic and related to your life in a predictive manner,” meaning that some of it may eventually prove true to your experience. As therapist and dream expert Leslie Ellis, Ph.D., previously explained to mbg, “Dreaming is a phenomenon where time does not follow the strict linear rules of the day world. In dreams, we often have a mix of past, present, and possible future. Dreams that predict the future are called precognitive dreams, a close cousin of the déjà rêvé phenomenon.” In Ellis’ own clinical practice, she’s seen examples of these kinds of dreams, and notes that many cultures throughout history have regarded dreams as “sources of spiritual guidance from a source of far greater knowledge than we normally possess, including information about possible or probable future events.” So, while Rubio considers precognitive dreams to be more of a mechanistic phenomena of the brain, others believe there could be more to it. To do so, start with the basics: Get plenty of exercise, eat a healthy diet, and limit stress where you can. From there, don’t forget about the other factors that can promote sleep, like keeping your bedroom comfortably cool and dark, waking up and going to sleep at the same times every day, and avoiding eating or drinking alcohol close to bedtime. If you need a little extra support, try taking a relaxing sleep supplement before bed.* (Here are our all-time favorite ones for deeper zzz’s.)
