Dreams

[Guest ruiagnelo]

Some days ago me and a couple of friends were on our way to the canteen and one of them started that classic yesterday i dreamt of talk, to which another replied i have had that dream too and yet another started narrating some other past dream. i couldn't do anything but listen to the wonderful descriptions of their surreal episodes. i said nothing about my own dreams, but didn't really understand why. started to think about the last dream i had, and couldn't remember a thing. then realized how rarely i dream - and i mean sleep dreaming - and when i do, i simply can't remember anything the day after.

i think i am a daydreamer in the first place.

i try to use my imagination powers as much as possible as my work, both in school or personal, requires a great amount of creativity and imagination efforts. also i am a person who easily gets lost between all the images that constantly pop in my mind. it's like i am constantly with a foot on reality and another one on fantasy. and when i go to bed i start thinking about things, imagining, because it's a very appropriate, comfortable and quiet moment of the day for that purpose. through the course of years i got used to not fall asleep instantly, and instead start thinking and thinking. and thinking. in the morning i wake up and i have had a good sleep, but no dreams. could these be the reasons behind all the absence of dreams while sleeping? anyone else here feeling odd about their own dreams? also, any tips on how to start being able to remember and register them, and how to make a dream diary?

[Guest Gary C]

Yeah, notepad by your bedside. When you wake up and remember a dream, write it down instantly. It doesn't matter if it doesn't happen straight away, but it will, and the act of writing them will aide your memory of them in turn leading to more memorable dreams.

 

I don't really remember my dreams, either. Haven't had a particularly vivid one for a few weeks (although I've forgotten what it was now). I'm informed the dream-diary thing really does work though, I've just never been bothered to try it.

[Guest AcrossCanyons]

Last night I had a dream where I went shopping for clothes in my underwear and I overheard on the PA a song that was a Shobaleader One instrumental with Lil B rapping over it. Then I actually bumped into Squarepusher in the shopping centre and he was crazy happy that I knew who he was. Later he played a huge gig at the centre (now a stadium) and he played one 20 minute long acid jam (by played I mean he ran the song off a computer and just danced along to it).

 

Most WATMM induced dream I've ever had.

[Guest sirch]

rui, you simply need to sleep more. sleep when you wouldn't normally sleep, then i bet you'll remember some dreams. :)

[Guest KY]

Last night I had a dream where I went shopping for clothes in my underwear and I overheard on the PA a song that was a Shobaleader One instrumental with Lil B rapping over it.

best dream ever?

 

for what it's worth, ruiagnelo, I barely ever remember my dreams. That being said, I also partake in drinking and pot-smoking pretty often. When I went on a vacation to South Korea, there was much less drinking and no pot at all. I found that the comparatively sober mind made my dreams MUCH more intense and vivid, and I remembered them slightly better the next day. Not sure if that would have any effects on you, but food for thought.

[cruising for burgers]

rui, watch "waking life"!

 

you definitely have dreams, you simply can't remember them...

 

I also partake in drinking and pot-smoking pretty often. When I went on a vacation to South Korea, there was much less drinking and no pot at all. I found that the comparatively sober mind made my dreams MUCH more intense and vivid, and I remembered them slightly better the next day.

yes, me too

[Guest fiznuthian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVmnkY62ut4

 

 

Weed seems to make remembering dreams impossible..

[joshuatxuk]

i try to use my imagination powers as much as possible as my work, both in school or personal, requires a great amount of creativity and imagination efforts. also i am a person who easily gets lost between all the images that constantly pop in my mind.

 

also, any tips on how to start being able to remember and register them, and how to make a dream diary?

 

I'm quite similar, if I'm not focused my mind races. I being "focused" doesn't just mean work or a routine task, it can include a very detailed daydream as well.

 

Dream diaries help tremendously, it helps even to jot down key words to recall the dream later and write a more detailed synopsis. I have memorable and intense dreams during the week, on occasion, but the memory is usually the tailend of the cycle and I often forget them. In fact, I mostly do not recall my dreams on weekdays because I get more like 6 hours of sleep.

 

My best dreams are days I sleep in or simply get sound, uninterrupted sleep, i.e. the weekend. They can include very long stories/plots or a series of various dreams. I do lucid dream occasionally but I don't try strict regimes to get into a rhythm of doing so; if it happens, it happens. I actually recall more and more as I backtrack from the later dreams in a sleep cycle while recalling them the next morning. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I'll remember a dream from early that day or days ago if I remember a key aspect of it. Sometimes by doing this I've also figured out the likely source of the dream inspiration. (like, "oh I saw a picture of my random friend from high school, that's why he showed up"..."oh I was watching youtube vids of old Sega games, hence the trippy setting of this dream," etc) Also, I've often found myself waking up or, while still dreaming, thinking of jotting down what happened, but I never actually do. It's a part of lucid dreaming I guess, specifically false awakenings. (the worst I had were ones where very realistic ones I'd get up in college and go to class, then wake up and realized I slept through the entire class period). Anytime I've tried jotting down a dream between REM cycles and while half-awake its either jibberish or squiggles. I don't write my actual entries down until I get up completely.

 

As I kid, in retrospect, I had very visual Hypnagogia. Ever do that thing where you slightly press your eyes, in the dark, while sleepy and colors occur? Lot of that stuff. Often now while I fall asleep while my mind is racing I'll have a really cool thought or idea and manage to write it down before I go completely to sleep. I've read that some famous thinkers, I think Edison was one, and the surreal painter Dali have noted the period of falling asleep and/or napping as having this effect. I get these every once in awhile: http://en.wikipedia....iki/Hypnic_jerk and actually remember then, or I'm conscious of it occuring when I come of it. I don't get nightmares very often but I have had on a very few memorable occasions had sleep paralysis, where I feel like I'm trying to wake up but can't. Sometimes it involves loud explosions and a sudden awakening (once it actually was part of the dream as cannon fire) and I think typical nightmares work this way. The worst were a couple times were I am literally paralyzed and I have a false awakening where I try moving and screaming (often to wake my wife up) but to no avail. One horrible incident in particular I had what I guess is an out-of-body experience where I actually watched myself squirm and struggle without waking up, and it seemed to go on forever. It felt paranormal. No idea if it was stress related. Thankfully these are rare for me.

 

I've been keeping dream records off and on (in other words month or week long breaks occur) for 10 years now. I need to get it all organized, its in a variety of notebooks and even sheets of paper and scraps. It could just be my brain and my wiring, but I do not have "recurring dreams" but more so recurring themes or settings. They are often really absurd and illogical if you remember them in a very detailed manner. Over time certain trends in imagery and characters gradually change. I like being aware of it and relating it to my normal memories. I think nights where I'm exhausted or drunk/hungover are usually dream free as well (it seems weed does this as well, based on what's been attested to in this thread). Anyway, hope that was of some interest. Happy dreaming!

[GORDO]

I started reading this book about learning to have lucid dreams and stuff, the first exercise is about dream recall and it consists on trying to be aware at day, like be aware of what you are seeing, touching, smelling, feeling, being aware of you awareness, etc.. sounds weird but it actually worked, I later abandoned the practice because I never finish anything, but for a few days i was getting dreams every day.

 

ps. I also know a guy who claims he has never had a dream, ever.

[Ragnar]

figured I'd bump the existing dreams thread

 

I had some dream about Massive Attack I guess and they were leading me through all these hallways of some random nondescript building that was all mazelike and seemingly endless, I guess to meet some cool Massive Attack people or the oracle from the matrix or something, but then it turned into some meeting of the idm superstars/justice league of idm and everyone was there I guess besides Aaron Funk who I guess couldn't make it from the frozen wastes of Winnipeg so he communicated through a giant Game Boy Camera (!) which sounds like a very Aaron Funk thing to do. Then I had like 3 false wake-ups which was annoying because I wanted to write down something about the dream I had but I kept writing dream notes that obviously disappeared when I woke up. Also our house was different

[Guest boo]

dreams can be amazing but they can also be frustrating and tedious and have things like exgirlfriends and work in them..

 

so sometimes i prefer not remembering them.

[Nebraska]

i had a dream that i woke up from a nap in the late afternoon and left my girlfriend sleeping to go for a drive. i was driving a road which i'd never been and it started to get dark, so i decided to turn around and go back home.

 

on the way, my girlfriend called me and asked if i'd gone out to buy indiana jones (supposedly, it was showing on tv when she woke up). i said no, and that i would tell her when i got back what i had been up to. as i was saying this, the woman next to me in the traffic gasped (i guess my window was rolled down?) and when i looked at where she was looking-

 

i saw the moon drop from the sky and onto downtown (los angeles) setting the entire place on fire. now, the way the moon fell was kinda artificial. it looked like it turned into a purple ball and it seemed move diagonally first before "dropping" onto the city.

 

immediately i told my girlfriend- listen, this is no joke. i think i just witnessed the end of the world. i need you to close all the windows, doors, turn off the gas and tv and keep quiet and calm. am on my way home. she said something like "i don't like this kind of joke" and i replied, i'm not joking. in fact, i can't believe what i'm seeing right now.

 

as we started moving (the cars in traffic) i asked some people who were close to me whether what i was looking at was real. nobody answered so i drove on. eventually as i started getting closer to my place, i saw hookers walking around in the middle of the road, gangs driving around honking and waving their guns (think of that scene from back to the future 2 when biff is the richest guy in the world)

 

anyway, i got so panicked i woke myself up and immediately, felt like going for a drive. but didn't