Do you dream?

[Khan]

Originally Posted by Want2retire

I seem to have a need to tell people about my dreams, so that I will remember them. I have no idea why I would want to remember them! Most of my dreams are either stupid (like, dreaming that I was getting ready to go to work) or horrifying (like, dreaming that my daughter was only three and was run over by an 18-wheeler, and then morphed into me, and then ended up on another planet, and then OMG and then... ).

I am a lucid dreamer so usually in the latter type of dreams, I take control and make everything work out to be OK somehow (for example, I get wings and fly home, and hug my daughter and we all go out to dinner and live happily ever after), and then awaken myself. Sometimes I feel the need to experience the horror, though, and in that case I just let it take its course.

I have weird dreams (rarely since retired) where I was getting out of bed and getting ready for work and would realize I was still dreaming and would get up and go to work... repeat several times; also used to dream I had insomnia.

I still have dreams about not being able to find my car (any car, but often the MG I owned for 10+ years).

[bbbamI]

One of the craziest dreams I've ever had was when I was a kid. I was able to create an alligator by putting peanut brittle in water.

[Want2retire]

Originally Posted by bbbamI

One of the craziest dreams I've ever had was when I was a kid. I was able to create an alligator by putting peanut brittle in water.

It might work! Just add a little bacon..

[summer2007]

I dream for sure!


My dreams can be really vivid and scary at times. But I dream and dream a lot.

I don't do any drugs either prescription or illegal and I do not smoke or drink either.

So it's just all done with my own brain.

I kind of wish I didn't dream so much sometimes though it can be disturbing at times.

Also if you dream a lot and your dreams are really wacko it can make you realize what your mind is capable of just doing on it's own.

So sometimes if I'm taking a walk late at night and think I see something up ahead I really think it through to make sure that it's really what I think I see.

Maybe that is why I doubt a lot of paranormal stuff....I realize my mind has a mind of it's own!

Jim

[lazygood4nothinbum]

sleep deprivation will kill you even before starvation would. though perhaps counterintuitive to other evolutionary processes designed to keep you alive, sleep is more important than food.

animals sleep, seemingly defenselessly, even under threat of being eaten alive. humans fall asleep knowing that they will lose all sense of themselves--that they will, in effect, die every night--with the assumption that they might regain consciousness in the morning to continue living another day. all creatures sleep and likely all creatures dream.


dreaming is a constant which runs the gamut from those who know they dream while they dream to those who do not recall their dreams even once their body awakens. not remembering where you left your keys is not evidence that you have no keys.

Originally Posted by Letj

Obviously, if one takes sleeping pills there will be no dreaming.

sorry, but that simply is neither obvious nor true.

Originally Posted by SecondCor521

I used to have/remember dreams almost every night as a child, went through a period of about 10 years where I didn't remember them at all, and now remember them rarely.

I had fabulous flying dreams when I was a kid. Usually they involved being in a windstorm on the school playground and running, becoming lighter on my feet until I flew. I remember those to this day.

Last night I dreamt that I was attending my college graduation, my parents were there, and for some reason I decided to step out of the ceremony to go swim in a river and talk to some older men building bridge-like things in a large field. When I got back to the ceremony I discovered that someone had taken my cap and gown and I had to wear an extra one that was the wrong color -- it was grey or blue instead of black. I also discovered that I had missed my name being called out and then wondered where my diploma was.

OK, you Freudians, go to town with that one.

freud has left the building. fortunately however, jung is available for a drink on the town.

dreams can be utilized for the brain to sort out & store details of the day, also they can act as portals to various aspects of mind, etc. your dream of college was of one such and your flying dream was another.

college graduation is transition. you left your parents there--what was established--like your old job in real life, for instance, and went to go for a swim to wash off your past. also swimming in the river is your fear of your future. building the bridge is the creation a good new job and a way to get there.

as to the colors in your dream, the black gown would have signified your expectation of bad times ahead which you strive to get out of your mind, outside of warning, not a whole lot constructive in that. both grey and blue signify optimism for better times. but of course you still fear missing the boat.

these are all quite natural thoughts to have during times of transition and nothing more than your brain sorting out the details of the day.

[SecondCor521]

LG4NB (or should I call you Dr. Jung?),

Thanks for the interesting analysis!

2Cor521

[bongo2]

I know intellectually that I dream (at least I believe the research), but I will go months without ever having a memory of a dream. I assumed that the poll was asking if we were aware of our dreams.

[MikeD]

I'm 54 and haven't remembered a dream or had my sleep disturbed by one for the first 53 years. About 9 months ago I had a radical change in my meds (none psychoactive) and have been having lots of dreams every night, some of them waking me up and stopping me from getting my usually restful sleep. I still can't remember any details from them long enough to describe them to my wife.

Mike D.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Originally Posted by Letj

Find out if your friend takes sleeping pills. Obviously, if one takes sleeping pills there will be no dreaming.

Hmm, I've taken just about every sleeping pill on the planet, over the counter, prescription and prescription off-label.

Dreamed with every one of them.

[plex]

Hmm, dreaming can be a mixed bag. Sometimes it can be really good, sometimes bad. The vast majority of time though, I have found my dreams anywhere from mildly interesting to extremely interesting.

I am sometimes pretty annoyed having to wake up, my dreams usually reach some sort of climactic point right before I wake up.

It is a LOT like watching a football game, seeing the quarterback throw what looks like a possible touchdown throw, and then having the TV turn off in the middle of the play, bringing me back to reality.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Originally Posted by bongo2

I will go months without ever having a memory of a dream.

&

Originally Posted by MikeD

I had a radical change in my meds (none psychoactive) and have been having lots of dreams every night...I still can't remember any details from them long enough to describe them to my wife.

writing helps develop dream recall capacity. the process involves keeping pen and paper by bed and as soon as you awaken from a dream, jot down at least a few details before you again dose off or get out of bed or even entertain another thought. doesn't have to be full sentences, just bits that will help you remember. then later read back your bits and write down all you can remember to further strengthen abilities.

if you do not recall dreaming at all, simply instruct yourself before falling asleep to remember your dream. you know how you can wake yourself at a certain time in the morning without even an alarm clock going off? sleep does not stop mind. this is so true that it has recently been found that we actually learn during sleep. remember all those overnight study sessions in college? we'd have gotten better grades if only we slept.

Originally Posted by cute fuzzy bunny

Hmm, I've taken just about every sleeping pill on the planet...Dreamed with every one of them.

curiously, drugs do not seem to prevent the occurrence of dreaming and, as noted by miked, might even enhance some people's dreaming abilities. i was early on turned off by castaneda's works because of my earlier dumb snobbery about drug use he seemed to require to induce lucid dreaming.

but, even more curiously, i have found with my own lucid dreams, of which i might slip into even after a night on the town drinking too much with friends, that my consciousness is quite sober when my body sleeps. i might be too drunk to drive but, apparently, not too drunk to fly.

this strikes me odd because when i am awake, my thinking is obviously messed up after i've had a few too many, but when my drunken body is asleep, my thinking is not at all tipsy, but as sober as if i hadn't had a drink at all. how can this be? some sort of brain blood barrier between consciousness and that from which it emanates?

so while drugs effect the body, not only do drugs not stop dreaming, but even consciousness exhibits some measure of independence from a drugged body. i will look into it, but to date i am not aware of any such study in this to which i can refer.

Originally Posted by plex

I am sometimes pretty annoyed having to wake up, my dreams usually reach some sort of climactic point right before I wake up.

It is a LOT like watching a football game, seeing the quarterback throw what looks like a possible touchdown throw, and then having the TV turn off in the middle of the play, bringing me back to reality.

while, generally, one of the major defining characteristics of so-called reality as opposed to "mere" dreaming is the consistancy of the life we know when our bodies are awake, it is possible to develop your dreaming techniques so that you can return to the dream in progress, just like when you wake up to the same world you left the day before.

how odd that this world of dreams, which for most people are normally so different each & every time, we call illusionary yet the same world we wake up to ever day, this comparatively dull but comfortable repetitiveness, we declare reality.

[Alan]

Originally Posted by bongo2

I know intellectually that I dream (at least I believe the research), but I will go months without ever having a memory of a dream. I assumed that the poll was asking if we were aware of our dreams.

Yes, the poll was asking if you were aware of your dreams.

This has been a fascinating read. My thanks to all who have responded.