Yesterday I wrote about sleep. I have posted several times on the subject of dreams. It is not the lack of sleep that concerns me these days nor the number of times I actually get up during a night. What disturbs me most is the variety and number of dreams I have almost every night. If one gets up during the night the, as I understand it, pre-waking time is often REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. I 'suffer' from that constantly.
The first post I wrote on the subject was on 2 September 2008 entitled
The first post I wrote on the subject was on 2 September 2008 entitled
Dreams and ThingsThings haven't changed much apart from the numbers of dreams which have increased substantially. I wish that they hadn't.
For some time now I have been having vivid and prolonged dreams. Unfortunately most of them are not particularly pleasant. I have got to the stage where I classify them as dreams (ok, perhaps even pleasant but I'd rather just sleep), night ponies (I'd rather have had a dream and, in any case I don't usually remember them), night mares (not very pleasant at all but usually forgotten within a day or so) and, worst of all, night stallions (which cause me to wake in a fearful sweat, which often remain with me for weeks and which come back again and again both when I'm asleep and awake).
I'm up early this morning because of a most unpleasant dream. I slept very well indeed and was, I thought, awake listening to the cockerel as the dawn was breaking - the bedroom windows were wide open. All of a sudden I was in Stornoway at the harbour and a lady I was talking to fell into the harbour and was trapped under the water just out of my reach and still blowing bubbles. I can still see her face. It was one of the most realistic dreams I've ever had and all the more horrible because I was convinced that I was awake. Every time I thought of sleep I could see her face again so I got up.
Somewhere out there there must be an explanation or a reason or even a cure. Has anyone any ideas?
My sleep often ends much earlier than I'd want it to, and sometimes I try to get back to sleep, while other times I give up after a while and get up and on with things. Dreams are probably always part of my "night life", but I do not always remember them. In fact, there seem to be months of not remembering any, and then comes a phase where I have vivid, funny, strange and/or beautiful dreams almost every night.
ReplyDeletePonies, mares and stallions have featured very rarely, thankfully.
I'm pleased for you Meike. I hope your sleep remains like that.
DeleteI dream but rarely can recall them but it is usually cramp that wakes me every couple of hours. I have a siesta these days and I enjoy the hour s sleep after lunch.
ReplyDeleteAdrian I sometime am woken with cramp too but I find that dehydration is a significant contributor. It's too complicated for this comment but I'll try to remember to email you next week when I get home. I have it under pretty good control.
DeleteDreams are a interesting thing to observe. We can actually learn a lot from them about ourselves. Sometimes I forget my dreams, sometimes I remember. Usually I don't dream too much, but when I do it's mostly about things that I haven't gotten off my chest.
ReplyDeleteMersad
Mersad Donko Photography
Mersad if I could identify anything I hadn't got off my chest in some of my dreams I'd be a rather strange person.
DeletePerhaps you need a course of hypnotherapy to address your troublesome dreaming. Or perhaps you could try reading My Little Pony books before you go to sleep.
ReplyDeleteHypnosis Hebrides - 01851 870231
YP I usually play scrabble before I go to sleep. Perhaps that's the problem because I spent much of my life really disliking the torture in 'real' life. Thanks for the tip about Hypnosis Hebrides. I'd not heard of them but they are near me. I shall call them.
DeleteI'm sorry you don't enjoy your dreams, Graham. I quite like (most of) mine. They often include feeding lots of people (last night I was making lamb and red currant jelly sandwiches). My bad dreams are invariably about deadlines, and always fearure a clock moving inexorably onwards and then way past the deadline. I have a thing about deadlines, so these make sense. Horses often fearure, too (of course). Oh, and I fly - breaststroke, of course!
ReplyDeleteI used to have marvellous flying-dreams, breaststroke, too! But it's been a long time since my last flight.
DeleteFrances I don't ever recall any such things featuring in my dreams but then, as I don't remember most of them who knows? I certainly don't ever recall flying.
DeleteNow that you bring the topic up, I don't have that many dreams anymore. I certainly had the three types of dreams you have.
ReplyDeleteI'm very happy for your present situation Red. Long may it continue.
DeleteConsider writing a sleep & dream journal, with thoughts you wouldn't post. As time goes on, and you read what you've written, then you might remember or key into something that connects.
ReplyDeleteI've seen on paranormal shows the time just before you wake (especially), and during sleep, entities can enter your dreams. From what I understand, they aren't always pleasant. Dreaming vividly, might be you (empath thing), and/or the place where you sleep. I've also felt that radio and television waves can interfere with sleep. Imagine an episode of a horror film breezing through your brain while you sleep, that kind of thing.
Maywyn I have tried keeping a note of my dreams but when i do I then have woken up properly and can't get back to sleep. I've used a small dictating machine too but it usually sounded like nonsense when I listened to it. The dreams are often very long (in dream time if not in real time). I've tried making a note of all the elements of the dream that I woke with this morning but it was long and complicated and I found it very difficult. One problem is that as I write one element the others disappear. My house has a very happy aura which is why I bought it. The nightmares seem to occur wherever I sleep though. One odd thing is that I don't ever recall dreaming in hospital.
DeleteConsider trying to record with less details. Write simple and easy short descriptions, words, even a doodle, like an outline. Think gist.
DeleteMaywyn, if I try to do notes in gyst form (on any subject) you can bet your last dollar that I'll eventually end up throwing the note away with absolutely no idea of what it meant. I threw a pile away before I came to Glasgow last week.
DeleteEvery night I have vivid dreams...not nightmares, though. I remember my dreams...they're in full colour, sound and wide screen! :)
ReplyDeleteLee you are a very fortunate lady.
DeleteSome time back I had a semi erotic dream about a quite elderly lady. In the dream I could feel the softness of her skin, and smell her perfume; I continued to smell her perfume (in my head) for days after. Very odd.
ReplyDeleteThat is strange Cro.
DeleteI usually have the most nonsensical screwed up trippy dreams. I must say though dreaming about water is usually something to do with your emotions.
ReplyDeleteAmy, you may be correct. However I am fortunate enough to have had a remarkably happy and worry-free life for the last decade anyway. I am, however, a by nature quite an emotional person particularly when sadness hits other people.
DeleteI have read this current blog post several times and my advice is that you have a few sessions with a Jungian based psychotherapist.
ReplyDeleteHeron, my sister-in-law lectured on psychotherapy at a university. Whether its was Jungian based or not I have no idea. We've discussed dreams but to no conclusion.
DeleteAs I've told you before :) ... Periodically I have found it useful to write down dreams and try to analyse and see some patterns in them. I do believe this can work as a kind of therapy to understand oneself better (especially if there are images and themes that keep coming back). I don't do it all the time. If they dissolve and disappear by themselves it might be just as well to let them... But if they linger or return and keep disturbing me, it may be just as well to try and take them by the horns and face them! ;)
ReplyDeleteBasically I think dreams are (or come from) the brain's process of sorting through recent experiences and matching/comparing/storing them with old memories. But I suppose this process may also be affected by biological / chemical influence from for example medication or illness. Like (much as you say) if you don't sleep well and wake up often, you're probably more likely to have more of the kind of sleep where you dream, and/or remember your dreams. And also probably not always easy to say what's what, i.e. if you wake up because you dream, or you dream because you need to wake up!
Well, Monica, I know that we have discussed this before in some detail and others have suggested that too. I find it very difficult because, for one thing, if I do I then wake up properly and may not find it so easy to get back to sleep. I am now pretty satisfied (and time will tell) that there is a biological trigger of dreams (though perhaps not their content) in that whilst I've been in hospital and since my procedure to drain my kidney I do not need to get up in the night. Nor have I had any dreams. I will keep and open mind on the subject of course and I'm sure that none of us who dream will suddenly stop thinking about it.
DeleteI've always been fascinated by dreams, both good and bad. As I've gotten older, I have stopped having so many vivid, memorable dreams at night. But yesterday, after a particularly exhausting day at work, I came home and fell into bed for a nap. During that hour and a half, I think I had ALL the vivid, memorable dreams that had been building up over the past five years. It was like watching a movie in fast motion with the sound off... I woke up almost more tired than when I laid down. Dreams - our brains - are unfathomable.
ReplyDeleteMrs S, you have, I think, hit the nail on the head. We try to fathom out the unfathomable when it comes to our brains.
Delete