This is a response to Amanda Olsen's Dreams, Day Dreams, and Nightmares.

I agree with Amanda's conclusion that daydreams are closer to the surface and are more easily changed. This is because the conscious part of your mind is contributing to your thoughts. In these daydreams you have the ability to manipulate them and think about what you want to happen. These don't really help a person to understand themselves on a deeper level. Dreams I believe send us messages from a deeper part of us or our "subconcious". During the day our minds are still consumed with social norms telling us that a thought or desire we have is wrong. However, when your asleep that part of the mind is at rest too so therefore your true feelings can be revealed and in a way you do not be threatened by them. When it comes to nightmares, I think  that they are just products of our imaginations that have gone to far. For example when we dream about supernatural beings, we don't necessarily have a clear image of them so our mind makes up an image that may be scary to us. However, when you have a realistic nightmare I think it is just our mind experimenting with a fear that we may or may not know we have in our waking life.