Tom Sonandres’ interest in dream interpretation began as young boy during a trip to his grandmother’s house. "When I was a kid, I was taking a nap on my grandma’s sofa and I had a dream that I had fallen off a cliff. When I woke up, I had fallen off the sofa," he said.
From that point on, Sonandres said, he became fascinated with dreams. Over the past 30 years, the Sun City resident estimates that he has interpreted over 6,000 dreams, many through the Web site www.dreamlady.com, where he is known as the DreamKnight.
On Thursday, Sonandres will conduct a workshop at the Glendale Public Library, 5959 W. Brown St., called "Dream Interpretation." The free seminar is part of the library’s popular "Unexplained Series."
Sonandres, 63, also teaches beginning Spanish at Glendale Community College and has co-authored the book DreamLady.Com: Guidance From Your Dream with fellow dream expert Marilyn Peterson. He said that during the workshop he will give tips on how to decipher what our dreams may mean.
For example, Sonandres said, in order to remember as many dreams as possible, people should keep a small notebook and pen on their nightstands. This way, he said, they can write down their dreams immediately after waking up and before they have a chance to forget anything.
"It’s like a trapdoor that quickly closes when you wake up," he said, adding that it’s important to give each dream a title, as well as to pay close attention to the way each dream makes you feel."When you title it, it helps to focus your analytical skills," he said. "You should also pick out the main points, like mood, color, action."
Sonandres said he also plans to address what the various themes of dreams may mean. "I’ll go into components or type of dreams, like the mood, theme or plot," he said. For those who claim to never have any dreams, Sonandres said he will offer tips on how to remember them.
"It’s a shame that they’re missing themselves in prime time every night," he said, adding that most people have an average of four to five dreams each night. "Get that extra bit of sleep - if you can roll over and go back to sleep, you are more likely to remember a dream."
Sonandres hopes to also spend some time addressing what he calls "recurring dream-things," which is when someone has the same dream or basic plot of a dream over and over. Although he said this type of dream can be frustrating to deal with, taking the time to figure out why you are having it can make all the difference.
"Fears play a big role in dreams - you can get caught up in them," he said. "If you address what’s behind a dream, it will change or stop." Whether people are dreaming about walking up a never-ending staircase, being chased by an unknown being or just hanging out with their loved ones, Sonandres said he likes to allow people to draw their own conclusions about what their dreams may mean.
"The dreamer is the best interpreter of his own dream. I give them some tools," he said. "There are universal meanings, but in general, people are best at interpreting their own dreams."