MetaChat - Dreams: running on all fours.

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20 March 2007

Dreams: running on all fours. Ever since I was a kid, when I'm dreaming and I need to run faster, I lean forward and use my hands to help out. Especially going up stairs. Anyone else?

post by: Hugh Janus at: 12:54 | 23 comments

When I was a kid, I really did use my hands to go up stairs. And sometimes, when feeling particularly sprightly, I still do.

posted by Miko 20 March | 12:58

Yeah, I used to do that up stairs as a kid.

posted by chrismear 20 March | 13:02

Yeah, I did, too. But I've always dreamed this way, where I'll be running and instead of just pumping air or flapping my arms around, I start using them. I wonder if the dreams I still have aren't some psychic holdover from baby days, when I crawled everywhere, until I was about ten, when I stopped using my hands on stairs because my legs got too long.

I had a dream last night that I was racing up the US Capitol steps on all fours. I think this means I'm going to be president one day.

posted by Hugh Janus 20 March | 13:02

That's so strange, I had a dream just last night where I did that, and then I woke up and started thinking that I've done it in real life, but I couldn't remember when. (Of course I did it on stairs as a kid, but I have some vague memory of doing it some other time.) It's very strange that you write this today.

posted by omiewise 20 March | 13:09

I remember doing that as a kid on stairs. However, I do not remember ever dreaming that. Normally in a dream when I am running and feel like I'm not going fast enough I end up flying.

posted by fluffy battle kitten 20 March | 13:14

When I dream that I'm flying, I don't get to glide; I have to kind of pull and 'swim' through the air with my arms.

posted by Miko 20 March | 13:17

I've never been able to actually run in dreams, and when I try, it always ends up with me going really slowly and doing the lean forward using my hands things.

posted by cmonkey 20 March | 13:48

I had a dream the other night in which I did what cmonkey described. I was trying to go uphill, and I was wearing these weird shoes, and I *had* to get there now now now because everything depended on it, and the ground kept slipping out from under my feet and I was grabbing onto whatever I could to pull myself along, but I wasn't moving forward.

At which point I was so frustrated that I woke myself up, and was grumpy for a loooong time after.

posted by occhiblu 20 March | 14:09

All through fifth grade I had a confusingly realistic recurring dream of a normal day at school, except for the fact that I flew at recess; I kept mum about the flying but sometimes I would tell my teachers I had turned in homework the day before because I had dreamed I turned it in. When I flew, I would lie forward; it was like the air would thicken under my chest and I would pump it downwards and inwards with my arms, and I would hover ten feet off the ground and watch my friends play.

posted by Hugh Janus 20 March | 14:18

I've only flown in my dreams a few times. Once, it was like the air was really thick, so I could breast-stroke through it like water. Another time, it was like my bones became really light, and I caught an updraft and sort of glided around like a bird.

posted by muddgirl 20 March | 14:24

Oh my god, I thought I was the only person who had this dream!! Although my tendency to suddenly use my hands to propel myself faster doesn't seem to happen any more often going up stairs than running along a flat surface. I always assumed that it came from reading about the Wheelies in one of the Oz books when I was a kid.

posted by scody 20 March | 14:28

Ugh, I have occhi's dream sometimes, only it's like I'm trying to run but my entire lower body is in water, or something even heavier than water, like syrup. Usually, someone's chasing me or I need to get somewhere, and I just can't move fast enough.

My other recurring dream, which I didn't even realize was recurring until it got so extreme I looked it up, is that I've swallowed something dangerous, which might hurt me from inside, or cause me to choke, or something. I dreamed this dream about a lot of weird things (swallowing a pencil, swallowing a rock) but it wasn't until I dreamed that I swallowed a handgun that I looked it up. Turns out the standard interpretation is that you're suppressing your feelings (which, obviously-in-retrospect-now-that-the-code-is-cracked, does hurt you from inside).

posted by Miko 20 March | 14:44

Miko, my recurring dream is that I fall, or get punched, or bite a rock or something, and all my teeth start to fall out or break. It's such a visceral dream - I often wake up dreading the feeling of my empty mouth. I've been told this means I worry about money.

posted by muddgirl 20 March | 14:49

I don't have the running on all fours dream, but I had so many dreams that I could hover as a child that it feels like an actual memory.

posted by jrossi4r 20 March | 14:51

Huh, muddgirl - I hadn't heard money specifically for the teeth dream, just general anxiety (which of course could be about money!) I had that one once...my teeth just crumbled like chalk.

posted by Miko 20 March | 14:52

Happened once for me. I was dreaming I was a werewolf or something, but, the fact is, even in "pure human" form, I could run faster if instead of running with two feet, I hopped with two feet, then clawed the ground with the two hands, then hopped again with two feet, etc.

I woke up and seriously considered testing it.

posted by qvantamon 20 March | 14:55

My favourite dream EVER is one where I am running through a bunch of rolling green hills and meadows. And running. FAST. And nothing hurts, not my back, not my hips, my lungs can take it, it' effortless.

In fact, when I awoke, I felt sad.

P.S. My 5 1/2 year old daughter can scamper almost as fast on all fours, as she can on 2.

posted by richat 20 March | 15:06

I go up stairs on all fours when I'm tired. Even when I'm awake.

...I'll just be over here in the corner, not looking like a werewolf.

posted by Fuzzbean 20 March | 15:15

All my best dreams have been on all fours. I go to sleep hoping for those.

posted by Wolfdog 20 March | 15:23

Usually, someone's chasing me or I need to get somewhere, and I just can't move fast enough.

Yeah, in the dream, I had fucked up big, and needed to get somewhere to make it right, and if I didn't get there in time, then everything good about my life was going to come crashing down on my head, and it would all be my own fault. And I just couldn't move forward, because the ground kept crumbling like sand dunes.

Sigh. That dream sucked. Would not dream that dream again.

posted by occhiblu 20 March | 15:27

I recently had a dream where my teeth all settled into the places they would be if I had never had orthodontic braces as a teenager. I kept looking in the mirror and pressing my tongue against the backs of my buck teeth. It was quite a novel sensation, and completely irritating. I woke up in a funk.

posted by Hugh Janus 20 March | 15:28

When I was younger I had recurrent bad dreams where I would see something alarming, and know something bad was coming. I would get a heavy, choking feeling in my mouth, like someone pressing on my tongue. Then there would be a sudden...something, I just don't know what, but I'd wake up shaking, sweaty, and scared. I'm glad those dreams stopped.

More recently, I've had recurrent dreams of a tunnel, a deep, brick tunnel with a very high, curved ceiling. It's not scary, it's sort of beautiful, and old. One of the times I "visited" this tunnel, it was full of clothing racks! Racks and racks of clothes! Heaven?

posted by redvixen 20 March | 18:12

Yep, I've dreamed of running on all fours. Running very fast without feeling tired or winded is exhilarating! I love running and flying dreams.

posted by deborah 20 March | 21:06

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