More of the more interesting aspects of the human brain, I think, is the vividness and complexity of the dreams it lays out and organizes into cohesive experiences. They can last from 5 - 45 minutes. Often times, they take elements, people, faces, from our own lives and make stories out of them. Other times, they take the fictional worlds we consume and build off that.
I have a few questions.
How much do you remember your dream(s) when you wake? Can you remember more than one?
Have you ever had the same dream/nightmare repeatedly in your life?
For the writers of Lush, do you ever keep a journal by your bed for when you immediately wake up from a dream to jot down any story ideas?
What's the best/worst dream?
Feel free to answer any/all or one question.
To get us started, ever time I had the flu as a kid I had the same nightmare which prevented sleep pretty damn well. Always the apocalyptic variety with the world quite literally on the brink of destruction and me trapped somewhere very tight and suffering claustrophobia. Yea, pretty damn bad.
The 2 greatest dreams I had were lucid dreams, meaning I was aware I was in a dream. I just really went "Hey, I'm in a dream and can decide whatever I can do!? Cool! Let's make the most out of it!"
- In one of these I was Spiderman, and was swinging at will from one building to another with my web. I really could feel every sensation of height, balance, falling, acceleration, etc.
- In another I was like the Rocketeer, and was flying with a jetpack on my back.
Another funny, memorable, standard dream :
I was fighting Ronald McDonald in an elevator (I always hated that guy). Then the doors opened up on the upper floor of a tall building and we continued fighting for a while. I finally threw him out of a window, and woke up in a calm, satisfied state.
I always laugh at how dreams can be so random, yet accuratly reflect some of our deepest inner thoughts.
Very interesting quote, which I fully agree with :
"What we experience in dreams -- assuming that we experience it often -- belongs in the end just as much to the over-all economy of our soul as anything experienced "actually": we are richer or poorer on account of it."
How much do you remember your dream(s) when you wake? Can you remember more than one?
Some of them I remember very vividly when I wake up but they fade over time. Some of them I remember exact details, even from dreams I had years ago. Then there are those I forget either the second I wake up or when I go tell someone about it, and I forget it all instantly. Even the most minute of details.
Have you ever had the same dream/nightmare repeatedly in your life?
Yes.
For the writers of Lush, do you ever keep a journal by your bed for when you immediately wake up from a dream to jot down any story ideas?
I haven't written in ages, and the stories that I did have I got rid of. I know you should never delete your stories, but quite frankly I just didn't like the stories anymore. I just wanna start fresh...if I ever even write again. Who knows? Shit, I'm off topic. To answer this question, no, I didn't wake up from a dream to jot down story ideas. But maybe I will now. This seems like an excellent idea.
What's the best/worst dream?
I'd rather not say on both counts. They're both pretty personal.
I sometimes have really bizarre and elaborate dreams like movies with plot structures, bad guys, dramatic scenarios (I've also had the apocalypse themes), I've dreamed of stage productions, I've choreographed, I've listened to music I've never heard, once or twice talked in languages I'm not fluent in, I've gone back in time, once or twice I wasn't even the same person I am now. Kinda weird freaky-deaky stuff. But that's more the exception. Most of the time it's just a jumble of things or images I may have seen that day or something that's weighing on my mind.
Sometimes I remember them in vivid detail, but a lot of times it starts to fade as I get up and get my morning started. I haven't kept a journal but on occasion, I've jotted things down and/or used bits and pieces for writing or artistic inspiration.
One of my most recurring dreams is where I'm able to hover or float a bit in mid air. It's not straight up flying but I'll dream that I'm leaping or doing some variation of a grand jeté and I'm able to just 'hover' in mid air for prolonged periods of time. Sometimes my legs will cycle or move to maintain it - almost like I'm swimming through the air. I do come down eventually but until I do, it's pretty damn cool. I've had this dream since I was a kid and sometimes it just factors into some other unrelated dream - I just always naturally seem to have these floating abilities. It comes in handy when I'm trying to evade the bad guys in my nightmares but sometimes I'm just showing it off to people - kind of like a party trick. My dream-self is so much more fun than my regular self!
Quote by Dancing_Doll I sometimes have really bizarre and elaborate dreams like movies with plot structures, bad guys, dramatic scenarios (I've also had the apocalypse themes), I've dreamed of stage productions, I've choreographed, I've listened to music I've never heard, once or twice talked in languages I'm not fluent in, I've gone back in time, once or twice I wasn't even the same person I am now. Kinda weird freaky-deaky stuff. But that's more the exception. Most of the time it's just a jumble of things or images I may have seen that day or something that's weighing on my mind.
heh. You think that's weird? I've often had the weirdest occasions of deja-vu with dreams. Something will happen real time in my life and I swear that it is something that has happened before, most often something that has happened in my dream. It creeps me the hell out.
And yea, I get the elaborate movie style dreams as well with a solid plot structure. Many times I've had the international spy dreams deep in complexity.
One recurring theme I have in my dreams is the woods/forest. Almost always get one of those types of dreams each week. Something centered in deep nature, like the Amazon. I'm never quite sure of the location though.
And of course I've had dreams about being the things I wanted to be growing up like a professional soccer player.
Quote by Dancing_Doll My dream-self is so much more fun than my regular self!
I suspect that's true of most of us who dream. I'm the "same" person in my dreams in a way, yet each time I go under, I get new abilities. I think in different ways. I take the risks I've thought about in real life and done them in dreams (hand-gliding, etc).
Quote by Dancing_Doll I sometimes have really bizarre and elaborate dreams like movies with plot structures, bad guys, dramatic scenarios (I've also had the apocalypse themes), I've dreamed of stage productions, I've choreographed, I've listened to music I've never heard, once or twice talked in languages I'm not fluent in, I've gone back in time, once or twice I wasn't even the same person I am now. Kinda weird freaky-deaky stuff. But that's more the exception. Most of the time it's just a jumble of things or images I may have seen that day or something that's weighing on my mind.
Sometimes I remember them in vivid detail, but a lot of times it starts to fade as I get up and get my morning started. I haven't kept a journal but on occasion, I've jotted things down and/or used bits and pieces for writing or artistic inspiration.
One of my most recurring dreams is where I'm able to hover or float a bit in mid air. It's not straight up flying but I'll dream that I'm leaping or doing some variation of a grand jeté and I'm able to just 'hover' in mid air for prolonged periods of time. Sometimes my legs will cycle or move to maintain it - almost like I'm swimming through the air. I do come down eventually but until I do, it's pretty damn cool. I've had this dream since I was a kid and sometimes it just factors into some other unrelated dream - I just always naturally seem to have these floating abilities. It comes in handy when I'm trying to evade the bad guys in my nightmares but sometimes I'm just showing it off to people - kind of like a party trick. My dream-self is so much more fun than my regular self!
You seem to have quite vivid, intense dreams. Have you ever tried to analyze them?
Personally, the older I get, the less I dream. I have a dream maybe once every 6 months currently, and it's generally something very random and insignificant.
I don't know what this might tell about my personality, but when I was younger all my nightmares ended up fairly well. For example, a huge terrifying monster might have appeared in front of me, but in the end I was always able to beat the crap out of him, and woke up fairly calm and serene. Never had to cry to my mom.
One recurring theme I have in my dreams is the woods/forest. Almost always get one of those types of dreams each week. Something centered in deep nature, like the Amazon. I'm never quite sure of the location though.
This is cool! I always tend to end up in Africa for some reason.
And I also have deja-vu a lot as well. It can definitely be unsettling.
One of my favourite things is when you wake up on a weekend where something startles you out of a really great dream and then, despite having been consciously awake for a minute or two to check the clock, you're able to close your eyes and just drift back into the same dream and continue it from where you left off.
You seem to have quite vivid, intense dreams. Have you ever tried to analyze them?
I don't know what this might tell about my personality, but when I was younger all my nightmares ended up fairly well. For example, a huge terrifying monster might have appeared in front of me, but in the end I was always able to beat the crap out of him, and woke up fairly calm and serene.
I used to analyze a bit, but don't really do much anymore - I just take it as it comes.
I never confront the monsters in my dreams. I'm more of a runner. That could technically be applied to the way I handle certain kinds of conflict. I tend to avoid and go the escapist route in real life too.
I used to analyze a bit, but don't really do much anymore - I just take it as it comes.
I never confront the monsters in my dreams. I'm more of a runner. That could technically be applied to the way I handle certain kinds of conflict. I tend to avoid and go the escapist route in real life too.
You should invite me in one of your nightmares... I'd kick the ass of your every demon once and for all. Hell, I threw Ronald McDonald out of a window, you really think anything is gonna stop me?
Seriously in life, I don't really confront a lot of my issues either. I often don't feel the need. I guess I just stay calm and accept them.
One of my favourite things is when you wake up on a weekend where something startles you out of a really great dream and then, despite having been consciously awake for a minute or two to check the clock, you're able to close your eyes and just drift back into the same dream and continue it from where you left off.
So jealous! I can never get that to work! Once I wake up, even groggily and go back to sleep, the dream sequence is broken up. A new dream starts. Which sucks, because I ALWAYS seems to wake up from dreams right when I get to the good part!
Quote by Dancing_Doll I never confront the monsters in my dreams. I'm more of a runner. That could technically be applied to the way I handle certain kinds of conflict. I tend to avoid and go the escapist route in real life too.
Exact opposite. I always kick the asses of the monsters in my dreams. But then again, I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a nightmare. It has been at least a good 10 years or more.
I'm 50/50 on conflicts. Relationship conflicts I've always avoided (a very bad thing to do). Other things though, I immediately call BS on and confront them. Especially when people are being asses.
What I find the most interesting is that every person that shows up in our dream, whether we think we recognize them or not, we've seen before in real life at some point. Even if it was only a glimpse. Also, even the most intricate of dreams last about 20 minutes. So even though they seem like full-length motion pictures, they last barely a fraction of the time we spend sleeping, and occur in our lightest stage of sleep.
Quote by slipperywhenwet2012 What I find the most interesting is that every person that shows up in our dream, whether we think we recognize them or not, we've seen before in real life at some point. Even if it was only a glimpse. Also, even the most intricate of dreams last about 20 minutes. So even though they seem like full-length motion pictures, they last barely a fraction of the time we spend sleeping, and occur in our lightest stage of sleep.
Agreed. I've had dreams that honestly, real time in the dream, last about a week or so. At the very least, several hours. Real time, it tops out at 45 minutes. Amazing how the brains works huh?
And I wouldn't be surprised if most, if not all the "people/faces" of our dreams are built on people we know, meet, or glimpse on the street is passing. We only use a fraction of our brain's ability and most are never able to recall all the memories and images the brian stores. Our minds probably even create composites. A certain head, eye color, facial structure, and body type of multiple people in real life and combine it into one person.
The brain. The world's greatest super computer. In another life, a scientific life, I probably choose a major/career path that involves the brain. Really intriguing.
Quote by slipperywhenwet2012 What I find the most interesting is that every person that shows up in our dream, whether we think we recognize them or not, we've seen before in real life at some point. Even if it was only a glimpse. Also, even the most intricate of dreams last about 20 minutes. So even though they seem like full-length motion pictures, they last barely a fraction of the time we spend sleeping, and occur in our lightest stage of sleep.
The way I see it, people, creatures, visions and emotions we encounter in our dreams are all made up from what we experience in real life, and can appear in different forms. For example, a man that was beaten badly by his father during his childhood may encounter different monsters that inflict him physical pain in his dreams, and more or less consciously represent this said father.
By the way, I'm surprised how people in here describe their dreams. It all seems very clear and complex to you. My dreams are mostly quick flashes that simply illustrate some simple story and provoke a certain specific emotion. Similar to just one page of an illustrated cartoon. Maybe it's because I don't have much severe issues going on in my life, or at least don't consider them as seriously as others do.
Exact opposite. I always kick the asses of the monsters in my dreams.
Mate, we should team up and embark on a crusade to annihilate all and every cursed creatures people encounter in their dreams. Do you have your sword and horse ready? I'll have my griffon ready to fly in 5 minutes...
Mate, we should team up and embark on a crusade to annihilate all and every cursed creatures people encounter in their dreams. Do you have your sword and horse ready? I'll have my griffon ready to fly in 5 minutes...
Have you guys ever seen The Cabin in the Woods? This reminds me of that. Fun movie!
But damn i can talk up a storm in my sleep, which always worries me. I could say anything, or refer to anyone.
In the past I blamed TV programs - seems to be convincing ;).
It’s impossible to say I remember all of my dreams as there is no way of monitoring how many I have but of the ones I do remember I have a very vivid and precise recollection of.
I have had quite a few dreams within dreams (or false awakenings as they are also known) and because it was my first experience of this it made it the most bizarre.
In my dream I was happily wandering around on my own at the Friday market opposite the National Stadium in Tegucigalpa buying fruit and veg. I had to put my bags down as there was a strange sensation in my mouth, it was full to bursting with something hard but I couldn’t swallow and didn’t want to choke (Nooooooooooo, don’t be so vulgar, it’s not what you’re thinking), I put my hands to my mouth as loads of teeth fell into them, with further inspection I had more loose teeth and extracted more of them.
Then I woke up. Angela was lying next to me in my bed, on her side, propped up on one elbow, she was looking at me quite concerned and asked if I was okay. I told her I was but I had just had this dream where all my teeth fell out. I put my hand to my mouth again and found that all my teeth were solid, in place and intact.
Phew, I sighed with relief thank God that was just a dream. I looked at Angela and recounted my dream to her. She smiled at me as she lovingly stroked my thigh. Then I woke up again. No teeth missing and no smiling Angela stroking my thigh, just me in bed alone.
Now, you can interpret my dream as you wish but there are some facts to point out before you do. I was in Tegucigalpa for approximately one year, I did go to the market every Friday and it’s situated in the car park opposite the National Stadium. Angela was a gorgeous Latina I worked with, I was infatuated with her but she was, to my knowledge, not into girls. And last, but not least, the dream was completely in Spanish. I did have the dream whilst I was living in Tegucigalpa.
I’m a bit out of practice now but I am fluent in Spanish.
I didn't used to remember many of my dreams but nowadays I seem to dream most nights.
I have had 2 nightmares repeatedly throughout my life, sometimes they will happen two or three times in one night if I wake up. I couldn't describe them no matter how hard I tried! They're very strange and from what I remember about them in the morning they aren't actually scary. They just panic me for some reason. All I remember from one of the nightmares is simply a featureless face moving back and forth. I've dreamed of that since I was very little.
My best dreams are those in which I relive a past memory, that or the flying/swimming dreams. One dream I remember, I was diving off a cliff into a pool, when underwater I thought I couldn't breathe until I realised it was just a dream, and from then on could control what I did, was a lot of fun!
Quote by MadMartigan How much do you remember your dream(s) when you wake? Can you remember more than one?
It really depends. Sometimes I remember more than one, other times I don't remember any at all. Perhaps it is because I am a light sleeper.
Quote by MadMartigan Have you ever had the same dream/nightmare repeatedly in your life?
Yes, and I have also had different dreams which carried the same theme or followed the same characters over several different adventures or life events. Some such dreams lasted for years, some still happen from time to time.
Quote by MadMartigan For the writers of Lush, do you ever keep a journal by your bed for when you immediately wake up from a dream to jot down any story ideas?
No, but the story that I currently have up, A Wolfe's Reward, was written entirely from a dream that I had wherein I did every bit of what I have written in the story for a woman I love. I organized the thoughts and gave the characters a bit more depth than I had in the short but vivid dream, but all of the actual events in the story came from the dream. There are several other stories that I have laying around, outlined or in the early stages of drafting, which also came about in similar ways.
Quote by MadMartigan What's the best/worst dream?
I have far too many sexual dreams to decide which is the best.
As for the worst, that one may be easy.
When I was 17 years old, I was very seriously considering joining the military as soon as I was able. My dad was USMC, and there was a certain warriors pride to it, even though he strongly opposed the idea. Well, I gave the idea a lot of thought, considering all of the options and what I would have to do. I couldn't quite decide if pride was worth it, until one night I laid down, closed my eyes, and when I opened them I was standing on the battlefield of Sekigahara in feudal Japan.
Now, of course, it was just a dream. But that is, to date, the single most emotionally and visually vivid dream I have ever had. Even after I woke up, I fully felt the pain of watching friends fall beside me, and the regret of having to hurt the people in front of me unless they destroyed me instead.
Suffice to say, I decided against a military career after that night. I have nothing against it, and I highly respect those who follow that path, but if just a dream is that vivid I really don't want to endure the real thing.
I had a recurring nightmare for a couple of weeks.
I dreamt I was in a cemetary and you could see the bodies through the ground. Most of them were moving and I knew they were after me. I was scared out of my mind. I tried to run but they kept closing in on me. In the distance I could see a huge old style victorian house and ran there to hide. When I arrived most of my family was already there. The house turned out to be haunted and you could feel pure evil radiating from every corner in this house. On the outside of the house you could hear the corpses from the cemetary trying to enter the house, busting windows and knocking in doors. As soon as they entererd they disappeared but you could still feel their presence. No matter what room you went into there was spiritual activity going on. I was alone on the top floor later in the dream and could hear someone constantly calling out to me. I was able to get out and run back downstairs. When I arrived in the living room I found everyone in my family murdered and knew it was me who killed them. However, each of their spirits kept nagging at me trying to force me out of the house. Finally the door opened and I was able to escape. When I looked back the house was glowing eerily and you could see spirts traveling from one room to another.
Even though this dream took place for a couple of weeks, I still have this dream every once in a while. Nothing ever changes and I wake up scared to death.
I have had 2 nightmares repeatedly throughout my life, sometimes they will happen two or three times in one night if I wake up. I couldn't describe them no matter how hard I tried! They're very strange and from what I remember about them in the morning they aren't actually scary. They just panic me for some reason. All I remember from one of the nightmares is simply a featureless face moving back and forth. I've dreamed of that since I was very little.
Your nightmares that you can't remember are called "Night Terrors" or Sleep Terror Disorder. What happens is something that you are visualizing in deep sleep instigates your instinctual fight or flight response involuntarily and you become scared and panic trying to get away from whatever you saw. Some of the potential causes that I can figure out are ... genetic, too much caffeine, fevers, lack of sleep, medication and/or drugs, anxiety, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, stimulants before bed, jet lag, sleeping somewhere new, stressful life events or changes (like marriage) and something touching you in while you are in the deepest part of your sleep, non-REM sleep (rem=rapid eye movement). Apparently the longer you stay in non-rem sleep the more terror you feel during the episode.
While most children outgrow it by the age 10, it is still possible for adults to experience them.
Some remedies are ... unwinding before sleep, like a warm bath or a nice book. Cool down, a high room and body temperature just exacerbates the event. Fall asleep listening to soothing music. Herbal remedies, like chamomile and finally essential oils like lavender, but make sure the scent stays around till morning.
Hope that helps even if the help wasn't necessary, the remedies can still be used for everyone with nightmares, so please abuse them!
As for me, I don't dream often. In childhood however, I dreamed of "The Shadow", a walking shadow of a man who would come and try to suffocate me ... I think. Maybe it was just him keeping me quiet for some reason or both, but he occurred numerous times a night for many years. The other nightmares were of my stuffies coming alive and attacking me, the never ending hallway that seemed to stretch forever and blast with impassible wind and where my mothers door would always remain locked or blocked. The worst part of them was I thought they were real every time, I never actually remember laying down in bed to go asleep. I could also tell when a dream would occur, as before I went to sleep my vision was accompanied by what I called at the time as "a million little arrows flying across my face" where now I think of it as "old school t.v. static". I can even remember the night my nightmares started happening, I was going to go to sleep on the couch in the living room when I decided to eat some Bugles. The moment I did I had a vision or a hallucination of two "beings" fighting above me in the air. My memory fails me on whether or not they were good and bad beings or whether or not one of them won. I keep thinking to this day that the bad being won but that could be just a false memory and it feels more plausible that they just disappeared in the midst of their fight.
I don't record my dreams, but I know that it is a training process for lucid dreaming, where you can control your dreams to a certain extent and it feels vividly real.
"The big difference between sex for free and sex for money is that sex for money usually costs a lot less."
-Brendan Behan
"Any astronomer can predict with absolute accuracy just where every star will be in the universe at 11:30 tonight. He can make no such prediction about his teenage daughter."
-James T. Adams
"There are books in which the footnotes, or the comments scrawled by some reader's hand in the margin, are more interesting than the text. The world is one of those books."
-George Santayana
"Don't tell your kids you had an easy birth or they won't respect you. For years I used to wake up my daughter and say. 'Melissa, you ripped me to shreds. Now go back to sleep.'"
-Joan Rivers
-I always dream about having a mouth full of gum and can't get rid of it.
-Getting shot and playing dead.
-Being chased and having whatever is chasing me getting closer, but never caught.
Your nightmares that you can't remember are called "Night Terrors" or Sleep Terror Disorder. What happens is something that you are visualizing in deep sleep instigates your instinctual fight or flight response involuntarily and you become scared and panic trying to get away from whatever you saw. Some of the potential causes that I can figure out are ... genetic, too much caffeine, fevers, lack of sleep, medication and/or drugs, anxiety, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, stimulants before bed, jet lag, sleeping somewhere new, stressful life events or changes (like marriage) and something touching you in while you are in the deepest part of your sleep, non-REM sleep (rem=rapid eye movement). Apparently the longer you stay in non-rem sleep the more terror you feel during the episode.
While most children outgrow it by the age 10, it is still possible for adults to experience them.
Thanks for the insight, it's very interesting. I have two younger sisters, both of whom seemed to suffer from night terrors in the past, it was always very difficult to wake them and they would scream when you tried to comfort them. - Pretty scary the first time I saw it!
I don't dream very often, but when I do I normally can remember some of them in the morning. Most of the time I just remember one of them.
I do have some dreams that repeat themselves, normally they are weird and somewhat scary, my dreams aren't normally happy and fun. I have one where all my teeth fall out often. Then there's the one when a giant animal like a buffalo or something is chasing me and there nowhere for me to hide. I also get this odd one where car headlights start toward me from in the distance and they keep getting closer and closer until they are right in front of me and I wake up before they hit me.
I don't really agree with the Freudian belief that dreams are suppressed feelings we have, I don't believe that every dream we have has some form of special meaning behind it.
I don't really agree with the Freudian belief that dreams are suppressed feelings we have, I don't believe that every dream we have has some form of special meaning behind it.
I more or less agree. I believe dreams, just like thoughts in our waken state, still portray some of our inner emotions or beliefs. But I agree with you, not all of our dreams represent some deep hidden repressed feeling. Some are just random and minor, but they still give some hints about our random and minor everyday feelings.
Just like the dream I described about beating Ronald McDonald ; it did not have a deep intrinsic meaning, but still obviously pictured my general dislike for that character.
I don't agree at all with those books that try to help you analyze dreams seriously. Some of them say things like "if you dream of a snake, that means you have repressed anal desires, bla bla bla". I think only the person who had the dream can accuratly establish links between those and the real world.
A repeating nightmare that I have when I'm really stressed or emotional involves my house being haunted by a dark, grey entity. I can always distinguish when I'm having the nightmare because I can never turn on lights in the dream--no light switch works. On top of that the whole scenario has a "dark" feeling over it, like I'm watching everything through a thick screen door.
generally remember most of it especially if is about something that i am going through, as a kind of extension to life!
yes, repeat dreams happen, once it was repeated after many months, i remember because it was prophetic, but what it was did not happen!
