Why Do Our Dreams Keep Us Delusional?

By Angelica Ruiz

I keep telling my friends (and myself) that I am totally over the situation. I mean… I am, right? Well, I was up until this morning. I had a dream last night about someone I haven’t seen in a long time and with whom I literally have no communication anymore. Now, I’m pining and feeling down about someone I probably won’t ever see again—unless the universe says otherwise. 

All because of a stupid dream. 

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This isn’t the first time this has happened, though. Every once in a while, I get the most vivid and real dreams of people (okay, one specific person) whom I haven’t seen, and suddenly I am drowning in delusion and hope that I will see them again. And not in a run into them at a party by accident and pretend I don’t care way. No, more like, what if the dream means something? What if they miss me too? What if the universe is saying something?!

It’s frustrating, honestly. I wake up yearning and annoyed at my own self-consciousness. I can’t help but beat myself up for wanting something that doesn’t exist. Like, girl, we were doing so good! And now here I am, romanticizing a person that most certainly doesn’t think about me. 

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But the truth is, dreams are sneaky. They crack open doors we thought we slammed shut. They don’t ask for permission. They don’t check if we’ve finally made peace with the past. They just show up, uninvited and intimate, making us feel things we thought we buried.

So, as I’m writing this, I can’t help but wonder— why does our subconscious like playing with our emotions? Why do they revive feelings we swore we were done feeling? Are they just emotional leftovers? Or are they trying to tell us something we’re too scared to say out loud?

According to science, dreams are one of the ways our brains process unresolved emotions. When we sleep, our minds replay memories, feelings, and fragments of thought to try to make sense of them. But dreams aren’t logical—they’re emotional. Which means they don’t care about closure or clarity. They resurface the people and things that once mattered, even if we don’t want them to.

Spiritually, dreams are like movies directed by the universe, or your higher self simply being messy. Some say they’re signs, others say they’re energy reaching out. Either way, they have a funny way of showing you what your soul still isn’t over. It’s less of a random dream and more the universe stirring the pot for unknown reasons. 

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The worst part about having these dreams is that sometimes I don’t want them to end. Sometimes I want to stay asleep a little longer. Because in that dream, they’re still in my life. We’re still talking. We’re at least friends. And even though I wake up empty and aching, there’s something about that brief moment of imagined closeness that feels like comfort.

Maybe that’s what makes dreams so dangerous. They’re mini-movies stitched together with emotion and memory, showing us what could’ve been… and what still might be, if those people were within reach.

I don’t think it makes us weak to dream about people we’ve let go of. It makes us human. Dreams remind us that our hearts don’t always heal in linear ways. Even when we say we’re sooooo over it, some part of us still remembers how it felt to love.

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So yeah, maybe I’m still a little delusional and hopelessly devoted. 

Perhaps I’m still holding on in my sleep.

Because sometimes, even in a dream, it’s nice to believe, for just a moment, that they still think of you too.