I often dream of missing trains or an important appointment. Why is that?

Linda, female

I frequently dream of flying while walking. I would fly when I come to places hard to walk past. Sometimes I go up and sometimes I come down.

Tongmu, male

I often dream of doing something wrong and then having people chasing me. I run here and there, but there are always people after me. Why?

Lucy, female

I dreamed my husband fell in love with somebody else. I became very angry in the dream and cursed her.

Guo Nianfeng, professor of psychology, Psychological Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dreams can be related to physiological and/or psychological factors.

A dream might not be so much related to what happened in daily life as it is to a state of feeling.

In the first dream, something in life has created an anxious feeling similar to that of missing a train. This is what we call a "dream of anxiety." Flying is another typical dream, which we call a "dream of expectancy." The dreamer of these dreams strongly wishes they could deal with certain circumstances. But they feel incapable of doing so.

We call dreams in which one is being chased by people or even ghosts "horror dreams." People having these dreams usually have some worries in daily life, which creates a sense of fear.

Dreaming of fighting and quarreling with other people is a "dream of releasing." The dreamer possibly has become angry with other people recently but has tried to conceal his or her feelings. The anger finds its way of release in the dream.

Xu Wenbing, professor of traditional Chinese medicine, Hope Institute of TCM

According to TCM theory, different internal organs respond to different feelings.

The feeling of happiness is related to the heart, anger to the liver, anxiety and worry to the spleen, surprise and fear to the kidney, and sadness to the lung.

That's why missing trains can be interpreted as a state of weakness of the spleen.

People who dream of flying usually have extra qi, or vital energy, in the lungs.

Horror dreams in which people are chased by killers are related to an imbalanced condition in the kidneys.

Fighting or quarreling with other people is a release of qi in the liver, which responds to anger.

When their internal organs are balanced, people will not have or remember having dreams. But when the organs are not so well balanced in terms of the qi, which becomes too strong or weak, they start to create dreams.

(Beijing Weekend December 31, 2002)