Your Dreams, Youtube Or Ron Howard?

I have two types of dreams: the bits and pieces, and the epic story.

The epic story feels like one night-long dream. I can wake up, get a drink of water, go back to bed and drop right back into it, right where I left off.

Bits and pieces happens when I am busy, or have lots of things going on (good or bad). I think of it as a dumping ground for the flotsam of the day.

I always dream in color, and I can wake up smelling the meadow I was just standing in in my dream. I have always had a good imagination, and I have always had vivid dreams. I have seen myself, but only in reflections... never in 3rd person that I can remember. I don't always look the same but it's always me. Many of the people in my life appear that way in my dreams. Different or undefined in appearance, but I know it's them.

When I was in college, I read a bunch of Carlos Castaneda, and I practiced lucid dreaming using his technique of looking at your hands while dreaming. I could manage to look at my hands, but only got farther than that a dozen or so times, and only for a short time. Long enough to scare off a monster or run a few steps and then be flying.

I had a repeating dream that I bumped into George Harrison and John Lennon when I was a young teen ager.

You know the photo in the blue and red greatest hits albums? The inner fold image where one kid got through
in front of the rot iron fence? Other kids are watching him with Paul and Ringo.

I envisioned myself fighting my way through the crowd to see that kid slip through the irons. I see myself
as one of the kids on the outside of the fence in the crowd. I then think of rejoining my family wondering around
without me. I bump into George Harrison wearing his T shirt tie.

I wake up, I am thirteen, not six like in the dream.

It is the beginning of my knowing how I can recreate my visions and what I see in motion, in detail. And I wonder
can I control it?

Dave

PS somewhere it was suggested to me that my first word was "cheerio". My Irish parents, particular my dad said that to me as he left
for work through the apartment widow fire escape in Hartford. We lived in an apartment across from the hospital he worked in. With
that suggestion I could see the room, the kitchen, my self in a high chair, my dad coming back into the room to hug me, my mother sitting beside me,
the white walls, the fridge near the window. I describe this unaided to my parents who were delighted. I would have been almost 1.5 years old. I was
a little old to begin to speak. Moma and dada came first, but cheerio was my first word.

I dream in color. People say do you dream in color? I have never not dreamed in color.

I have had wonderful dreams and terrible nightmares all my life. I find that my dreams are like being in an alternate reality. Sometimes I wake wondering if this life is a dream and our dreams are an alternate reality. My dreams have always been consistent but I hate the ones that seem to be a quest that isn't solvable. I have those a lot and feel they are maybe something my mind is trying to solve an answer to.

Also I have had the most beautiful peaceful erotic dreams at every age. I don't dream of famous people never have. I don't dream of television shows nor movies.I have dreams that unfold like movies and when I wake for a few minutes can go back to sleep and finish them. I have never seen myself in a dream but have felt my senses. I felt the wind on my face, hot and cold and also smell scents and taste things.

I just opened a contest for paintings that you have dreamed. Why don't you enter? Thanks for this post as it is off the norm here and is a small beginning for discussion of things out of the norm. Take care.

I have had a recurring dream since 5 years old. It has changed as I have grown older (buildings aged, people died etc)

Very strange

Ron Howard, Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, and all their cohorts!. :-)

And, to enhance my subconscious 'events', I'm a sleepwalker, so there's often a physical component to my dreams. Dream I've run a long distance and wake up with sore legs and feet, dream I was in an accident and wake up with bruises, dream I spoke at an important meeting or had to perform publicly, and wake up dressed for the occasion -- that sort of thing.

I sometimes eat, sleep, read, write, or watch movies in my dreams. (What I read makes sense in my head, but usually looks like gobbledygook on the dream page.) Sometimes, I even dream in my dreams! Often, I can pause a dream while I get my bearings, or repeat a segment in order to take a better look at something or, if I'm lucky, relocate, and completely change my dreamscape if things turn dark.

My dreams usually feel long and crammed with events. For instance, I can doze off while reading or watching a movie, and wake up 20 minutes later -- during that time, I'll have a dream that feels like it spans several days.

Yes, I can see (and hear) myself, but it's never my current self -- it's always my late-twenties self, when I had no health or financial issues and could go anywhere and do anything, without thinking about it.

When waking from a dream, it can take from several minutes to several hours before I feel 100% certain I'm awake. That's a disconcerting sensation, so I always try to 'finish' a dream, before waking up. (That doesn't always work.)

I've always been nagged by the question, 'How do we know when we're dreaming?' With such detailed dreams, I honestly can't always tell, so I've learned to look for specific cues, like the gobbledygook words on a page, mentioned above. Also, If I'm flying, mountain climbing, or driving a Lamborghini on the Autobahn, I can be fairly certain I'm dreaming! ;-)

LIke Abbie, I have several recurring dreams that have been with me since childhood. Things do shift and change in those dreams, but not chronologically. The changes are usually in the dream settings: a room might be a different color than before, a set of stairs becomes a spiral staircase, someone might be wearing a hat I've never seen before, I suddenly have a canine companion, etc..

My dreams have not gotten better as I get older. With the adult-level stresses of health, finances, approaching mortality, I have more bad dreams and nightmares than ever before. Still, I'm a raging insomniac who absolutely loves to dream -- even bad dreams and nightmares are an amazing experience. I keep both a notepad and a voice recorder on the bedside table so I can immediately record any remembered detail.

(* TIP -- If you don't immediately open your eyes, sit up, turn on a light, or move too much when waking from a dream, you'll remember your dreams longer and in more detail.)

And yes, I always dream in color, and always have. In fact I have a theory about that -- I believe everyone dreams in color, but not everyone can actually remember the colors, when they wake. (The 'dreaming in color' exceptions might be the blind, or people who, even in the waking world, can't clearly discern color.)

Dreaming has always fascinated me, and I've been researching it, (and other sleep conditions) one way or another, since I got my first library card when I was five. Through the years, much of my writing, music, and art has come from my very vivid, detailed dreams. I only wish I could sleep more, so I could dream more! :-)

Thanks to the commenters in this thread; I'm enjoying reading your thoughts on this -- thanks for sharing.

And thanks, Rich, for giving me an opportunity to visit a topic very near and dear to my heart . . . and my head. :-)

My awakened dreams are way more vivid than my sleeping dreams. i think this comes from the ability to construct images in my head.

Cynthia,

Very good! Interesting about seeing ourselves by the only way we would in "real" life, reflected. The last time I saw myself, it was a younger me, 40's-50's and I was on a small main street looking at the store windows and one was at a certain angle and I saw myself! I think this has happened maybe twice.

David, interesting! Hope you get to "hook up" with them.

Dominic, I have the same dreams about looking for something, or somewhere and can't get back to where I need to be. My favorite dreams are the ones where I'm some place and people are glad to see me and solve a problem or help them with something. I almost have erotic dreams, since in my dreams, I know I'm married, so NO FOOLIN around! Most of my dreams are "logical" and not people walking up walls or flying. Everyone is always younger than they are in real life. So my father that dies at 80, usually looks to be in his 40-50's in my dream. I've even had a fewe dreams where I'm telling jokes, original jokes and people are laughing, good jokes! I've had a dream or dreams that I have memories of, so I know that down that street, you turn left. Also people from past dreams know me and I recognize them. I have dreams that have a sort of riddle. Here's an example. In one dream, I'm visiting someone and they have this great yard,with flowers and shrubs,etc. and there is a small hut, sorta "Willey Wonka" style hut and a small sign that says " Our Yardman isn't a Man"! and later I meet the yardman and it's a woman! So I have surprises in my dreams too!

Abbie, Never had the same dream ever, but have had the sequels!

Wendy, WOW! I used to have dreams like that, most nights, not happy dreams,mostly anxious dreams and about 5 years ago, I started to take Melatonin, 3-500 tabs each night and since, most of my frustrating dreams are gone. And the quality of my dreams seems to have improved too. I asked the doctor and he was fine with that 1,500 each night.

Drew, as usual, don't know what to say..............

How about the other senses, like feeling hot or cold,smelling? I had one a few years ago, about the ocean and somebody was telling me the water was really cold and I stuck my hand into the water and it was lukewarm!

Anyone else taking Melatonin?

Does the reporting of most dreamers, saying that they see people, not as old, but younger, in their dreams? I only have dreams of my grandfather as an old person, because that's the only way I ever saw him.

Rich

D

I was discharged (honorably) from the US Marine Corps in the early 70's after serving for four years.

For about ten to fifteen years after that I would have a dream that reoccurred about two or three times a year in which I would wake up (in the dream) in the barracks and realize I was supposed to have been discharged from active duty SIX MONTHS AGO! I then proceed with all haste to the Company HQ to ask why am I still on active duty at which time the Gunny tells me "That's just the way it is sargent" or I woke up without an explanation.

Now here's the weird part. About ten years ago I heard on the news that some US military personnel in Iraq were not being allowed out of the service when their active duty enlistments were up and had to serve several extra months or more. I think they were in what the military terms, a "critical MOS (Military Occupational Specialty.....also known as "your job"). But when I heard about this my first reaction was "Holy Cheesecake ( not really cheesecake:-))... THAT'S MY DREAM COME TRUE....for them!!

Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot .com/

If I have technical things to solve I will do so in dreams. I don't like that but I can't change it either.

My favorite dreams by far have no images whatsoever, they are classical symphonies. They aren't even works I know but often sound like Mozart, Vivaldi or Beethoven so I imagine they are plagiarized.

Sometimes on adventure type dreams I get cold, but it turns out to be that I am actually cold so have woven it into the dream even when that doesn't logically fit. Good thing dreams modify easily.

After my father died he disappeared from my dreams. I have only dreamed about him once or twice in the 20+ years since he passed.

Bill,

On a less dramatic level, I have a dream like that about college, needing to get back to finish a paper or test. At times, I even realize that I'm a grown-up, but still anxious about the classroom or finding that right building on time to graduate.

Jim, I don't think I solve anything while dreaming, in fact I'll run into problems and not solve them by the end of the dream. I don't know if I've heard much music,maybe some guitar or rock.

Cynthia, Since my father died, he's in my dreams much more often! But younger than me know.

I had a recurring "character", Bill Clinton in many of my dreams and always as a friend,an equal. But that has changed and he hasn't appeared in my dreams.............he was written about somewhere, that he, Bill Clinton was in many people's dreams, top ten people...............

Rich

Rick, I tried Melatonin for about 6 months -- not to calm my dreams but to help with the insomnia. Unfortunately, it had a serious 'rebound' effect in that I did help me to fall asleep more easily, but I'd be wide awake within 2 hours or so, then stayed awake for the next couple of days. That felt much worse than my standard 2 to few hours per night. Staying awake so long also impeded my dreaming, which was pretty awful, too.

Valerian root works better, but makes me sneeze and itch. Damned allergies! ;-)

Re: senses -- All my senses seem normally engaged in my dreams. That's one reason it's sometimes hard to tell whether or not I'm dreaming. Because of my allergy/sinus problems, my dreamscape sense of smell is much more acute than my waking sense.

I love reading these responses; I hope the thread pulls in more commenters!

Rich, funny you should mention that! I noticed that Bill Clinton Favorited one of my kaleidoscope pieces, just yesterday. ;-) http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/bill-clinton.html


@Rich @Cynthia -- I've only dreamed of my mother twice in the decade she's been gone. However, I think she was actually here both times . . . which is a topic for a different thread.

Rich: I don't have that dream, but I know a person who has a recurring "I missed my final exams, so now I can't graduate" dreams, years after graduation.

RE: Dreaming in color. I dream in color. I had a scary dream about a sunset, black trees and the sunset reflected in the swamp water around the trees, and a dragon hunting me through the woods when I was very young - pre elementary school. I still remember the dream. Interesting thing is I had a book that had illustrations in it, and the whole dream was done in the art style of the illustrator of that book.

The rest of my dreams are pretty much normal dream stuff.

I dream about getting wealthy selling my art..

@Abbie - I have had recurring dreams for years about places I've been to and they change as well. There are differences in the terrain but I can always recognize where it is.

Rich at first I thought Bill made a point of being in people's dreams.

I have a recurring one but this one had a twist. I realize at some point I have a lot of birds, and hamsters in a room. They have been there for years, and I can't remember when I last fed them. One time there was a parrot named Pekos who was one of my forgotten to feed birds. Pekos informed me I also had a monkey named Blake. I said, "I have a monkey? I would think I would have noticed monkey poop around here." Pekos said, "Blake is a very tidy monkey, look under the rug in the basement." I went to look but as always, the house grew into more rooms. I never found the monkey, but I did draw some cartoons of Pekos and Blake.

Wendy:
Did you notice that Bill Clinton's profile is in China? odd location, if we're talking about the ex-president

@Cheryl -- Yes, I noticed the location. Really, it never occurred to me we were talking about the ex-president! I do like the coincidence of the 'Bill Clinton' name popping up in this thread. Those little weirdnesses make life almost interesting! ;-)


@Syd -- Didn't Robert Blake have a bird, in Baretta? ;-) See -- more coincidental weirdness!

He had a white whatever they are, not a parrot though. I am pretty sure he didn't have a monkey, and I am pretty sure I don't have a monkey.....but then I still haven't gone down in the basement.

Wendy,

I think the Melatonin helps mostly with the dreams,since lately I've had times I wake up around 2:30 A.M. and then can't go back to sleep until 6:00 or 7:00! Not fun for sure. I can only recall a few times that I could smell something, and it was usually something cooking.

Cheryl, Yepper, ALL my dreams are in color. Like that dream I described above of that Garden shed. Pink's and yellows and pastel blues. But most are more realistic colors.

Jim, Hey, THAT'S MY DREAM buddy!

Sydne, I do have animals and pets in my dreams, just a few weeks ago, I dreamt about a parrot I had many years ago.

Cheryl, I hear that Bill does get around..............LOL!

Rich

I have never had a dream of Bill though.

Syd -- Don't go down in the basement! Never go down in the basement!!!!!

(Baretta had a cockatoo named Fred . . . but still!)

LOL Wendy! I had a cocktail named PeeWee. We hand fed him.....maybe Pekos is PeeWee? PeeWee did some unsettling things with his cuttle bone though.

@Wendy "I've only dreamed of my mother twice in the decade she's been gone. However, I think she was actually here both times . . . which is a topic for a different thread."

I had a dream that a friend who moved away died and came back, in my dream, to say goodbye. In the dream, I could feel the hug, and smell the cigarette smoke (he was a smoker). I woke up still smelling the cigarette smoke. Nobody in my household smokes. I was absolutely convinced that the person's spirit was there, present in my dream. Until...

Fast forward a year or so later, and this person moved back... very much alive.

I'm glad I didn't tell anyone who knew this person about the dream.

Go figure. Sometimes dreams are just dreams, even if they feel very real.

I can see it now, Cheryl to this person, "Gee I thought you were dead!" LOL!

Or worse. Local friends to this person: "Cheryl told us you were dead."

Yeah that would. Even worse if you would have posted on FB or something.

Well my mother and I are always going somewhere in my dreams. We were travel buddies while she was alive. The only problem that occurs is when she is driving in my dreams. I can't quite get to the brake peddle.

"Drew, as usual, don't know what to say.............. "-Rich

Rich, I just don't remember my dreams. If i sleep in, i do have vivid dreams but i have to make an effort to remember them.
BUT:
I can fall into a trance like state and visualize in great details. This happens when i draw and paint and just daydream.

Sydne: Maybe if you're already dead, you don't have to worry about hitting the brake pedal !

You know funny you should mention that Cheryl...on one of my mother's and I trips we were talking about dreams. She said, "What if we already have died and are reliving our life?" hmmmmm......well that was interesting, which is on another thread.

Wow! Good stuff here Rich! I used to have the same dream... same person... different situation, but a young man that I fashioned myself in love with in HS. He always rejected me and 10 years I suffered with this dream. I went to a therapist and she said that it signified how men had disappointed me all my life. Funny thing in... after that I only had the dream one more time and then never again.

I always dream complicated dreams and I am always frustrated and anxious. I try to fix everything for the whole world and I have bee a people pleaser. So, I imagine my frustrations come out in my dreams.... never able to please... never good enough...

I have severe fibromyalgia so that means I can not sleep.... can't turn the brain off.... it goes on and on and on. Tried everything including melatonin... didn't even phase me and most women with firbro...the only way we can sleep is with Ambient.

I am always serious in my dreams (too bad for me who loves life and is full of joy and laughs a lot!) and I am always trying so very hard to accomplish something.

My last serious dream.... effected my life and the way I feel about a family and I had a dream in

Oops...a dream interpreter tell me that it was about my childhood, but I really have a hard time with the family in my dream even to this day it was so real!

Great stuff..., thanks for the opportunity!

roberta

Drew,

What I find is that I cherish the "feelings" of that dream, not so much of the details. I would love to remember the details, but just doesn't happen.

Roberta, The physical condition of the body may have some effect on the direction and quality of dreams, which could be a subject by itself! I don't seem to have dreams that relate to my old body yet!

Rich

My discussion screen is telling me that there was a post made a few hours ago, but my screen shows mine from yesterday!

Had a good dream last night, signing! I was signing with a group of others and could hear the music and song! I had a much better voice in my dream.....................LOL!

Rich