Do you remember your dreams?

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And are they weird, disturbing, scary, erotic, or just random?

I dream a lot, and I remember a lot. My dreams usually involve stories. I have a lot of nightmares.

How about you? Does your daily life affect what happens in your brain late at night?

And have you ever been pissed off at your loved one because of something he/she did in a dream? (Guilty.)

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

Answers

I tend to have a lot of those dreams where you're actually in a familiar place (like and old highschool or home) and in your dream you know where everything is and where to go, but this place actually looks absolutely *nothing* like the original, reality based place and so my brain spends quite a bit of time examining that sort of stuff as I dream. These are usually random blurry dreams and nothing much happens. One *did* have a really cool escalator made of red and pink stripped fabric that you sat on and it rippled down to the next floor.

I also have two or three re-occuring dreams that pop up every now and then, and I never remember that they're recurring until two or three hours into my day. These always have *very* complex plots and each time I dream them, a little extra bit gets added to the end of the first one - so basically they get longer and longer. I don't see the point though, since I never remembmer them until after the next time I dream anyway.

To be honest I wish I had more erotic dreams! I get like one a year or something. I don't get a lot of nightmares - except for falling dreams. Being very scared of heights, those freak me out.

One of the strangest dreams I had, was of a Marilyn Monroe movie. The night it happened, I was in Slovenia visiting relatives and we were watching this film and it had been dubbed over in German with Macedonian subtitles. Not speaking either language, I missed most of it. However - that night, I dreamt the entire movie, *IN ENGLISH*. And - years later, when I saw the movie on t.v. at home in Toronto, I was shocked and amazed that I had apparently dreamt the *correct* dialog.

A bit odd that.

Last night I had a bad dream involving kidnapping and science experiments and lost children and drugged moms and stuck elevators. I woke up with a screaming headache and more tired then when I went to bed. Ick.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000


Some seem related to things going on in my life, others just seem random.

I don't remember them very well, and I wish I did. Apparently one can get better at this, but I haven't been able to improve much. I remember them better if I wake up on my own, but I have to wake myself up with the alarm on weekdays.

Last night I remember part of the dream involved accidentally flushing an eyelash curler down the toilet. I don't know what this signifies. I don't use an eyelash curler in real life.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000


My dreams range from the sublime to the ridiculous, Some I can remember plainly. Events during the day seem to have a lot to do with dreams at night but not always. Erotic dreams I have. Those seem to me to be what one would do if free to do those things. I think in many ways dreams are the natural being without the moral and ethical training. Violence occurs occasionally. My nightmares are of one thing: an auto accident, which broke my neck. In my nightmares my wife is dead with her blood all over me and one of my sons standing outside the car and asking me why I did that to their Mom. In actuality, we were both wearing seat belts, the wife suffered some bruising and shaking up, the roof on the driver's side was heavily dented probably accounting for my broken neck. I really do not want to talk about it any more. My dreams are sort of an olio, grab bag sort of thing.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

I remember my dreams better after I get in the habit of writing them down a few mornings in a row. I have weird, disturbing, anxious, random, lascivious dreams, sometimes all at once, which really bothers me. They often are narrative, in that odd disjointed way only dreams can be (remember the kids telling their dreams to Mrs. Piggle- Wiggle? "And then I turned into a raisin...") with their own internal presumed logic. What goes on in my life does often affect what I dream about for the next several days.

My anxiety dreams involve forgetting to take examinations or to attend classes all semester. I skipped my evening "class" last Wednesday because I had only a friend Chevy Tracker to use, which I wouldn't drive on a bet and there was five inches of snow on the ground. As expected, I had anxiety dreams about not being able to get to real school for the next few nights, when:

My lascivious dream-function kicked into hyperdrive on Saturday night after Kim said she has sex every day when in a long-term relationship, and I thought, "Gee, I remember that..." and decided to make up for lost time in one night of dreams. Oof.

Besides, Beth, you asked a while ago if anyone ever dreamed about escribitionists. Yes. I do. Lasciviously and anxiously and weirdly and in surreal situations.

I have never blamed anyone for something they've done in one of my dreams, but I do tend to presume that my dream-relationship is real somehow: if I barely know you, but I dream we're best pals, then that's how I think of you. If I want to, that is; I also have lewd dreams with partners that make my stomach churn, whose attraction doesn't last in daylight.

My most disturbing dreams (not nightmares, though, which I have only at night) happen during naps during the day, I think because my conscious is more actively involved but it doesn't get along well with my subconscious

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000


I remember my dreams often, but not every single night. My dreams run the gamut of emotional response -- from terror to euphoria. I write down most of the the dreams I remember. They are usually very long & complicated & sometimes make perfect sense but sometimes don't contain the slightest thread of logic. My favorite dreams are the ones I call "therapy dreams." Often, when I'm upset or angry with someone, I'll dream about that person & act out my feelings in the dream & achieve some sort of resolution which flows over into waking life & is vastly superior to any traditional therapy I've tried. I've done everything in my dreams -- flown without mechanical aids, been wonderfully fluent in foreign languages, had phenomenal sex with friends & strangers & celebrities, lived as a member of the opposite sex, written best sellers, killed people... my dreams are in many ways the best part of my life because they're absolutely limitless in scope & action & intensity. Sometimes dreams are a lot more "real" than real life & more enjoyable. Surrealist dreams are the most interesting -- upon waking I always try to puzzle out what was the link between seemingly unrelated events or objects. I've even accurately prophesied the future in dreams. I tend to think it's because the subconscious is free to express itself rather than any supernatural explanation. We're just that smart when we're not weighed down with all our conscious baggage. Thanks for asking about dreams!

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000


I dream a lot, in vivid technicolor.

Once, I dreamed that I had murdered someone and was trying to cover it up. An older man, partly bald, overweight. Maybe a tax collector, or an unwanted suitor that couldn't be rejected with a simple 'no'. In the dream I couldn't remember why I had killed him, just that I had and that I was about to be found out. I had whacked him over the head with a shovel. His skull caved in. I had wrapped him in plastic and buried him deep under the floor of the potting shed. I felt the sensation of killing him so viscerally that for several days after the dream I wondered if I really had. But I've never had a potting shed, so I think it's all OK.

Once, I dreamed that I had a miscarriage in a bathtub. It was a dark night, with moonlight coming in through a high window. The bathroom smelled like that nasty cleaner they use in public restrooms, the kind that almost seems to make the smell worse. I've never been pregnant and wasn't (as far as I recall) in any danger of being so at the time. Nonetheless I knew exactly how a miscarriage would feel, and look. Gah. It was revolting.

Once, I dreamed that I was living, with several of my friends, inside a blasted-out hollow tree in the middle of a lake. The tree was much larger inside than outside. We fought a lot.

When I was a kid, I used to dream that I was standing in a very high place in the dark, looking down to see hundreds of cars on miles and miles of highways. I would know exactly which one was my parents' car (a dark green 1973 AMC Hornet). It was usually going away from me, or would pass me without noticing.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000


I have weird, involved, complex dreams that seem like they'd last for ridiculously long amounts of time. The only recurring things I get are dreams where my teeth fall out. I don't know what that means.
I've recently had two dreams I can remember - one that my friend found another apartment on top of hers through an attic door in her closet, and the place was deserted, suddenly, like the owners left without taking anything with them. The other was this weird, brief, full five-senses experience of riding with some guy in a stick-shift car.
(The long versions are this for the apartment one, or this for the car one.)

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000

I often have long, novelistic, cinematic dreams. Sometimes I am a spectator, watching the panorama unfold. Sometimes I am an active participant.

Sometimes what I dream is so real that I wake up and I'm not sure if something did or didn't happen.

Sometimes my dreams are just odd and directly related to stresses in my life: like the HTML bugs.

I once woke up in the middle of the night because I was sure that a bunch of HTML tags had come to life as alligator-jawed bugs and invaded my bed. I leaped up and pulled all the covers back, sweeping at the sheets with panicked hands ... too find nothing there and waking up a very puzzled Sabs.

I've dreamt that every single one of my loved ones has died at some point in various normal and not so normal ways. Sometimes it's been my fault.

I've been pissed at Sabs for leaving me in a dream and woken up to find him cuddling up next to me instead.

My mind is like a hyperactive Hollywood mental movie-making machine.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000


Ever since I can remember, I have had a reoccurring situation in my dreams. At least a few times a week, I will dream that I am unable to correctly dial a telephone. This little episode of telephone dialing dyslexia isn't the main theme, it just happens to always sneaks itself into my dreams. I will try and try to correctly dial a number, but I always fail for some reason or another. I'll hit the wrong button, hit two numbers at once, dial the wrong number, forget the number, or even misdial the old rotary phones. Up until the other night, all the phones were wall or table mounted telephones. Well, the other night I screwed up dialing a cell phone for the first time in my dream.

I have searched many dream interpretation books and websites and have found nothing pertaining to the inability to correctly dial a telephone. If anyone out there has any idea what this may signify, please fill me in.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000


I do "lucid dreaming" a lot these days - where I know I'm dreaming. I usually remember them for a little while, then let go of them.

I've onl had a few dreams that I remember for years after I had them.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000



The night before last I had an extremely vivid dream that my teeth were falling out. Even though it's been maybe 15 years since I last lost a tooth, the sensation was very visceral, as if I were remembering something that had happened recently.

I spent the dream carrying around my lost teeth in my hand. I'd love to find out if that symbolizes something.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000


My dreams are often weird and disturbing. I often times have random dreams, like the ones I've had these past few months with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in them (each in seperate dreams and no, I haven't watched any movies with them in it recently).

I have one recurring nightmare with this elaborate story line where there's someone trying to kill everyone I'm with and the only time he can see us is when we leave the building (go figure) and I end up hiding in a closet while he's walking around inside when he finally makes it there. I always wake up in a cold sweat from this one.

Daily life doesn't really affect my dreams. I have eerily dreamt about things before they've happened, although I don't consider myself to be psychic in any way, shape or form. I remember waking up from a dream to my father coming into my room and I just said, "I already know, Dad." He was coming to tell me my grandfather died early that morning and that's what I dreamt about. Another time, I dreamt I was on a school bus with some classmates and we were coming up on an accident. This one guy stood up and so did I. Everyone told me to sit down, and all I did was continually say, "I'm sorry, Tim, I'm so sorry." I found out that morning that a girl my sister had gone to school with was killed in a car accident. Tim was her cousin and I went to school with him.

I once dreamed that my mom had told me she was going to get doughnuts for breakfast, and when I woke up, groggy as could be, I walked into the dining room, looking for the doughnuts. When my mom told me there were no doughnuts, I threw a tantrum and accused my mom of lying to me. (I was very young.) They still talk about that one to this day. How embarrassing. I still say she said she was getting doughnuts. :)

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2000


I tend to remember a lot of my dreams, and sometimes that is not a good thing. Like, the other night when I dreamed I was having sex with the more portly members of the casts of The Fast Show and League of Gentlemen -- not one of whom is even remotely attractive -- and that they kept leaving in the middle of, um, the proceedings. It was pretty humiliating, even for a dream.

Oh, and I have really horrible recurring dreams about my teeth breaking. I read somewhere that it means I feel unappreciated; I'll take somma that.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000


I've had a number of fun dream, scary dreams, recurring dreams etc. I'll maybe remember my dreams about once or twice a month, more when I'm on a regular sleep schedule (hah!). I haven't remembered a dream for a long time though. :-(

One of the scariest dreams I ever had was watching my son all grown up shooting and coldly killing someone. I was trying to catch him and find out why he did that. I can't imagine why I would dream this and it really shook me up. I've also dreampt (is that right?) about mostly everyone I love dying or dead and dealing with it in one way or another.

The silliest recurring dream I had years ago was actually an episode of the old Superman show on TV (the one with George Reeves). I was Superman's character only not Superman and Lois Lane was tied to railroad tracks and Jimmy was in a car dangling on a cliff. I can't remember many details now, but the wierd thing was that until I realized my dreams were a TV episode, I continued to have them regularly. After I figured it out, I never had it again.

Another recurring dream I had while I was pregnant with my first child was that I gave birth to a baby the size of a toddler. OUCH! I know this is because that was what I feared most... having a huge baby in a painful birth. Lucky for me, he was tiny (only 6 lbs.).

Denis, if you're interested, I'm going to give this a shot because I've learned a lot about interpreting dreams. I also focus quite a bit on my own spirituality and honing my clairvoyance.

First of all you should know that dream interpretation is highly subjective. An apple to one person may mean something entirely different to another. It really depends on how you relate to the objects and situations in your dreams, since they are a part of YOUR subconcious. But here's a generalization that might trigger something for you...

You said you dreamed about not being able to correctly dial a telephone, but's it's never the main theme of the dreams. First of all, the telephone represents communication. The fact that it is not the main theme, but a persistent feature tells me that you may be putting off some communication that you know needs to be addressed. I feel like it's general because you don't mention it being a particular number. The reason you are misdialing or forgetting the number is an avoidance of this need to communicate. You might feel like you don't know what to say or like you're going to say whatever it is wrong or it will be misinterpreted.

If you'd like to get to the bottom of it... I suggest you concentrate on it before you go fall asleep for a while. Try to resolve to remember the number you're trying to get or any other detail related to it that will trigger some connection to your life. When, and if, you get it, write it down immediately and think about it abstractly to determine what your subconcious is telling you. There does seem to be a message here.

I absolutely love dreaming and the connections between the concious and the subconcious. Sometimes, it's nothing more than stress bringing out our fears and frustrations, but it can be wonderfully enlightening and inspirational at other times. It can also be life- changing if you pay attention to it.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000


I occasionally remember mine, but I don't have them often. ALWAYS weird, mostly scary. My bad dreams are either chase dreams (i.e. some villain/monster is after me, no matter what I do it finds me, etc.) or tardy dreams (this was mostly in middle and high school, my mother insisted on perfect attendance) in which I was always late to class or would wander out of classes. They were quite bizarre, mixing several of my former campuses together. Very little of my real life seems to creep into dreams, except for any dream regarding my ex-boyfriend- for three days after he dumped me I kept dreaming he wanted me back, and one night after I'd been talking to him and he was having a hard time I dreamed he drove up wanting a hug. Odd. Never got pissed at him for something he did in a dream, but I was pissed that he didn't get back together with me the way he did in the dream. Whee, irony...

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000


As a kid, I used to have lots of nightmares about Nazis. Probably because at the time I was living along the Northsea coast, which is littered with bunkers which were part of the Atlantic Wall. That piece of knowledge was hammered into my head at a very young age, and when I got a little older, about 8 or 9, my friends and me used to go out there to play WW2.

Since then, my dreams have always been very vivid but also pretty insignificant. Mostly they can be traced right back to tv shows I watched the night before, books I read or things that happened to me. There is one problem: because these dreams, whether they're nightmares or not, are so vivid, they wake me up every 15 minutes or so, all night long. In other words: I hardly ever get a straight night of sleep, especially not when the news has been particularly distressing or gruesome. For example, after April 20 last year (the Columbine killings) I hardly slept a wink for two weeks in a row. And for the past few nights, I've been losing a lot of sleep over the cult killings in Africa.

It's nothing I can't handle, but every now and then I do take a couple of Paracetamol to keep the dreams away.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000


Stijn, for your own peace of mind and the necessity of getting a good night's sleep, I suggest you stop watching the news right before you go to bed. It's all bad anyway and you need something positive on your mind when you go to bed.

I've found that the most illuminating, interesting and positive dreams tend to occur after an evening of listening to classical music, opera or (especially) new age. Anything peaceful and pleasant.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000


Most dreams i remember involve a friend somehow. When i first got married my wife was jealous of a dream. Dreamed i was chasing a murderer in a theatre w/ my friend Eric (Phantom ?). Apparently i was laughing in my sleep and said his name several times. Thankfully that has passed. 10 years in June. Hmmm, any ideas for an anniversary gift?

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2000

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