MetaChat - What are you dreaming?

I had a dream that involved meeting The Talking Heads last night. They were on a couch. That's all I remember about it.

posted by Capn 14 March | 15:11

Last night I dreamed that I was hanging around with trishalynn, mygothlaundry and a few other MeCha's in a suburban subdivision. Then I went to my parents house where I lay down on the old sofa in tha family room. Then from the house across the street, a line of like 50 young girls (like 8 years old) wearing dressage outfits rode past my window slowly on Shetland ponies staring in at me with zombie eyes.

posted by jonmc 14 March | 15:13

I rarely remember dreams. Is this unusual? Maybe once in six months, if I dream just before I wake, I might remember snippets of a dream, but usually fleetingly, then as soon as I reach 'awakeness', it's gone.

posted by essexjan 14 March | 15:19

If you care, you can read about some of the dreams I've had here. [self-link]

posted by sciurus 14 March | 15:21

I xsxmxoxkxex too much xpxoxtx to remember my dreams. Or at least I think that's why I almost never do.

posted by Hugh Janus 14 March | 15:21

I constantly dream that I'm lost in a city, or I live in the city but I'm a stranger and I don't really have a place to live. Sometimes there is a secret place in a building (or even a church!), or a furnished attic room in someone's home that the homeowner doesn't know about, and that's where I stay. Sometimes I'm in the equivalent of a giant dormitory and I don't know which room is mine, or I've been absent from my room and someone else has moved in and I have to move my things out (often in a rush.)

In any case, there is the feeling of being lost, of not belonging, of being on a journey, and maybe of there being someplace I belong that I can or cannot find.

What does it mean?

It might have something to do with my college years, renting houses or rooms in odd towns here and there.

posted by shane 14 March | 15:22

I have the same issue as EJ. Although, sometimes I remember them for a moment as I wake up, and then they're gone. It's a bummer man.

posted by richat 14 March | 15:22

Yes that is why hugh, when I stopped doing that, I started remembering my dreams.

Fucking weird. Then I stopped remembering them again for no reason.

posted by Divine_Wino 14 March | 15:23

Eideteker, I didn't know this. I have a pretty active and vivid dream life. Drop me a line if you want some on a regular basis, but I really, reeeeealllllly need to finish cleaning up the house before my roommates kill me.

posted by Frisbee Girl 14 March | 15:25

I had a dream I was in some army training camp, trying to get my laundry done.

posted by By the Grace of God 14 March | 15:26

I have the same issues as EJ and richat. The longer I'm awake the less I remember....I wich I could remember them though. Except lab dreams. Those just make me feel dirty.

posted by LunaticFringe 14 March | 15:26

you ever have a real good dream, like you're copulating with miss america on a bed of money while covered in ice cream-

and then you wake up. and try to fall right back asleep to get back into the dream?

That never works.

posted by jonmc 14 March | 15:32

I dreamed I could fly. Not like Superman, but slowly. Still it was flying. For some reason I had to save my friends from jobs in some Chinese-owned company that was building a factory next to the airport. It was actually a front for something sinister and they were forced into helping construct it. I had just gathered them all together when I woke up. My ability to fly was the only thing that enabled me to elude capture.

It was more like a Bond film than anything else. None of my

posted by tommasz 14 March | 15:35

Gawdamighty, I know I've had some really weird ones lately, but I can almost never remember anything specific from dreamland.

posted by Wolfdog 14 March | 15:37

I've been having nightmares about car accidents again.
They pretty much stopped when I sold my car, but a weekend in cabs driven by crazy people seems to have triggered them again.
:/

posted by kellydamnit 14 March | 15:37

Um, none of my friends look anything like the ones in the dream.

posted by tommasz 14 March | 15:37

I dreamed I was having sex with George Clooney and Parminder Nagra (the Indian woman from E.R. and Bend it like Beckham).

posted by matildaben 14 March | 15:41

I had a very vivid dream last night, but I don't come off good in it so I'm not telling.

I dream about houses all the time. I read somewhere that houses = the womb or something, dream-wise, but I really think houses = houses for me. I've never lived anywhere where I really felt comfortable, and I think that's why I dream about cool places to live.

posted by amro 14 March | 15:42

matilda, can I watch your dream? mine was a little two weird, especially, since me (and all the mecha's mentioned were kids in Dreamworld).

posted by jonmc 14 March | 15:46

I've been having more and more "wake up within the dream" dreams lately, which I don't remember having in the past. It's starting to get annoying, actually.

posted by occhiblu 14 March | 15:46

Funny thing is, I used to dream, and although it's not like I'm glad I don't dream, I can't say I really miss 'em.

And xsxmxoxkxixnxgx the xcxhxrxoxnxixcx, so far, definitely beats dreaming.

posted by Hugh Janus 14 March | 15:48

I have these long involved science fiction type dreams with casts of thousands, plots and special effects - on a good night if I could just film my dreams I could make bazillions. Here is the dream blog I started this winter, pulling from years of my dream book. I haven't updated it much though. I can't remember what I dreamed last night but as usual, it was very involved, took place in several different buildings with many many rooms. My dream landscape seems to specialize in sort of cyberpunk warehouses and noir alleys, with decaying mansions a close second. And then, I constantly dream of ladders that break as I'm climbing them, stairs that fall apart under my feet - that kind of fun thing. I always seem to have a quest of some kind, and it always seems to involve climbing things.

posted by mygothlaundry 14 March | 15:50

Oh, right. MGL reminded me. Very involved bizarre dream the other night in which I was supposed to stay over with some friends at their house, but then the house started falling apart and more and more people were crowding into it and I just wanted to leave but my stuff kept disappearing and I had to wander around trying to find it, and I was getting more and more frustrated and the house was getting dirtier and more crowded. At some point I ran down a flight of stairs that someone had constructed out of books, and when I reached the bottom the books all tumbled down like dominos and all the people in the room were mad at me.

I think there were also horses or horseback riding involved at some point, and my cat was sleeping on the things I had been trying to find.

And I think that I woke up in that dream and described it to ikkyu2, but that was still actually in the dream, which I think I finally realized when it became apparent that I was clutching his leg and he was like 20 feet tall.

posted by occhiblu 14 March | 15:55

I've added more memories to the link I provided above (the "here").

posted by Eideteker 14 March | 15:58

I did once have a dream that I was in a dogfight while sitting on the ground in a WWI biplane. Facing my opponent. We were sitting on the ground, facing each other and firing our machine guns at each other. It hurt to get shot. That was weird.

As a child, I had a recurring dream where my mom, sister and I went to a large beach, with lots of restaurants, and a wide boardwalk. As we walked down toward the water, a whack of landing style boat approached the beach. They were holding many, many anthropomorphized cats, who all carried machine guns. They proceeded to land on the beach, and kill EVERY SINGLE PERSON. Except me. I would always wake up at that point.

Shortly after I started having these dreams, I developed the ability to wake up, instead of having a nightmare. I would become aware of a humming sound before a nightmare started. Sometimes I would stick around as it started, just out of curiosity, and then bail as it got weird. I don't think I have this ability anymore, but I don't think I have had a real nightmare in a long, long time.

Now, I mainly forget the dreams as I said. Sometimes as I wake up I realize that I had a very boring dream, essentially dreaming about waking up, going to work, and coming home. Those dreams make me sad, 'cos I should be dreaming about having sex with Miss America while on a bed of money, covered with ice cream.

posted by richat 14 March | 16:03

A lot of my dreams lately are iterations on the theme "going, then coming back."

These are not hard to interpret, as I've got some things going on in both work and personal life that involve decision-making and multiple points of view and wavering and such. So in the dreams, for instance, I may get fed up with someone and leave, drive away, and then as I'm driving see something (a green towel in a laundry basket, in one case) that makes me want to return, which I do. Other versions of this theme involve being a food deliverer (Chinese or pizza), or having to return to somewhere to get or recover some needed item I've forgotten.

Most of the time I remember dreams only early in the morning, before I start moving around and forget them.

I never had flying dreams until the last couple years. Occasionally I do now. But when I fly, I don't soar like Superman; I pretty much have to 'swim' my way through the air.

posted by Miko 14 March | 16:05

Damn, Matildaben, that's a good dream.

The other night I had a sorta comic book dream. It kinda took place during the House of M storyline (that was the silly crossover where mutants replaced humans in the status quo) I was like some sort of newbie assassin for Magneto, and I was sent with the Juggernaut to kill the Fantastic Four. Juggernaut was my backup and waited outside the FF's apartment while I went in a confronted them directly. I got into a fight with the Human Torch, who for some reason tried firing a gun at me before using his fire powers. But my mutant power were these energy absorbing force fields, so I just fired back all that he tried to dish out and killed him. I didn't kill Sue and Reed though, who were sitting on a couch blankly watching the whole battle, and I have no idea where the Thing was. I guess I had a sudden attack of conscience? Anyway, me and Juggernaut hightailed it outta there and I was in the middle of the "aw crap, I done fucked up" confrontation with Magneto when I woke up.

posted by kosher_jenny 14 March | 16:06

For those who can't remember their dreams (and want to), check out the "remember" section under the "first" menu on the ld4all site. Write down/tape record everything you can remember upon waking. Even before turning on the light (use a flashlight if necessary). Keep your dream recording supplies right next to the bed.

A few strategies I would recommend:
Sleep more. REM sleep is more prevalent later in the night. Also, if you're sleep deprived, slow-wave sleep ('unconscious' sleep) takes precedence and so if you are low on that you won't dream much.
No alcohol. Alcohol supresses REM. This is why detoxing alkies often have hallucinations; they're actually waking dreams as built up REM pressure bleeds into conscious thought.
Wake up. One way to remember your dreams is to wake up late in your sleep period and then go back to sleep. Sometimes if you drink a bunch of water before bed, you'll have to go about 5-6 hrs through the night. Those last 2-3 hours of sleep are choice REM time, and having to go back to sleep right before them reminds you that you are in fact asleep. This also helps with achieving lucidity. Alternatively, you can go to bed with someone who tosses a lot, and steals the covers. This usually improves my dream recall, though reduces the quality of my sleep.

posted by Eideteker 14 March | 16:08

I've been having more and more "wake up within the dream" dreams lately, which I don't remember having in the past. It's starting to get annoying, actually.

Those are called "false awakenings." I had what is possibly the ultimate false awakening dream here.

kj: Feel free to summon me into any of your dreams. Maybe we can team up (I have a lot of superhero dreams).

posted by Eideteker 14 March | 16:11

Thanks for the interesting tips, Eideteker. I definitely don't get enough sleep.

posted by Miko 14 March | 16:21

Ok, replies to as many as I can manage:

sciurus, I'll read your dream archive over time. Thanks for sharing!

shane, dreams of place and movement are common (ubiquitous, some would argue). They stem from subcortical areas like the hippocampus and thalamus (I think; not bothering to look it up in case you don't really care). In fact, most dream reports start of with "I was in..." and other such markers of "place." Being 'lost' is just your cortex's way of interpreting these signals being sent out from "older" or "more primitive" parts of the brain. Because those signals detail a place you've never been (or an unrecognizable amalgamation of places you have been, more likely), your brain just assumes you're lost. The movement 'generated' by the hypothalamus (?) just adds to this (as it's very hard to stay still/in the same place in dreams; even when you are still, you're often in a car or on a train). I usually think of those as "exploration" dreams and revel in getting to explore the vast areas created by my mind. Fun fact: A lot of my dreams take place inside huge malls. Less so since I moved out of NJ. The feeling lost is at an emotional level, and is more a response to the dream than part of the dream architecture. I think if you get excited by these dreams rather than intimidated or worried, you'll feel better about yourself. Not a professional opinion. Offer not valid in Nevada.

posted by Eideteker 14 March | 16:24

Also there's an elevated train 150 ft. from my bedroom, which may affect my sleep/dreams.

posted by Hugh Janus 14 March | 16:29

Jon, it was even better than you might imagine, because the Indian chick was fatter than she is in real life and had lots of very nice curves.

posted by matildaben 14 March | 16:36

Fris: I will try to remember to e-mail you!

tommasz: If you become lucid, you can try different types of flight. Most people don't think about it, but you can fly like a bird, you can levitate, you can do like a jetpack type of flight, or you can even teleport (that one is fun, if done like Nightcrawler).

kelly: I recommend you try to practice some lucidity. I started lucid dreaming as a way to avoid nightmares and I very seldom have them anymore. Y'know, if you're losing sleep because of them.

mgl: It's no surprise to me that your dreamscape sounds so luscious. I can only imagine what you could do if you practiced some dream control (with a light touch, always with a light touch except for persistent nightmares). I may grab the feed for your dream blog, if that's ok with you!

richat: You have a natural lucid dreaming ability! "Waking up" is usually the first lucid skill people learn, and it's a good one because it involves knowing you're asleep AND being able to stimulate your cortex into its waking state. It's one of the mechanisms I'd love to study.

Hugh: It'd be interesting to look at your EEG, both at home and in the lab (to see if any patterns persist). I hope you're not getting deprived!

Thank you to everyone who contributed, and everyone who finds this thread later on and contributes. Anyone who has questions about dreaming, especially lucidity, should feel free to e-mail me.

posted by Eideteker 14 March | 16:40

I had a dream that we were moving out of our apartment and a friend of ours took it upon himself to start disassembling our 55 gallon fish tank. He decided it was a good plan to place our very large tropical fish in shallow tupperware dishes. The fish were jumping out and didn't have enough water. It was horrifying. I was angry at my friend and sad for my fish.

posted by chiababe 14 March | 16:48

I've always had dreams of exploring spaces; they may be other-worldly, gothic, space-age, palatial, underground warrens... whatever. Always strange, interesting structures. Habitats. And these are fun dreams - lots of discovering hidden passages, opening mysterious chests and closets, etc. And I'm always alone, but that's a good thing. (Also, I very rarely have nightmares.)

But what seems quite strange to me is that for years and years I've had serial dreams about several specific places (usually the more typically "normal" sorts of places, ie: they could really exist), and even in my dreams I'm thinking, "ah, yeah... This place again." Some of it is so persistent that I often wonder if isn't something from my life that somehow I've forgotten, but that is somehow rly, rly important to my subconscious... But, no; I'm sure they are just dreamscapes.

posted by taz 14 March | 16:55

I may grab the feed for your dream blog, if that's ok with you!

Ah, n/m mgl. I thought blogger did automatic RSS like Livejournal does. Bah!

posted by Eideteker 14 March | 17:02

Interesting taz, I often have similar dreams: exploring buildings or urban landscapes that are strangely familiar - but not from real life. It always takes me a while to reorient myself to the real world when I wake up from one of those.

posted by nomis 14 March | 17:03

Also, I highly recommend Lariam for excellent vivid dream experiences. Apparently it prevents malaria too!

posted by nomis 14 March | 17:04

I had a dream last night that I was yelling at my mother. (I only ever yell at my mother in dreams.) I said, "I'm 3X years old, goddammit, you can NOT hide my bras from me!"

posted by mudpuppie 14 March | 17:14

Mudpuppie -- Ha!

Taz, for a while when I was younger I would always dream of one museum, with an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in it (which the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago does have, but this wasn't it). It was like a "base" from which I would explore new things in each dream.

Lately it's been a (non-existent) church in Venice. I'll have dreams about being in Venice, think "Oooh, I can try to find that church that's so hard to find!" and then set off. It's always somewhere different from what I remember from the last dream, and it's got a very weird combo of ancient Greek and Disney Arab decor going on.

posted by occhiblu 14 March | 17:19

I'm still working on lucidity in my waking life.

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 14 March | 17:33

and it's got a very weird combo of ancient Greek and Disney Arab decor going on.

It's a Casino! :)

I wish that I had an ice cream parlour in my serial dreams, and if at all possible, I plan to incorporate one. But I do have this one place that I remember better than some places I've actually lived, and the dreams always begins with being in a car driving (being driven, actually) down this very lovely bucolic, twisty country drive (not a road - it's the long private drive off the highway to the house), to this really nicely rambling, gracious single-level country house, with this excellent, spacious front veranda... and blah, blah, blah, etc. But that place is more familiar to me (in all it's ever-changing inside-ness) than many true places where I've actually passed several years. So freaky.

posted by taz 14 March | 17:40

I dreamt that I was downtown...I don't know why but in my dreams, downtown Seattle is always a much flatter and broader place. Criss-crossed with trolley tracks. I was downtown making my way from somewhere and when I got to my neighborhood, this skinny kid was standing outside my house. The sounds of some kind of celebration could be heard and when I asked him what was going on, he grinned at me and said, "Fam'ly, man." In heavy Jamaican accent.
I went into the house and my aunts and mother were along with some old fat Russian guys.
"Come meet your uncle Dimitry!" my mother called.
Dimitry was a character straight out of Central Casting with a slightly gangsterish air about him (and a stained white seersucker suit). He was sweaty and pretty drunk. "Nice to meet you!" He said, crushing my hand. Then he ripped a huge fart and everyone laughed.

posted by black8 14 March | 17:44

I don't remember the dream, but I remember a room (freshly) painted a bright, beautiful green. And everything else in the room was dark brown wood and a few touches of cream. And there was a window made of green glass bottle bottoms, and I am going to recreate that room someday. It was beautiful.

posted by wimpdork 14 March | 17:53

taz, I have the same experience. There are dreamscapes I swear I know better than I know downtown Asheville, and I visit them often. I can see them in my mind right now and it's a kind of disorienting feeling.

posted by mygothlaundry 14 March | 17:59

I have dreamscapes that are familiar but only found in dreams too. Most of them are basements -- huge warehouse-like basements, with lots of scaffolding and stairs on the sides and big open spaces in the middle, lots of people working on machinery. There's one that's been featured in a lot of dreams since childhood and it has two tunnel entrances. I always take the entrance on the right, because I tried the left one once when I was little and there was a monster in it.

I can become lucid once in a while, but usually can't do much to change the dream to my liking. Once I had a dream where I was flying down a crowded hallway, above the people walking in it, and a girl looked up and said snottily, "Hey, why does she get to fly and we don't?" and I shot back, "Because it's my dream, stupid!"

I do have trouble controlling velocity in my dreams though. I find it really hard to land when I'm flying, because when I try to slow down, I speed up instead and can't actually get down to the ground without crashing. Also, I can't hit people, because my arm gets slower and slower, as if I'm trying to punch someone in increasingly thick water. I tried to slap my ex-boyfriend in a dream the other night and ended up biting him because the velocity thing was foiling my attempts. Biting does not require velocity, and thus is perfect for dream revenge.

posted by heatherann 14 March | 18:35

I'm never turning my back on you in a dream, heatherann. I'm glad to meet another Lucid Dreamer, though. As far as control goes, I find that I have better luck imagining the outcome than how I want to do it. Maybe try imagining that your ex "be hit" rather than "I hit him"? Visualize the impact, not the action of arm-swinging, if you get me.

Umm, I hope that helps, and also makes you like me enough that I don't have to worry about being attacked.

posted by Eideteker 14 March | 18:58

I'm another one who gets recurring landscapes, cities, and buildings, often fraught with some kind of significance. Sometimes the landscapes feature standing, shining water. Often the buildings are complex and beautiful.

The plots are often interesting and surprisingly coherent, but they fade very quickly unless as soon as I wake up I immediately resolve to remember them.

I've had lucid dreams occasionally, but not for the last few years.

posted by tangerine 15 March | 13:47

14 March 2006