The Wonderful World of Sleep & Dreams

Some people keep a dream diary by the bed and as soon as they wake up they write down what they dreamed about. Memory of a dream often fades very quickly. There was a book published, I think, before the second world war, about dreams which suggested that some of our dreams are about what has happened recently (e.g. you are alarmed by a fierce dog and later dream about a fantastical frightening dog) but that they are also equally about the future. So in that case you might dream of the fantastical dog and a few days later be alarmed by a real fierce dog. I have never kept a dream diary but it might be interesting. I had a friend who had prophetic dreams of disasters which happened in other places in the world and several times she believed the disaster actually happened later on. She didn't like having these dreams. I wonder if anyone else has had prophetic dreams or kept a dream diary?

I would love nothing more than to dream of my daughter, but apart from one absolutely horrific and gruesome nightmare, I never have.

I live in hope.

grannyro

sleep is where you find the people you've lost and the dead come home to you". I like that idea

Me too ❤️

There does seem to be a couple if loosely related themes to our night time shenanigans.

Panic, rooms.

I still think it's just our brains doing a clean up though.

I have very vivid dreams (usually of rushing to catch a plane, a train or something similar or having to get somewhere to pick a grandchild up but there are always troubles on the way and I get panicked. However I also have nicer dreams where I see my (deceased mum). I once heard a quote that said "sleep is where you find the people you've lost and the dead come home to you". I like that idea.

I've always had dreams about once a week and started writing them down in the morning. But since I've started taking BP medication I dream vividly every night. All usually are quite happy stories.

I rarely remember dreams but one the other night was memorable! I was in the garden, as I used to be so often, with my late parents and my father was telling jokes. I can’t remember what he was saying but I woke up laughing so they must have been funny! I felt so happy until I realised I had been dreaming. Then I felt very sad to think we’ll never do that again.

Oh, I have just remembered that I dream about having pets and neglecting them.
Leaving them in dirty cages, with no food or water.
They are really upsetting dreams.

I dream a lot about my daughter who Ihave been estranged from for 9 years now.

I have a dream occasionally of being amongst lots of people .I’m in a little short vest and I can’t pull in down over my lady bit ..

My daughter when she left home left her rabbits here with me to look after.
I often dream that one of her rabbits is living in our shed at the bottom of the garden and I forget to feed it for days and days.
Then I remember and go down to the shed thinking it must be dead but no, it's still alive.
I give my daughter a good telling off and tell her to bring some hay and clean the shed out and bring some food or she can take the rabbit back with her. I can't remember what happens after that.
Another recurring dream is that I'm in a multi storey shopping centre doing some Christmas shopping with my sister. The next thing I'm on my own trying to get out of the centre to go and catch a bus home. I go all through corridors, up and down stairs. Every which way but I can't get out.

I used to have a lot of scary ghost dreams as a child, but one night I discovered that I could talk to the ghosts and after that they stopped being scary.

I do remember a ghost dream I had more recently, though. In the dream, I was climbing the stairs at my grandparents' house, something that had always scared me a bit as a child. I knew there was a ghost behind me, then suddenly it grabbed me around my waist and wouldn't let go, despite my frantic attempts to free myself. At this point I woke up and I found that I had my arms around my body and my hands tightly squeezing my waist - no wonder it felt so real in the dream! 😁

Yes Gundi, that’s like a dream I have.

I used to have a scary dream about being held face down on a bed in hospital and someone pushing something sharp and painful in the base of my spine. I would often fly of the bed to escape (in real life) and had many black eyes where I hit the wall or bedside cabinet trying to escape the pain. Hubby noticed I had a scar on the base of my spine, so I asked mum about it, apparently I had a lumbar puncture for meningitis when I was about 3 yrs old. I asked if they sedated me, she said NO because apparently I would be too young to remember it!?!

One reoccurring dream - I love it - I’m walking through a lovely and interesting one-level home, owned by relatives (some are recognizable, some are not.)

Each time I’m staying overnight I’m shown to a new extension of the house, hidden and more interesting than last time.

The house appears to be set up like a labyrinth or a maze… each wing has more doors/rooms to explore.

I want to dream it again (it’s been a while) to see where I finally end up.

I dream very often of being in libraries, also of a small shop with a big step up to go in, and years ago I dreamed constantly of being forced to migrate to Australia and being very homesick. Genetic memory, maybe, since so many Irish were deported in the old days to Australia.

2 recurring dreams, one where I am driving but the brakes don't work and I usually crash into something, but I am xalm and never hurt. Another is where I am school or in my Nurses accomodation but can't find the room I am meant to be in, I am very anxious in this one 🤷‍♀️

I wish I could go to a dream group with most of the posters on this thread!

The recurring themes that are are common to a lot of the posters are especially interesting, and some of these posters might write short stores with human interest, if they don't already do so.
The two themes of inadequacy, and protecting their own house especially interest me and they already have the bones of good short stories. These stories could be fleshed out as ghost stories, or stories full of symbolism e.g. the story about the silver sword.

My unusual recurring dream is of standing on a small stone bridge, in fields, and the river flowing under the bridge is bright blue going under the bridge and bright orange when it comes out the other side!

One dream I have had many times : I am on my own . I get off a bus/vehicle. It is dusk and there is a faint drizzle. I see lights of a village. I make my way towards it and then find I know no one there. I feel lost.

Doesn't need a psychologist to work that one out. I was brought up in a village where I knew everyone and where I was always welcomed. Now I know no one in my birth- village.

I very rarely remember dreams but one night I dreamt I won the lottery. Told DH and bought a ticket just incase. Woke up at 3am to a message on my phone the night of the draw saying I'd won a prize. Woke up DH all excited to find it was only £70. Very disappointing and DH not pleased at me waking him up.

We had two healthy children, a boy and a girl, but for some years I used to dream that we were all on holiday in our tent, and I could hear a little voice outside calling "Mummy, let me in."
I did resist the urge to have another child, but the dream always brought tears to my eyes.

I used to regularly be able to float at will at rooftop level and descend steep stairs at speed without my feet touching the steps. I never experience this now I am in my eighties. I used to dream I was on stage and couldn't remember my lines. The worst one is wanting to go to the toilet and not being able to find one and if I do there is no door and I am exposed to all and sundry. Thankfully I don't have these dreams anymore.

keepcalmandcavachon

I read something once about dreams which theorised that the feeling that the dream produced could the mind making sense of that emotion. Nothing to do with the images that you dream, all to do with the feeling !

That’s interesting because I often wake up knowing that I’ve had a certain reoccurring dream again (there are several) I can’t remember the actual dream but recognise the feel of it. On The Rest is Politics one of them ( Rory perhaps?) says they have a pen and paper next to the bed and write down their dream the minute they wake up because it fades so quickly.

Theyre unusual.
Are they pleasant, or with that awful sense of panic?