 |
| "Midsummer Nights Dream Act IV Scene I--A wood - " (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Previous posts have discussed topics related to ongoing dream topics throughout a night's sleep and the déjà vu experience in dreams. But what about a brief jump back into a dream prior to completely waking from a sleep session. Specifically I would be referring to the short span when we might awaken from a dream to discover that we still have a few more minutes of sleep time that we can resume before we intend to leave the sleep activity and we return to sleep and to the same dream we were previously having.
An example is a recent dream experience that I had. I had been dreaming an intricate dream that seemed very long and involved. As with so many of my dreams I was dreaming about being on the road with a traveling theatrical production. The principle players in this dream were my brother and his wife and their daughter and her husband. There were also unremembered/unidentified persons who may have been family members, friends, or people from my past road tours.
Like in many dreams of this nature I am confused about my job, there are issues about time, I am having certain conflicts with others in the dream, I am uncertain as to where I am or where I am going next, and many other situations which give me a certain amount of consternation. However, despite all of these elements there is a certain element of pleasure and positive feeling about the dream. This is possibly due to the dream players on one hand and the dream setting or situation on the other. I am with people with whom I feel comfortable and in an occupational setting that brings me good memories. I overlook the turmoil welling within me because I am happy to be there.
Then I awaken. I look at the clock to see that it is 5:01--29 minutes before the alarm is to go off. I get out of bed to go to the bathroom. I briefly consider staying up and going to my computer. Instead I decide to go back to bed to see if I can go back to sleep until the alarm goes off. The clock now reads 5:02. I close my eyes and immediately return to sleep. I return to the same dream setting that I was in before I woke up.
For the next twenty seven minutes I sleep and dream in the same vein of the dream I had been having. I am in the same settings with the same cast of dream players and experiencing the same sense of uncertainty and consternation. It's okay and all is well until I awaken once more. The clock now reads 5:29. I get out of bed to wake up my wife.
Since the dream was a relatively good one for me, I wanted to return to the dream to continue being in the experience of it. Despite an underlying tension in the dream, I felt comfortable being there and was more than willing to return to the dream after the first awakening. This type of thing has happened to me before, but not with regularity. And in this particular case the event was more pronounced when I look back upon it. Though there did not seem to be a conscious effort on my part to make this happen, it all seemed to occur very naturally.
As an addendum to this, my final awakening was interesting in itself and rather curious. The way I woke up will be the topic of my next post as I discuss "The Wake Up Code".
Do you ever return to dreams that have been comfortable or pleasant? If so is this something you do willfully? Or often? Are you able to will lucid dreams?
No, wish I could. I have returned to a nightmare though. After waking up with a start, I fell back asleep to the same scary dream. Thankfully, I've only done that a few times. Now before I fall asleep I tell myself, 'only good dreams tonight'.
ReplyDeleteIf I wake up in the slightest, esp. if I have to go to the bathroom, there's no getting back into my dreamworld. I've never had a lucid dream that I know of. I had a book about training yourself to do it but I never could.
ReplyDeleteI've done that, maybe on purpose as the dream that woke me was one where the monster was gaining, or had already found me. I always try to go back and re-write it so I escape, or get the upper hand. Good dreams, it never happens!
ReplyDeleteVery rarely i have returned to the dream but this is not at all common for me. One of the more unusual aspects of my dreams is how I can be talking to one person and they suddenly morph into someone else. Wonder what that means?
ReplyDeleteI've never experienced that. But I did experience something odd. I had a dream where I saw everything that was going to happen the following day. And it happened exactly as I dreamed it. Uncanny! Does this mean I'm psychic? ;)
ReplyDeleteEm -- I using don't have too bad of dreams, but when I do and return to it I usually do so in order to change to outcome to something more positive. Somehow I think I've learned to control my dreams to some extent.
ReplyDeleteJoJo -- I have a few books about lucid dreaming but I've never been able to achieve a dream state like they describe.
Yolanda-- This is as I described to Em. I am able to go back to good dreams and that is the preferred scenario.
Wendy -- Good question. This has happened to me as well. I think the meaning comes in context with the dreamer, the nature of the dream, and what the dream characters mean to the dreamer.
Sherry -- I'm not sure how to explain that but it is eerie isn't it.
Lee