In which we discuss and perhaps analyze dreams...

Everything else
21

Great questions. I vary a lot between not remembering dreams at all, like YakAttack, or having ones I do remember, or ones I remember well. Some things affect them: games I play, movies I watch, alcohol or cough other substances, even what I ate or drank.

It’s very possible that dream came about after I drank water like my life depended on it. It’s hot this time of year and I yo-yo on getting enough water each day. That leads to some days where I drink twice what I probably need because I feel dehydrated.

Taking something like valerian before bed also tends to lead to crazy dreams.

For that dream specifically I felt like I pushed the boundaries of the dream after the premise. Maybe my mind wasn’t interested in the, “pee causes orgasm,” that my body was throwing in there to try to wake me up to go pee, so my mind was all like, “how would that even work in the real world??!?” It was very strange.

22

Years ago when I was first playing Baldurs Gate I used to dream about people with colored circles under them. True story.

I don’t think I would want my “normal” dreams analyzed.

23

In High School I had some interesting dreams, and wrote some of them down. I was eating a lot of acid then though.

My last memorable dream (about a decade ago) was about a new Star Trek series starring Picard, Tuvok, Worf and Sisko. I shared it here previously but no one liked it and I got flamed for it even though it was objectively awesome!

:(

24

That does not surprise me at all. Game dreams are a real thing.

25

I woke up from a dream this past spring. I still remember that it was the Saturday morning before Easter. I can’t remember any other dates of dreams I’ve had, so believe me, this one was harrowing.

In my dream, I was at my parents’ house. In both real life and the dream, their basement looks out onto the Mississippi River. The Mississippi is tame there, upriver from the Twin Cities; sometimes it moves quickly but, compared to its Big Muddy reputation downstream, it’s not too deep or wide. In the dream, I was in the basement, looking out the window to the river. I was chatting with some of my parents’ friends that were down there with me. I noticed that water was lapping at the patio door. The river had actually flooded its banks so far it has come all the way to the house and was splashing against it. (In real life, my folks have never experienced flooding like that.) “That’s weird,” I remarked to the others. “That reminds me of a video I saw of a canal following an earthquake. The water kept bouncing back and forth, rocking all the boats.”

(Dream-Me was thinking of this video from the recent-ish Mexico City earthquake: https://youtu.be/vfTaHOoC2rs)

We got closer to the windows. “Could there have been a quake near here?” someone asked. Then I saw and heard a great wave of water rumbling from the south. It stretched across the horizon, must have been a hundred feet high. It was coming towards us. I was trying to think what could have caused that – asteroid impact? – and where the water could have come from when it hit the house.

I had the sensation of being swept up and away by the watery impact, and the house disintegrated around me, and I was under far too much water to get up to air, and I knew that I was done for. I tried to remember my name, and my wife’s name, and my newborn son’s name, and that I loved them, as some sort of prayer-adjacent prayer and… I awoke, gasping for air.

Fortunately, I had not wet the bed. Still, that was a memorable dream, and the next time I went to my parents’ house, and stood in that same spot in their basement and watched the river behave itself, I fought a serious case of the willies.

26

I frequently have lucid dreams, and even when I can’t exercise much control in my dreams, i can always make myself wake up. That’s helpful, because like @RichVR , my dreams were frequently horrific. The one i remember most was when i was in college and a creature was killing students at school and noticed me and started to approach. I made myself wake up and i sat bolt upright in a sweat. I got up, went downstairs, got some milk and a snack. Watched tv for about 20 minutes, then went back to sleep cause I had to be up in 3 hours for work(weekend job). I dreamt again. The dream was simple, i was walking with my best friend in his apartment complex and we had just left his apartment and we were going somewhere. I was in the lead and we were chatting and then I heard this guttural chuckle from behind me, a rending sound interrupted my friend’s words and from behind it said ‘you think you can get away from me that easily?’ I’ve never been so afraid in a dream before and made myself wake up immediately.

Many, many, years later my doctor thought it’d be a good idea if i went to a sleep clinic. I thought it sounded like a good idea, and they wired me up for a night and i slept. When the analysis came back, the specialist was concerned with how shallow my chest compression was when i slept and said my o2 readings were dangerously low. He recommended i use a CPAP and since then, i rarely have nightmares. I try to tell this story a lot now if it comes up as I was literally living with regular nightmares and not doing anything about it (how could i talk about it, it’s disturbing - so i must be disturbed, right?) for about 30 years of my life. Really, everyone doesnt have nightmares 3 to 5 times a week, every week, for 30 years? The shit you can live through and think normal…

27

I’m playing grandmaster Beth Harmon in a foresty park beneath a gentle slope. I’m on time for the appointment, but something is incredibly strange about the board: it’s hand drawn, in pencil, like one of those DIY board games I used to create as a child. It’s using a notation I’ve never seen before! Her queen is on my home rank. She says mate in two, but I have no idea what piece I can even block with. This is worse than playing blindfolded. All that work I’ve done, all the preparation, for nothing. I run out of time, it’s over. I’m a failure, a fraud! She thinks I’m joke. I leave. We will never see each other again.