Time and the dream.

Abstract

Like the unconscious, a dream is not bound by the constraints of time; as with the unconscious, however, the so-called "timelessness" of the dream is only relative. Both the experience and the concept of time may be present, either openly or implicitly, in the manifest content of the dream. Time as perspective is typically represented in spatial terms, time as duration in terms of motion or situations involving time-bound affects. The concept or experience of time in the manifest dream may signify an unconscious conflict. When time is explicit, the conflict is likely to refer to an early event or relationship; when time is disguised or implicit in the dream experience, it may signify a current conflict, one involving a contemporary relationship or an early relationship reactivated in the transference. By eliminating time perspective, the dream work can make painful affects more tolerable and thus prevent awakening.