Q: What's the best guarantee in life for having a dream come true?

A: If it's your dream, you're the guarantee, via the classic self-fulfilling prophecy. Dreams can color your thinking about upcoming plans and your closest friends, especially if nighttime reveries mirror what you already believe, says Bruce Bower in "Nighttime Thoughts See Light of Day" in "Science News." People in cultures as diverse as the U.S., India, South Korea generally assume that dreams contain hidden truth, say Carey Morewedge of Carnegie-Mellon University and Michael Norton of Harvard. In fact, many dreamers feel that these provide more meaningful insight than do comparable waking thoughts.

In one experiment, participants reported feeling closer to a friend after imagining a dream in which the friend defended them, versus betrayed them. Explains Morewedge: A person who dreams about a loyal friend may then act in ways that encourage the friend to behave loyally. "The dreams most likely to affect our daily lives and relationships are the ones that accord with our existing beliefs and desires."

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