Dreams - What's your constant?

[EarlJam]

I have a lot of airplane crash dreams and dreams I can float/fly.

What about you all?

[Bluedawg]

None of the above. I dream...we all do...but not about anything that reoccurs.

[billybreen]

You forgot the 'late to an exam, about to fail this class' nightmare.

[CathyCA]

Oh EarlJam, you already know which way I voted. . .

;)

[JulesInLA]

You forgot the 'late to an exam, about to fail this class' nightmare.

My longer version is: "Not being enrolled in class at the beginning of the semester and about to fail as a result of missed readings and class time."

This dream involves endless circular paths between financial aid and the registrar.

Oh wait...maybe that really happened every semester for two years and it should be properly categorized as a flashback!

While I think I'm finally "aging out" of this now that my son is at Duke and all is well, I had this dream for years.

In the dream...there's a labyrinth which always starts with a plodding walk uphill from Edens Quad. I go into Allen Building and - from there - my mind creates new halls, floors and offices where I have to wait and explain my grim family circumstances (personal and financial - not mine, but my parents)...all while I am missing classes.

In reality, I battled through the bureaucracy with help from Jim Belvin (Financial Aid God and extraordinary human being!)...who ultimately helped free me from the labyrinth.

And so I now contribute my annual gift to financial aid every year. And am committed to being a life-long volunteer for Duke.

Another thing that may have overcome the recurrence of the dream was when "The Ocean" parking lot disappeared and the campus geography changed.

I'm no shrink (and don't have one...should I?!), but I think even my subliminal mind has changed the path in a positive way.

I think ultimately, dreams/nightmares are about the fear of failing at something you desperately want to succeed at while battling circumstances beyond your control.

[JulesInLA]

And am committed to being a life-long volunteer for Duke.

Geez, I even moderated the DBR PPB for a while.:eek:

Jules

[hc5duke]

Flying feels a lot like swimming, but in the air instead of water. You just move your arms up and down a little and off you go! If you've played GTA:SA before, the movement feels a lot like moving with the jet pack, except you're just using your hands.

[BlueDevilBaby]

I most often dream about being at a social gathering with weird groupings of relatives, friends, or acquaitances who would otherwise never be in the same room with each other. During the dream I am completely confused as to what's going on and why all these people are together. When I was little, it was usually a "being chased" dream.

[Cavlaw]

I suppose everyone dreams, but I never remember having done it when I wake up. I close my eyes, and next thing I know I'm opening them in the morning.

[EarlJam]

You forgot the 'late to an exam, about to fail this class' nightmare.

Oh that's a GOOD one! It has been many moons since I graduated but DO still have that "I forgot to take that last exam hence my degree is invalid" dream every now and then.

-EJ

[EarlJam]

Last night was very dramatic. I dreamed I was being chased around by a little evil girl (8 year old?). Think "Damian" from The Omen here. Evil, possessed children are scary.

Anyway, I caught her walking to the edge of a hill and pushed her over the edge (this after she had done many bad things). I looked over the hill and found that I had thrown her down into an old cemetary. As she was falling, she let out a demonic scream and grabbed the top of one of the monuments. She lived - and began chasing me again.

It was scary.

-EarlJam

[EarlJam]

Oh EarlJam, you already know which way I voted. . .

;)

:):o:D

Awwwwwwwwwwwww shucks.

Wanna get together for a drink and a bite to eat in our dreams tonight? Just meet me by the 48-foot purple dragon, about one mile from the plane crash. I'll levitate over around 6:00, just after knocking off the possessed little girl who flies the oblong spaceship!

-EarlJam

[2535Miles]

Most of my dreams are like John Carpenter films. I wish I didn't remember them.

[MarineTwinsDad]

While I can't say that I've ever had dreams featuring the choices given, I do end up without any clothes on a lot. Being a Christian, Baptist deacon, former missionary sort of fellow, this has proved troubling during the dreams. It reoccurs often enough (several times a year) that I've become more or less aware of it and try to find inventive ways to cover up. During last night's episode, I found a cook's apron that I used, similar to a hospital gown. Sometimes I'm not really embarrassed in the dream, though.

But do you dream in color? That was a question asked during a hypnosis study I was part of during college (not Duke, but a small college in CA, Wesmont).

[EarlJam]

One of the strangest, most disturbing dreams I ever had was when my deceased father came walking down the road near the house where I grew up. He stopped, turned his head, looked at me and had an evil, sinister look on his face.

He pointed his finger at me and said, "Forty-three more days buddy! Forty-three more days!"

I woke up that morning and the first thing I did was count 43 days off the calendar. I stayed inside that entire day. Nothing to my knowledge happened but when a dead relative gives you a specific time table like that in a dream, it can kind of affect you.

-EarlJam

[Bluedawg]

I suppose everyone dreams, but I never remember having done it when I wake up. I close my eyes, and next thing I know I'm opening them in the morning.

it depends on when during the night you dream as to whether you remember them.

[hc5duke]

Ooh, how about foreign language dreams? I've had dreams where I spoke fluent Spanish (I took 3 years in high school, but nowhere near fluent), and when I woke up, I had no idea what I said. Or, I would speak to my parents in English (I don't), or my wife in Korean (I don't).

[Jfrosh]

Last night I woke up to my wife screaming "Get the hell out of my house" in her sleep. Fortunately she just had a dream about a burgler, I thought she was mad at me for snoring.

[OldPhiKap]

I usually dream about being asleep. It becomes one of those self-referencing Godel-Escher-Bach things.

[DevilAlumna]

Lately, as I've been falling asleep, I have a dream where I miss a step, or slip off a curb, or some other stumbling motion, and my foot shoots out, both actually and in my dream. The physical action usually wakes me up again. :(

[TillyGalore]

Lately, as I've been falling asleep, I have a dream where I miss a step, or slip off a curb, or some other stumbling motion, and my foot shoots out, both actually and in my dream. The physical action usually wakes me up again. :(

I have this one occasionally.

My two main recurring dreams are of me going back to Massachusetts for a weekend and being stuck there, particularly at my old job. And someone coming after me but I can't scream, or I open my mouth to scream and nothing comes out.

[billybreen]

I usually dream about being asleep. It becomes one of those self-referencing Godel-Escher-Bach things.

But can Achilles outrun a hare?

[Cavlaw]

Lately, as I've been falling asleep, I have a dream where I miss a step, or slip off a curb, or some other stumbling motion, and my foot shoots out, both actually and in my dream. The physical action usually wakes me up again. :(
It's called a hypnic jerk. No one is quite sure why we do it, but conventional thinking is that, as muscles relax towards sleep, the brain can misinterpret this to mean we're falling down. So it sends and emergency signal to the leg muscles in an effort to keep the body upright

[dkbaseball]

You forgot the 'late to an exam, about to fail this class' nightmare.

I believe this is considered to be the most common recurring dream. I had it regularly for many years following a most academically undistinguished undergraduate career at Duke in which I made about 25 percent of my classes. Collecting multiple graduate degrees seems to have chased it away during the past decade or so.

Two dreams recur regularly now. I'm always running into a former protege who is now a grade-A Washington fathead (you know who he is if you've ever watched Fox News), and wondering if this self-important arse is going to big-time me. I, who gave him the smelly little right-wing schtick with which he has ingratiated himself to the Beltway gang -- big-timed by this punk.

More pleasingly, I seem to be physically irresistable to women in my dreams. If most any woman and I are in near physical proximity, we simply come together. No need for conversational overtures and such. There is some real history to back up this fantasy, but it is receding into the distant past. For those who believe in shared dreams, 'a la Field of Dreams -- back in the '90s a judge in Prince William County, Virginia told me that he had had a dream the previous evening in which I was making out with some woman in the front row of his court room. I didn't recall a court room setting, but I was definitely getting some of the usual subconscious action that night. Now if only dreams were the stuff of life.

[DevilAlumna]

It's called a hypnic jerk. No one is quite sure why we do it, but conventional thinking is that, as muscles relax towards sleep, the brain can misinterpret this to mean we're falling down. So it sends and emergency signal to the leg muscles in an effort to keep the body upright

Huh, who knew? Thanks, that's an interesting tidbit of info. The human mind continues to amaze.


Another recurring dream I had about 7 years ago involved my teeth falling out. The dreams started out as maybe one tooth missing. Then it turned to losing multiple teeth, while talking to someone. Eventually, the dreams became very real and gross and disturbing, as I felt like I had mouthfuls and mouthfuls of bloody teeth, that I would have to spit into my hand. It was awful. I could never get back to sleep.

I read later, that dreams of teeth falling out are a symptom/sign that you are trying to make a big decision, which was true at that time. The dreams (and resultant sleeplessness) didn't help with that process....


And dkb's dreams sound nice -- I wonder what life scenario one needs to have in the daytime to trigger those things at night... :D

[CathyCA]

Awwwwwwwwwwwww shucks.

Wanna get together for a drink and a bite to eat in our dreams tonight? Just meet me by the 48-foot purple dragon, about one mile from the plane crash. I'll levitate over around 6:00, just after knocking off the possessed little girl who flies the oblong spaceship!

-EarlJam

Okay, but first I need to take the Econ. exam I didn't study for in the class I never attended but desperately need to graduate. I forgot to go to drop/add and switch it, and if I don't pass the exam, I need to go to school for one more semester. Then, when I figure out where my house has been moved, I've got to stop by my room and put on more clothes over my slip. That is, if I don't fall off the cliff I didn't see on the way to the purple dragon. . .

[EarlJam]

Okay, but first I need to take the Econ. exam I didn't study for in the class I never attended but desperately need to graduate. I forgot to go to drop/add and switch it, and if I don't pass the exam, I need to go to school for one more semester. Then, when I figure out where my house has been moved, I've got to stop by my room and put on more clothes over my slip. That is, if I don't fall off the cliff I didn't see on the way to the purple dragon. . .

Oooooooooooh, the slip! Sexy! Show that to the 15 year old you will be dating and he will most certainly protect you from falling off the cliff!

-EJ

[Johnboy]

Of the choices, I think I have the "floating/flying" dream the most often. I used to have the exam dream (I lived the exam dream once, kinda), and being chased dreams were once common for me. I rarely ever remember my dreams.

When I was four years old, I went sleepwalking in my grandparents' house and fell down the basement stairs. I still remember that nightmare vividly - I dreamed that I was kicked by a horse and fell down a hill.

I love the floating/flying dreams.

[summerwind03]

I seem to dream that I'm repeatedly throwing up odd things -- like little bubbles or balloons, etc. I worry that I'm going to die from choking or someting.

My husband keeps dreaming that he's back in his old house, even though he sold it 4 years ago. I always wonder if he's subconsciously regretting getting married and buying a house together!?!

[blublood]

Another recurring dream I had about 7 years ago involved my teeth falling out. The dreams started out as maybe one tooth missing. Then it turned to losing multiple teeth, while talking to someone. Eventually, the dreams became very real and gross and disturbing, as I felt like I had mouthfuls and mouthfuls of bloody teeth, that I would have to spit into my hand.

Oh, I hate that! I have dreams about missing teeth all the time too, or else molars falling out. Although I have a legitimate excuse - I'm worried about my wisdom teeth because if I have a cavity in any of the molars, there's a decent chance that my facial nerves would be damaged if the wisdom teeth had to come out.

Also, I have dreams all the time about forgetting to put on clothes. It's not salacious or perverted or anything at all, I just forget to do it in my dreams, like forgetting your lunch money. Then in my dreams I'm having to think of clever ways to cover myself up, but it apparently never occurs to me to just go back home and get some clothes.

[godukerocks]

Can anyone here achieve lucidity?

[dukestheheat]

'Other':

I have failed the first exam of the year and for some reason, have forgotten to go back to that class for the REST of the year.

The final exam is tomorrow morning and I have no idea what's been covered in the class since the beginning of the year.

I wake up petrified almost every time I have this dream.

Seriously, I have had this dream about 50 times for a long time running now.

dth.