We often dream while we sleep. Our brains use this subconscious mechanism to keep our creative juices flowing while we sleep to prepare ourselves for the day. According to neuroscience, there is an emerging theory that dreams (or the lack thereof) are related to brain activity associated with memory consolidation during sleep. It also involves reorganizing and recording memories following emotional impact and utilizing basic creative skills. The World we live in is filled with immersive experiences, and when we give our brains a chance to rest, we are better able to maintain those experiences.
Dreams are an incredible source of inspiration. Since ancient times, writers, artists, musicians, scientists, and people of all professions have recorded their dreams, shared them, and acted upon them creatively in waking life. It has been reported that many people with creative minds can explore their emotions in dreams in the same manner, they do when confronted with the creative process. Therefore, it’s no wonder so many people connect the two by recording their dreams and using the raw emotional content and imagery of those dreams as the basis for their art.
Dreams and the unconscious became increasingly popular and philosophical during the nineteenth century. Parallel to this, artists and writers increasingly recognized and explored dream-like aspects in their art, such as free association, sensory mixing, and metamorphosis of form. Because dreams are irrational, they are at odds with the enlightenment ideologies, a belief that held sway during this era but whose popularity was beginning to wane. In contrast, artists from the emerging Romantic period found the unconscious incredibly appealing because of its ambiguity and irrationality. Madam C.J. Walker was the first African American woman to become a millionaire by herself in the early 1900s. She had a scalp infection that caused her to lose most of her hair, but the solution was revealed to her in a dream. Her dream contained ingredients from Africa, so she sent them there and followed the recipe, which caused her hair to grow strong, so she decided to sell the product. Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, had a dream that led to the invention of the World’s largest search engine.
Here we have compiled a list of some stunning drawings and artworks people created after getting inspiration from their dreams.
#1 I saw this creature in my dream
She told me that death is not one person, it's many conductors everyone dreams, on average around two hours per night, even people who claim not to. Instead of a single dream, people usually have several short dreams every night, with each one usually lasting only between five to 20 minutes.
#2 I had a dream about tropical, waterproof sheep. I decided to paint it
They're special sheep that can be submerged in salty ocean water and only have the very outer layer of their wool get wet or something, i just remember that they were "waterproof" from my dream the reason that most people claim not to dream is that more that 90% of all dreams are forgotten almost instantly after waking. But why? Dreaming occurs during rapid-eye movement (rem) sleep, if there is a transition from rem to another sleep stage before waking, the dream will usually disappear before you even knew it was there.even if you wake during rem sleep, the chemical processes that cause dreams quickly dissipate and the feeling that you were so caught up in quickly fades. Certain triggers throughout the day can cause a recollection of the dream however, for example if you have an experience that reactivates the same area of the brain that created the dream overnight.
#3 For six years now this dream has been recurring every couple months. So far i have drawn 32 illustrations from it
I have had a recurring dream for 6 years now of a hidden tribe in a jungle. They share the valley they inhabit with a creature that can take their souls and allow them to be reborn in whatever next body they want and they retain all their previous memories. This tribe has lived for thousands of years, protecting this creature from outsiders. Some of them will be reborn as animals too (and retain all human memories) to preserve the valley in other ways
#4 I dreamt that robert de niro was posing for a model drawing class
He had a monobrow and a female body and was dressed as a playboy bunny while holding the upcoming tool album.a researcher called calvin s. Hall spent decades studying dreams, collecting over 50,000 dream accounts from college students.he found that dreams evoke many emotions, but most of them tended to be more on the negative side. The most common emotion experienced in dreams was anxiety. It is not known why we tend to have more negative emotions in dreams than positive ones.
#5 Watercolor painting i did. Inspired by a recent dream
#6 I painted a dream. What do you think this means?
I had this dream where i was riding around on a shark and "mining" the babies from the rocks. It was in world of warcraft graphics, and i was mining like in the game. The babies were just growing out of the rocks. They ranged from normal sized babies to some very huge ones floating on stones everywhere. I went down into the water as well and mined some of the babies down there too. It was a very confusing experience
#7 I keep dreaming i’m buried and becoming a red tree
That's the interesting thing about my dreams lately - i'm in full astronaut gear, even in situations where it would be bizarre to find someone wearing it there are some common dreams that we all have, regardless of who we are or where we are from. While obviously, most of our dreams result from our own experiences, some themes unite us all, like being chased, being attacked, or falling (those negative emotions again). Other universal dreams include being stuck and unable to move, arriving late, flying, and being naked in public.
#8 This little guy came to me in a dream so i drew him
In my dream, these three little kittens come outta nowhere to my living room and start just doing kitten stuff. Kittens are always in my dreams, but they usually look normal. This time one looked like this. I call him darth kittyus. The second one was kinda crystalline, and i don't remember the third one, but it was weird too. Then this big army of people started trying to bust down my door. I think that was about it
#9 This is my dream, illustrated
#10 Illustrated my dream
Although i definitely hear things during dreams, the thing i always remember about them the most is the feeling. The intense emotions and feelings kind of overpower anything audible, like hearing isn't even necessary. But with this drawing specifically, i don't recall any noises. It was a powerful and looming silence, an intense dread permeated the atmosphere it’s uncertain whether animals dream, but “it seems very likely,” hugo spiers, an experimental psychologist at university college london, told national geographic. We've all seen and heard a dog seemingly having a great time while sleeping, wagging its tail and trying to run with its legs in the air. Just like us, animals have sleep stages that include cycles of rem and non-rem sleep, so it's definitely likely that your pup is indeed dreaming of frisbees in the park and endless butts to sniff.
#11 Inspired by a dream. Three-trunked elephant saving my life as i sink to the bottom of the sea
#12 I have been drawing a recurring dream of 8 years. I feel my images would fit in here. This is one of them
These dreams started to reoccur a week after the death of my brother. This drawing is based on the part of an idea where a tribal elder was telling his tribe about a prophecy he had of a green, pale-skinned man coming across the seas full of self-importance and malice. He would devour all of the life of the forest peoples and then vomit it back up mixing his culture of evil into their culture, changing it forever
#13 I painted my dream
#14 I moved to seattle several months ago. Since my first night here this lady kept appearing in the background of my dreams
#15 I drew a picture of my nightmare
Before anyone says anything, i haven’t watched the babadook recently. I know it looks like him. This was a particularly terrifying nightmare that i woke up from in a cold sweat. In my dream, i was laying in my bed trying to sleep, and when i opened my eyes the dagman (somehow i just knew that was his name) was standing in my doorway staring right into my soul. Needless to say, i freaked out and somehow managed to escape my room but no matter where i went he would always be creeping on me in the doorways
#16 Painting of a very vivid dream i had in 2014
It actually started quite sadly. I dreamt that my boyfriend died - i was standing at a beach, crying my eyes out, and suddenly the sky kind of opened and revealed this scenery. It was the most breathtaking picture i've ever seen, and the only fitting words to describe it with are either eden, paradise or heaven. It was crazy how real it felt. By looking at this, i knew he was safe and in peace. I woke up and started crying immediately after opening my eyes and had to make a quick sketch. It was the most powerful and vivid dream i've had so far
#17 I have always had a bit of a wild nightlife. This rooster woke me out of my dream.
#18 This was my dream
#19 Cletus from my dream
#20 For my concentration i’ve chosen to illustrate my dreams. Here’s what i’ve got so far
I’m a high school student in ap studio art. I’m also an extremely active, and often lucid dreamer. For my concentration (theme) i’ve chosen to illustrate my dreams. My first one definitely wasn’t my best. It’s me hiding while some kind of entity is coming through the door. The second dream is recurring for me. I often dream of huge waves and flooding water and being caught in it. Not in a scary way, in a relaxing way. And the third one - i had that dream after falling asleep watching cosmos, actually. It was so mesmerizing watching all the colorful explosions in the sky
#21 A drawing of a dream i had recently
#22 I saw this right before waking up after a nap on my couch the other day
#23 This creep is based on a dream i had about a masked figure offering me a tiny house
#24 Say hi to this unsettling little fella who popped up in my dreams last night
I don't remember the whole dream i had, but it played out like that pretty common horror movie scene where the family calls in a medium to check out the weird activity in the house, and the medium is walking around like "hmm, yes, i sense a dark energy here, particularly in this room." the dream was basically that, but the "camera" was looking down a hallway, 1st person perspective, and something pushed past the people standing in the hall, and the "camera" cut to face the people, and this creepy figure, about the size of a 10-year-old child, was standing in the shadows
#25 We all have monsters within. This is an illustration of a dream i had
#26 Man with feet as hands came back to my dream again
I am absolutely terrified of him, both times i woke up in cold sweat. He isn’t actually threatening though, he is just inconsolable (and slightly abrupt when he speaks). It also felt threatening that he kept giving me his footfoot instead of his handfoot when i was trying to comfort him (he sits behind me while crying), but he doesn’t actually do anything that motivates that. I was also sure he was going to hunt me and hurt me in the first dream, and i ran from him, but he did say that he wasn’t going after me, and i never saw him running
#27 A drawing of an odd dream i had recently
In this dream, i felt like i was witnessing some strange ritual that i wasn't supposed to be seeing. I wasn't afraid, but just kind of repulsed by what i was looking at, and then i woke myself up soon after it all began because i was like "i gotta get out of here." it seemed that i came across the whole situation accidentally
#28 Drawing of a dream i had
#29 Have you ever looked at your hands in a dream?
#30 Back with something quite strange
Some days ago i dreamt of an awful gloomy eye surrounded by veins, kinds of intestines and fragments of flesh, staring at me and talking to me with a loud voice, but i don't remember what he said, the only thing i can remember is this: "dyings call me arnn." it was quite disgusting, and when i woke up, i still had the memory of this dream in my head, and i decided to draw it