Do you dream?

[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]

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]

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

&

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.

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.

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]

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.