Trying to Recapture an Elusive Dream

 Teddybears At the Museum of Childhood, Pen-ffynnon. A wonderful place to recapture the past. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thoughts after waking from a short nap:

       Remembering a dream can be difficult enough, but trying to reenter a wonderful dream after a moment of wakefulness is sometimes a frustrating impossibility.  There can be times that no matter how hard we may try to return to sleep, waking life calls us whether or not we actually need to be up. This is in contrast to those other circumstance when we cannot seem to escape the clutches of a fearful dream that we fall in and out of, wishing that it might go away and yet seeming unable to shake ourselves loose from that nightmare.

        There are times when I will be dreaming of something most wonderful and pleasing only to be awakened for some reason.   The phone might ring or some other external stimulus will rouse me from a blissful sleep.  Sometimes I awaken for no real understandable reason other than my body sensing in some way that it needs to wake up my brain.  This often occurs during a brief nap in the daytime.  Perhaps there is something of the nature of a brain center of responsibility that is telling me to get back into the waking world because there is work to be done or the business of living to which to attend.

       Indeed, sometimes the depths of sleep and dreaming beckon me to enter for some interminable length of time--perhaps even forever.  My mind somewhat begrudging stirs and resists any attempt to return to sleep, to find again that dream that it so leisurely drifted through.  I want to keep on dreaming that wonderful vision of sleep that calls to me from a secret place deep within me.  But the dream is elusive and will not let me return into its magical realm.

        I am a creature of the waking world for the time that I live.  At times the necessity of sleep will open the door to that secret elusive dream world and let me in for a brief while.  I cannot stay for that would violate the laws of being alive and wakefulness.   I read, watch movies, listen to music, or let my imagination wander.  Those are but substitutes for what my dream world promises me.

         To return to the dream might be considered cheating life.  The attempt to replace an imaginary paradise or even a chimerical hell by dreaming away life into an existence of mind only is a paradox to defy actual existence in order to become nonessential to the waking world.   Dreams are intended to be fleeting and temporal as long as we exist in the world of the living.

        As much as we try to return to the dream or escape from it, the dream is an unreal reality of the mind or a real unreality to our interaction with the living world.   We often want that which we cannot have, but every so often we all get a small taste of it.

        Do you think that death could be a doorway into the world where our dreams exist?    Have you ever tried to return to a sweet dream that eluded you?    Are you able to go back to sleep after waking and continue a dream that you were having?

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"It Must Have Been Something I Ate"

Pizza Toscana in box (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        We've all heard the expression "It must have been something I ate".   You've probably used it yourself.  For me it's usually an expression that connotes unpleasant feelings.  Most often it's my explanation for a bad feeling in my digestive system.   But I suppose it might also apply as a reason for having some of the dreams we have.

         If I've eaten too much, not enough, or something that has an effect on my mind or body, I might be kept awake by the discomfort of a bad feeling in my stomach.   Caffeine or certain stimulating foods might cause me to feel jittery and keep me awake.  If I eat something like fruit or drink a lot of liquids I might need to get up with some frequency to go to the bathroom.

          In the latter case I will often have dreams about looking for a bathroom, finally awakening to actually get up and go.   If I haven't eaten enough and am hungry, I will probably dream about food.  The feelings in my body can understandably influence my dreams.  But I wonder if specific foods influence dreams in some way?

          I can't remember any instances where I can say a particular food influenced my dreams.  I would surmise that any spicy food or highly flavorful food could very well affect my dream life.   Perhaps candy, desserts, or any sugar laden or sweet foods influence dreams.   I would not be surprised if meats, pizza, or certain ethnic foods would cause an increase of dream activity.   Honestly, I cannot say that this is the case since I don't recall an example from my own life.

          Maybe you can provide some examples that you have experienced.

           Can you pinpoint any specific foods that have caused you to have more unusual dreams than normal?  What foods would you expect to have the most affect on dreaming?   Do you ever purposely eat or drink anything in order to have increased dream activity?


       

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Crazy Road Dream

English: Disney World, Orlando, Florida (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

     According to my travel schedule I should have gotten home by Wednesday January 8th.   Instead, an unforeseen event--the illness of my wife's favorite aunt--has brought us to Orlando, Florida.  And to complicate things I've become rather ill with flu or some such ailment.  I've been spending a good bit of time in bed in our motel room.  With sleep comes dreams.

       I had a rather odd dream Wednesday afternoon.  More than odd--since all dreams tend to be odd--the dream was disturbing.  I clearly see the influence of my state of traveling and illness in this dream:

      I am driving behind a truck or a vehicle pulling a large trailer.  There is a large opening on the driver side of the "trailer".   I see boys probably about 10 to 16 years old waving and hanging out of the opening.  They seem to be festive with an attitude of showing off.
      After a while they individually begin to do daredevil stunts where they hang horizontally out of the opening.  Their bodies are very close to the roadway and they push this closeness even more with each successive stunt.  Suddenly one of them drags his body on the roadway.  He loses grip and falls off, tumbling to the side of the road.  The vehicle ahead of me continues onward at a rapid speed as do I.
       More boys try the stunt and are thrown from the vehicle.  I run over a couple of the boys as do cars behind me.  I am very concerned about this, but also somewhat angry and afraid.   

        I then awoke from this dream and pondered its meaning.   I'm sure my upcoming trip home has affected my dream.   My state of illness probably has something to do with the disturbing nature of the dream.

         I am now anxious to return home.

          Does sickness tend to make your dreams more disturbing?   Are you well in this post-holiday season?

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Christmas Dreams

English: Picture of the Space Needle and the modern Christmas decoration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

     
           I hope everyone had a good Christmas and is continuing to enjoy the holiday season.

          When I was a child, Christmas used to factor into my dream life to a greater extent than it has in my adult life.  I can't actually recall having any Christmas related dreams as an adult.  It's probably due to the busy times of the season--the travel, the gatherings, and out of the ordinary activity.  This is a season where I usually don't remember my dreams.

          Though I can't recall any specific childhood dreams at Christmastime, I do remember having holiday related dreams.  They were usually the wish dreams of what I fantasized about getting for Christmas or dreams of receiving special unexpected bounties of gifts.   The dreams were always happy and hopeful.

         During this season I hope you are having those happy dreams and most of all I hope you are having happy times in your waking life.   I wish you all the best in the year to come.

          Can you remember having special dreams related to Christmas when you were a child?   Does the activity of the holidays interfere with your current dream life or does it enhance your dreaming?   What types of dreams do you associate with Christmas?

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Wake Up, Go to Sleep, Wake Up, Go to Sleep...

Insomnia (Photo credit: schnappischnap)

          Do you ever have those crazy nights where sleep is fitful?   I can probably answer with confidence that you have.  I know I have on occasion, but fortunately those restless nights of sleep don't happen too often.

          Usually those sporadic nights of sleep are related to some sort of discomfort such as having to urinate overly frequently, sickness, hunger, or feelings of distress.   For me the wake/sleep cycles may be accompanied by dreams, but this doesn't always seem to be the case.  Or at least there are times when the dreams are not remembered if they are present.

          On the other hand there are some nights when the dreams seem to interrupt the sleep and I return to the same dream after the waking incident.  I will awaken and ponder my dream, wondering about it, trying to work it out in my mind.  I return to sleep and the dream returns.  It may happen several times throughout the night.  Sometimes it's like a vexing annoyance while at others it is a continuing saga of mystery and curiosity.

          Those kinds of nights are usually tiring.  I awaken feeling like sleeping more, but knowing that I must get up.  If there were dreams during the night that I remember they might haunt me through out the day.  These are undoubtedly dreams with messages.  But what are they telling me?

         Then again, maybe there are no messages.  Perhaps the dreams are merely reflections of mental or physical states.    Whatever they are, they can be sometimes extremely annoying.

       What causes you to have nights of fitful sleep?   Do you experience them very often?    What kinds of dreams do you usually have when you have fitful nights of dreams that you remember?

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The Wake Up Code

Coat of arms of Serbia (Photo credit: thivierr)

        In my previous post I described a dreaming incident during which I awoke from a dream and then returned to sleep to continue the same dream scenario.  During this dream situation I was having what was not a particularly unpleasant dream in a setting that brought me a good feeling.  According to my observation of the hours on my alarm clock, the second dream segment lasted about 27 minutes.

        I woke up about a minute prior to when the alarm would be going off.   Interestingly something odd happened in the dream that was almost like a prompt for me to wake up.  Within the dream I heard some words spoken that seemed to be my wake up call.   Let me describe the latter moments of the dream and the words I heard spoken.

       Towards the end of my dream I am in the same theater where I have been throughout the dream sessions.    I go looking around the theater environment to find myself to be in what seems to be a sort of shopping mall.   From the backstage area I look out into this mall-like place to see food establishments and various other businesses that are not necessarily stores, but more like professional offices and service businesses.   There are some people milling about and sitting on benches, but the place is not very crowded.  In fact the place does not look busy at all.
   
     As my eyes scan the scene before me I see uncertain places that somewhat confuse me as to where I am.  I look behind me to see that the theater is still there.   I am apprehensive about venturing out into the alien environment outside of the theater.  I look for a bathroom.  I look for some of my fellow cast members and people I had been with previously.  I look into dressing rooms and other rooms that are in the backstage area.

        Either from someone around me or within my mind I hear a voice say "Hospitality was always the source of the finest days of Serbia."

      Upon hearing this I immediately wake up to see that the alarm is about to go off.  I puzzle over the final declaration I heard in my dream.  What did it mean?   Was is a code designating that it was time for me to wake up?

       Do we have prompts that cue us that it is time to leave a dream and awaken from sleep?   Have you ever received a strange or nonsensical statement in a dream that left you puzzled after you awakened?   Do you think these types of messages are cryptic codes that are saying something to us?   What do you think the message I received meant?  

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Dreams vs. Dreams

A Subconscious Past Study (Photo credit: ssoosay)

     Dream is one of those crazy English words with multiple meanings which are often nuanced and even perhaps in opposition to each other.

       When Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I have a dream" speech or Barack Obama wrote about the dreams of his father, they were undoubtedly talking about different dreams from each other and definitely referring to dreams different than the ones we have at night.

       We might have dreams for our future, dreams of things we might like to acquire, or dreams of relationships we'd like to be involved in.  We can idly dream in consciousness during the waking times while subconsciously dreaming with the peculiar vision of sleep. Are any of these dreams connected?

        Do your practical dreams of what you would like to see in your life ever manifest themselves in the dreams of sleep?    Does your fanciful daydreaming ever influence your subconscious dreaming?   Do you think that subconscious dreaming can help bring desires of your mind to fruition?   If so, how so?

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Back to School

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

          Here is a recent dream that may have occurred over a period of an hour or two before waking.  As I dreamed this I woke up a number of times and then returned to sleep and back to the continuation of the dream. 

          In my dream I am at my cousin's house.  It is a very large convoluted place beside what appears to be a lake.  There seem to be many people present.  In the house I have my own room which seems to have one wall missing and opened onto a deck area overlooking the lake.

            I have to leave for some reason and find myself in a vast shopping mall-like place.  After I've gone to do whatever it was I needed to do I start looking for my room.  At first I find it readily, but then go back and make repeated attempts to find my room.  Each time it gets more difficult to find it.   The shopping mall begins to seem more like an indoor city as there are more than just stores.

            Eventually I am back in my room and realize I have to get ready to go to school.  I have the understanding in the dream that somehow some of my high school credits were invalid and I have to return to high school to get my degree.  My wife helps me get dressed in some clothes that seem very strange for me.  They are in garish colors and have a mod sort of design.  I have problems putting my belt on because of the way the belt loops are made and my wife helps me put the belt on.

          Then my "room" becomes the classroom.  It is very large with no back wall and the lake in the background.   There are numerous tables that are like picnic tables made of a plastic-like substance and well over a hundred students are sitting at the tables or milling about the classroom.   No classroom study activities seem to be occurring, but there is much socializing.  I see no teacher presence and the students seem to be running this environment.  

            A couple of well dressed young men that I know to be drug dealers are circulating the tables selling their merchandise.   They are very clean-cut looking young men.  One has a natty suit and a smart fedora and a bright toothy smile that makes him look very friendly.  His associate not as well dressed but still dressed very fashionably and he has the same exact smile so that the two almost look like brothers though I know that they're not.  I'm curious about the drugs they are selling and hope they will approach me.

           Beside me a very cute petite teenage girl is flirting with me.  I become very interested in her.  I briefly think that she is far too young for me.  But then I realize that all the students are accepting me as one of them. They see me as cool and having authority, but I feel more their age than my waking life age and start to believe that I too am a teenager.   I am having very positive feelings about being back in school and I feel young.

            There are a number of  themes present in the dream that have a commonality with other dreams that I've had, including the big house, the large shopping center, and the meandering city that seems to be enclosed.   Then there is the back to school scenario.  I have often dreamed that I was back in school again as a student.  Sometimes it is college while other times it is high school.   Frequently the dreams have to do with being unprepared for a test, being lost in the school, or a situation where other students look up to me.  Anxiety is usually short-lived in these dreams and everything usually becomes very positive.  

               Do you ever dream of being back in school?   Are they anxiety ridden dreams or are they pleasant dreams?    How do your school dreams compare with how your actual school experience was?   Are there rooms in your dreams that have a wall missing?

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