Dreams

[Redwolf]

I also have dreams that I am in a building with complex passageways and can't find my way out.

I have a lot of dreams involving water. Sometimes I am swimming in the water (Last night I swam across a large lake), or I am hovering over the water, watching it pass by. Sometimes the situation is a little frightening, where the water gets dangerously fast and the water's edge is a sheer cliff with no way to exit. In the past I kept a dream journal, recording every dream that I could remember. I even woke in the night and recorded dreams that had just occurred. I can't say that I was able interpret most of my dreams, but the overall pattern of dreams was very interesting.

Oooo...I have the water dream too! It's one of my favorites! I'm swimming in a river, going along with the current. It's wonderfully pleasant...I can skim along, going yards at every stroke, and the water's so nice and warm. There's a waterfall ahead, but I'm not afraid...it's a little like the drops on a roller coaster...something to be anticipated, but not feared.

First time I encountered an "endless river" ride at a water park, I was thrilled, because it was the embodiment of my river dream.

The irony is, in real life, I'm not much of a swimmer. I can manage a bit...if I fall off a dock into deep water, I'm not in danger of drowning (I can get myself to the surface and to any reasonably near dock, float or beach)...but I'm not a strong swimmer, and don't normally seek out deep water.

Redwolf

Redwolf

[Nanohedron]

And has anyone else has those dreams where you're running away from something, but the fastest you can run would be walking speed in real life? I occasionally have dreams like that, but I dream I'm fighting something and the hardest punch I can throw is barely powerful enough to break a matchstick.

Yeah, the old call-to-action slowdown factor. I figured that I couldn't be the only one. It's always like I'm up to my neck in glue; can't run well, can't evade well, can't strike fast, and time's a-wastin'. For me, those are probably my most alarming moments in dreaming, when the fundamental physical competencies (real or imagined), such as would be needed to protect myself, etc., are put in dumbfounding restraints.

Maybe it's just time dilation and I'm fighting it. Hard not to, though, when a sense of crisis is on you. The thing for me is it seems to be a pretty consistent scenario when it happens. I don't ever recall having to dream-run when it went as well as, or better than, expected. Odder yet is I don't ever recall any physical resolutions to the story during such "crises", either; I'm just panicking at the ineffectiveness forced upon me, and things morph somehow and suddenly there are other dreamfish to fry.

[dwest]

And has anyone else has those dreams where you're running away from something, but the fastest you can run would be walking speed in real life? I occasionally have dreams like that, but I dream I'm fighting something and the hardest punch I can throw is barely powerful enough to break a matchstick.

Yeah, the old call-to-action slowdown factor. I figured that I couldn't be the only one. It's always like I'm up to my neck in glue; can't run well, can't evade well, can't strike fast, and time's a-wastin'. For me, those are probably my most alarming moments in dreaming, when the fundamental physical competencies (real or imagined), such as would be needed to protect myself, etc., are put in dumbfounding restraints.

Maybe it's just time dilation and I'm fighting it. Hard not to, though, when a sense of crisis is on you. The thing for me is it seems to be a pretty consistent scenario when it happens. I don't ever recall having to dream-run when it went as well as, or better than, expected.

I use to have a whole slew of different unpleasant dreams that involved fights, luckily the wife has a sixth sense about these things as I become very animated in my sleep. She has avoided every flung arm, I think. Had to build a new white oak base board for the bed after I kicked through it one night.

[Redwolf]

My version of the "not being able to get away" dream is kind of weird. It involves being tickled...specifically, the way it tickles when someone pokes you in the ribs. Now, before you laugh, remember that tickling can be a form of torture. In these dreams, the sensation is intense almost to the point of pain, and I'm absolutely paralyzed and can't do anything to stop it (these dreams also tend to be lucid...I know what's going to happen, and I know I'm dreaming, but I can't force myself to wake up). When I finally manage to wrench myself awake, I'm usually shaking so hard, I can't lie still, and I'm so terrified of falling back into the dream that I have to get up for a while.

Dreams are interesting things, I think. We all have our own patterns of dreaming, but often the themes are similar...the "not being able to move" or "not being able to move fast enough" one being fairly typical.

Then there's the classic college student dream: You're supposed to be in class for a final exam, and you suddenly realize that you haven't actually attended class all semester, or something along those lines. I still get those occasionally, which is funny when you consider that the last college class I attended was in 1983!

Redwolf

[I.D.10-t]

I rarely have dreams where touch or feeling is part of it.

[mutepointe]

My dreams are all about touch and feel. But I don't think I should talk about them here.

[dwest]

My dreams are all about touch and feel. But I don't think I should talk about them here.

A bit touchy eh?

[Nanohedron]

Feels that way.

[Redwolf]

I rarely have dreams where touch or feeling is part of it.

Same here...the "tickling" one being the exception.

Redwolf

[brewerpaul]

Then there's the classic college student dream: You're supposed to be in class for a final exam, and you suddenly realize that you haven't actually attended class all semester, or something along those lines. I still get those occasionally, which is funny when you consider that the last college class I attended was in 1983!
Redwolf

Yes! I still get those, or a similar one where I remember that I have a huge paper due the next day and I haven't even started it.
These are often the closest I get to a lucid dream-- after fretting a bit about the class I missed, or the paper I didn't write, I usually say to myself "Wait, this is a dream. I don't have to do that" and I just wake myself up.

[Redwolf]

Then there's the classic college student dream: You're supposed to be in class for a final exam, and you suddenly realize that you haven't actually attended class all semester, or something along those lines. I still get those occasionally, which is funny when you consider that the last college class I attended was in 1983!
Redwolf

Yes! I still get those, or a similar one where I remember that I have a huge paper due the next day and I haven't even started it.
These are often the closest I get to a lucid dream-- after fretting a bit about the class I missed, or the paper I didn't write, I usually say to myself "Wait, this is a dream. I don't have to do that" and I just wake myself up.

It's funny how specific that one can get. I have a friend who is a classical music major, and he's said he'll often have a dream where he'll show up for the final dress rehearsal for the opera only to realize he learned the wrong aria!

Redwolf

[Doug_Tipple]

I have had this college dream several times. I'm an old man attending classes, so it doesn't really matter whether I graduate or not. I decide not to hand in any of the assigned papers, yet I still attend the daily classes, because that is what I have always done. Obviously, I am in the classes because I like being there and don't have a good alternate plan outside the college environment.

[Whistlin' Will]

Sometimes I dream that I'm in trouble for something, and then I wake up and realize, "Ha! I'm not in trouble after all!" Although sometimes I'm awake for 10 or 15 seconds before I realize it was a dream.

Something that I've noticed with waking up during a dream, is that I'm always disoriented right when I wake up in the middle of a dream. I don't mean as in when I wake myself up, but when I'm woken up, like by my alarm clock.

Such as a few days ago, when my alarm clock woke me up during a dream. For the first 2 or 3 seconds upon waking up I couldn't even see, and then I was so disoriented that for another few seconds I couldn't even tell where my alarm clock was, or where I was in the room.

It's funny how certain parts of certain dreams stick with you, and others you forget 10 minutes after waking up. I still remember part of a dream I had when I was less than 10 years old, but I don't remember anything from that dream in the above story.

[mutepointe]

My particular version of the college dream is that there was a error in counting my credit hours and now my degree is invalid until I take another class. I have lost my schedule of courses notecard and can't seem to find the registrar's office to get a duplicate card. And then I find out that the course that I need is some super duper high level accounting class (my degree was in business with a focus in accounting) and there is no way that I'm going to pass that class because the final exam has already started. Sometimes in this dream, I'm in my underwear. This dream could get worse but I don't want it to.

[Denny]

I would imagine that there would be no way to pass an accounting final in your underwear.

The points off for no tie should be enough.