梦，神秘莫测，让人们于恍惚中经历着另一个世界，而且它还关系着我们的身心健康。一直致力于解开“梦”之谜的科学家们要告诉你……

Of all the components of a good night's sleep, dreams seem to be least within our control. In dreams, a window opens into a world where logic is suspended1 and dead people speak. A century ago, Freud formulated his revolutionary theory that dreams were the disguised shadows of our unconscious desires and fears; by the late 1970s, neurologists had switched to thinking of them as just "mental noise" ?nbsp; the random byproducts of the neural-repair work that goes on during sleep.2 Now researchers suspect that dreams are part of the mind's emotional thermostat, regulating moods while the brain is "off-line."3 And one leading authority says that these intensely powerful mental events can be not only harnessed4 but actually brought under conscious control, to help us sleep and feel better. "It's your dream," says Rosalind Cartwright, chair of psychology at Chicago's Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. "If you don't like it, change it."

The link between dreams and emotions shows up among the patients in Cartwright's clinic. Most people seem to have more bad dreams early in the night, progressing toward happier ones before awakening, suggesting that they are working through negative feelings generated during the day.5 (In studying divorced couples, Cartwright has found that those who don't follow this dream progression have a much harder time getting over the trauma6.) Because our conscious mind is occupied with daily life we don't always think about the emotional significance of the day's events---until, it appears, we begin to dream.

And this process need not be left to the unconscious. Cartwright believes one can exercise conscious control over recurring bad dreams7. As soon as you awaken, identify what is upsetting about the dream. Visualize how you would like it to end instead;8 the next time it occurs, try to wake up just enough to control its course. With much practice people can learn to, literally, do it in their sleep.

At the end of the day, there's probably little reason to pay attention to our dreams at all unless they keep us from sleeping or we wake up in a panic. Terrorism, economic uncertainties and general feelings of insecurity have increased people's anxiety. Those suffering from persistent nightmares should seek help from a therapist. For the rest of us, the brain has its ways of working through bad feelings. Sleep ?nbsp;or rather dream---on it and you'll feel better in the morning.

1. suspend：使暂时无效，中止。

2. 个世纪前弗洛伊德阐述了革命性的理论，即梦是人们潜意识中的欲望和恐惧经伪装后的预示；到了20世纪70年代末期，神经病学家们转而认为梦是“精神噪音”，即睡眠时进行的神经修复活动的一种杂乱的副产品。Freud：(1856－1939)，奥地利精神病学家、精神分析学派心理学创始人，提出潜意识理论，著有《梦的解析》等。

3. 目前，研究人员怀疑梦是大脑情感自动调节系统的组成部分，当大脑处于“掉线”状态时对情绪进行规整。thermostat：自动调温器, 温度调节装置；off-line：不连接到线上的，脱机的，文中指“大脑停止逻辑思维时的状态”。

4. harness：驾御，约束。

5. 大多数人似乎在晚上入睡的较早阶段做不好的梦，而在快醒来前做的梦会变得开心一些，说明人们在梦里渐渐克服了白天的负面情绪。

6. trauma：（心理上、精神上的）创伤。

7. 人们可以练习有意识地控制恶梦的重演。

8. 想像一下你所希望的结局。