Dreams

[Chardok]

Dreams are weird - let's rap about em. I'll start us off with the last two nights of my dreams.

Tuesday night: I've recently inherited my 15 year old daughter, and, I don't know if y'all know this - but teenagers hate LITERALLY EVERYTHING. This must've inspired the dream. Anyway, here goes:

I decided to show Ariel (My Daughter) how awesome high school really is. By ENROLLING IN HIGH SCHOOL MYSELF. Yeah, that's right. and I enrolled for Algebra 3 and Pre-cal. Sadly, I don't remember much about the dream save that I was in the cafeteria, surrounded by people 20 years my junior and I said "Should I tell them that none of them will ever use this crap after high school? I think I will" so, I said it. then I realized that there was no way I could attend high school because I am a functioning adult and I have to WORK. so I woke up.

Wednesday night: Man - WHAT. EVER. So for some reason I'm a camera at an awards show of some kind. Maybe the MTV VMAs? anyway - there's a performance going on - it's none other than ARETHA FRANKLIN on the right side of the stage, and KANYE WEST on the right. and they're singing - get this - Endless Love. That's not the weirdest part - the weirdest part is that Kanye is KILLING IT - straight up singing better then Lionel richie OR Luther Vandross! Anyway - the dream was the entire performance of the song and at some point, the crowd all lifted up these HUGE golden streamers (like...gold colored mylar) and they were reflecting the stage and audience lights all over the place - specifically into Kanye's face - so at the end of the performance, Kanye's voice cracks, and he appears to be *crying*. there's all this speculation about whether he truly was crying or if the light from the streamers was in his eyes. Then I woke up.

F*ing WHACK

[Raw Shark]

Sometimes, when I really have to piss, I have dreams where I really have to piss but can't find a place to do it. I'll go in a public restroom and every stall is taken, or broken, or inverted in a Daliesque landscape, or I'll pull up to a bush or tree or something and unzip and then a cop walks by and stops to stare at me suspiciously. This also manifests itself as trying to find a place to fuck sometimes. I'll be running around with some hot girl looking for a secluded spot in the dream but when I wake up it turns out I just have an extremely full bladder.

[Lagmonster]

It must be nice to have dreams that vaguely mirror reality. I've suffered from chronic nightmares for decades, so at this point I can't watch sad or horrific movies after 6pm, and a normal dream is either a Clive Barker sketchbook or something like "Michael Bay directs a Japanese horror movie inspired by Salvador Dali".

[Borgholio]

Wednesday night: Man - WHAT. EVER. So for some reason I'm a camera at an awards show of some kind. Maybe the MTV VMAs? anyway - there's a performance going on - it's none other than ARETHA FRANKLIN on the right side of the stage, and KANYE WEST on the right. and they're singing - get this - Endless Love. That's not the weirdest part - the weirdest part is that Kanye is KILLING IT - straight up singing better then Lionel richie OR Luther Vandross! Anyway - the dream was the entire performance of the song and at some point, the crowd all lifted up these HUGE golden streamers (like...gold colored mylar) and they were reflecting the stage and audience lights all over the place - specifically into Kanye's face - so at the end of the performance, Kanye's voice cracks, and he appears to be *crying*. there's all this speculation about whether he truly was crying or if the light from the streamers was in his eyes. Then I woke up.

Yeah, that can't possibly have any hidden meaning or relation to something going on in your waking life.

[InsaneTD]

My weirdest dream to date, I was an imperial guardsmen, riding with with my platoon, each squad in rhinos. We were escorting this VIP to some place in a jungle. And along the way this creature kept managing to massacre full squads. At
When we were down to just two vehicles left, we find a Gollum near or camp for the night. He says he knows of the creature attacking us and can help us. Some how, during the night, the full squad riding I'm the second vehicle is wiped out. So we move out and I'm trying to get Gollum to tell us about this monster and finally he says, I'll show you the monster, and attacks those of us left as we drive down the road. I woke up at that point.

[Lagmonster]

My most common reoccurring nightmare feature darkness, strong winds, and a vacant, silent world. But there are assorted monsters my mind likes to conjure up that won't leave me alone. One of them almost made me consider sedation; a little gremlin-like thing that lives in people's throats. It stitches their feet together so they can only bob and weave in place. Their arms are limp, their jaws are dislocated and their eyes are dead. Whenever I look at one, it says from deep in their throats: "Rumbly tummy. Ruuuuumbly tummy" over and over in a begging, plaintive voice until I look away, at which point I can hear them start shuffling towards me.

[Raw Shark]

I dream that my teeth are falling out a lot, so fast that I might choke on them, or producing shrapnel when I chew something. I am told by years of Psych that this is common.

[Chardok]

Yeah, that can't possibly have any hidden meaning or relation to something going on in your waking life.

Not...following...

[Chardok]

My most common reoccurring nightmare feature darkness, strong winds, and a vacant, silent world. But there are assorted monsters my mind likes to conjure up that won't leave me alone. One of them almost made me consider sedation; a little gremlin-like thing that lives in people's throats. It stitches their feet together so they can only bob and weave in place. Their arms are limp, their jaws are dislocated and their eyes are dead. Whenever I look at one, it says from deep in their throats: "Rumbly tummy. Ruuuuumbly tummy" over and over in a begging, plaintive voice until I look away, at which point I can hear them start shuffling towards me.

Jesus....

[InsaneTD]

I dream that my teeth are falling out a lot, so fast that I might choke on them, or producing shrapnel when I chew something. I am told by years of Psych that this is common.

I've had that one.

My most common reoccurring nightmare feature darkness, strong winds, and a vacant, silent world. But there are assorted monsters my mind likes to conjure up that won't leave me alone. One of them almost made me consider sedation; a little gremlin-like thing that lives in people's throats. It stitches their feet together so they can only bob and weave in place. Their arms are limp, their jaws are dislocated and their eyes are dead. Whenever I look at one, it says from deep in their throats: "Rumbly tummy. Ruuuuumbly tummy" over and over in a begging, plaintive voice until I look away, at which point I can hear them start shuffling towards me.

Jesus....

I am currently in bed and wondering if I really need to sleep tonight... that's just screwed up.

[Borgholio]

Not...following...

Sarcasm. Even though I have no way of testing this, I've always felt that the stranger the dream is, the more it means. If you have a really wacky dream or a really horrible nightmare, then that means something unusually different / important / scary is happening in your life at that moment.

[Lagmonster]

Honestly, it's more tedium than horror at this point. Imagine being trapped in one of those on-rails haunted house rides at a theme park. Things look scary, but you have the comfort of knowing you're in no real danger, so you just sit it out until it's finished. I never have nightmares about things that would genuinely make a person uncomfortable in real life - loved ones dying, being humiliated, bodily harm, etc..

So you get used to the idea that you're inhabiting a fiction, but your mind really wants you to know you're uncomfortable, so it puts on its most exaggerated, fantastic, over-the-top puppet show.

[Channel72]

Sometimes, when I really have to piss, I have dreams where I really have to piss but can't find a place to do it. I'll go in a public restroom and every stall is taken, or broken, or inverted in a Daliesque landscape, or I'll pull up to a bush or tree or something and unzip and then a cop walks by and stops to stare at me suspiciously. This also manifests itself as trying to find a place to fuck sometimes. I'll be running around with some hot girl looking for a secluded spot in the dream but when I wake up it turns out I just have an extremely full bladder.

Holy shit, I thought I was the only one!

I've even had dreams where I found an empty urinal, but for some reason could't piss... (thank God/human neurophysiology, otherwise that would be pretty embarrassing...)

Ah the Internet... the only place where your idiosyncratic secrets can be validated

[Lagmonster]

I dream that my teeth are falling out a lot, so fast that I might choke on them, or producing shrapnel when I chew something. I am told by years of Psych that this is common.

Another common one for adults is, apparently, the dream that you are driving from the back seat, or don't fit into your car properly, or that the car is oddly shaped or missing key parts. I have no idea though; I don't know any psychology or psychologists.

The toilet dreams are also likely to pop up everywhere. Some people dream that the toilets are dirty, or overflowing, or too high, or in an open or public place. Anything to resolve the conflict between "I have to piss, but I can't actually feel relief without pissing myself in real life, so the dream will frustrate my attempts".

[TheFeniX]

I have fairly weird dreams. One was something about playing paintball in an abandoned building in Galveston right off the beach (that seemed to be more of a concrete parking garage setup than anything) with "shadow people" who could crawl up walls like spiderman. I could do the same, so it was fair, but the bastards could see me when I was hiding in dark spots. I could make them out because the shadows were "darker" than the darkness.

The worst is when I figure out I'm dreaming. People talk about lucid dreaming "You can do anything" except my only experience with it has been horrifying. One of the worst was after getting done with a jobsite way back when I worked IT. I stopped by the apartment to grab a tool I forgot and figured I'd take my lunch-break by just sleeping for 30 minutes. Then I was driving my truck down ALT90 on my way to a jobsite. When I thought about it, it didn't make sense: I was just laying down in my bed. How did I end up 20 miles away instantly?

Then it hit me: I was dreaming. So, I said out loud "I'm dreaming" which was then echoed louder and louder and over and over until it was so loud I thought my eardrums were going to explode. Then the windshield shattered into pieces as the truck accelerated to impossible speeds. The "I'm dreaming" is replaced by a roaring of wind (that is also painful to hear). I'm gritting my teeth and desperately gripping the steering wheel for dear life. While this is going on, I manage to look over at the side-view mirror that is somehow able to show my reflection.

The reflection is basically a mouth-full of giant dagger-shaped teeth taking up the majority of my head. There are no eyes, just the skin pulled down to the top of the gums.

And then I woke up in a pile of sweat and said, pretty loudly, "What the fuck was that all about?"

[Borgholio]

I've had the dreaming where I can take control and do lots of neat stuff. For instance in one dream I was back in high school hitting on this chick and she shot me down because I was acting like an idiot. So I thought to myself, "Hey, I'm dreaming. I don't have to accept this. Let's rewind."

So I "rewound" the dream (even had the squiggly lines like when you rewind or fast forward an old video tape) and tried again. I've also had bad dreams where I do something stupid (like cheat on my wife). I know it's a dream so I say, "Ok this can't be real, I would never do that. Must be a dream. Well, I don't like it. Time to wake up." Then boom...wide awake.

[Zixinus]

I dreamed that I was back in school and that it was so awful that I tried to sleep. While I was already asleep.

Then I dreamed-dreamed that I was some guy finding some picturesque, isolated place and then pressed a button and got transported into a wonder-spaceship. Like it was the beginning of some super-awesome game. I even imagined music matching the wondrous occasion.

That's all I can remember.

[Lagmonster]

The worst is when I figure out I'm dreaming. People talk about lucid dreaming "You can do anything" except my only experience with it has been horrifying....The reflection is basically a mouth-full of giant dagger-shaped teeth taking up the majority of my head. There are no eyes, just the skin pulled down to the top of the gums.

Congratulations, you may be en-route to suffering a nightmare disorder!

[darth_timon]

The other night I dreamed that, at the urging of a ghost, I went into a random house, brutally butchered the woman inside, then turned on all her gas appliances and blew up her house.

No idea what brought that on!

I also dreamed I was on holiday in Ukraine (I think), when all of a sudden lots of tiny bugs started eating everyone and we had to seal ourselves into the house. That one was pretty scary, as the bugs were persistent little fuckers.

I've had a couple of dreams about being hunted by Terminators (including one where I was at my cousin's wedding, everything was proceeding nice and normal, when suddenly a Terminator came out of nowhere to cause chaos), dreams about the Borg chasing me, fighting Daleks, nuclear Armageddon, a huge Russian invasion force heading for the east coast of the USA (I don't even live in the US; I think COD inspired that one).

My head is a weird place.

[Borgholio]

My head is a weird place.

No, you're just a nerd.

[darth_timon]

My head is a weird place.

No, you're just a nerd.

True which is probably better than being weird... or am I weird nerd?

[Darth Holbytlan]

Sometimes, when I really have to piss, I have dreams where I really have to piss but can't find a place to do it. I'll go in a public restroom and every stall is taken, or broken, or inverted in a Daliesque landscape, or I'll pull up to a bush or tree or something and unzip and then a cop walks by and stops to stare at me suspiciously. This also manifests itself as trying to find a place to fuck sometimes. I'll be running around with some hot girl looking for a secluded spot in the dream but when I wake up it turns out I just have an extremely full bladder.

Holy shit, I thought I was the only one!

Does anyone not have pee frustration dreams?

For me, although I can't ever find a normal toilet, I do find and pee into some completely inappropriate place. It's usually something drain-like and public. It's really unsatisfying to urinate for a long time without my bladder emptying—although I'm plenty glad that my bladder always stays full once I wake up.

Every so often I have a dream where I am back in school but keep forgetting to go to class or how to find class, so I'm always anxious about failing. You'd think they would go away after decades of not having to attend school, but apparently not.

[darth_timon]

Does anyone not have pee frustration dreams?

For me, although I can't ever find a normal toilet, I do find and pee into some completely inappropriate place. It's usually something drain-like and public. It's really unsatisfying to urinate for a long time without my bladder emptying—although I'm plenty glad that my bladder always stays full once I wake up.

Every so often I have a dream where I am back in school but keep forgetting to go to class or how to find class, so I'm always anxious about failing. You'd think they would go away after decades of not having to attend school, but apparently not.

Sometimes I wake up and think to myself 'crap, I need to get ready for school!' Then I remember I'm in my 30s and don't go to school anymore.

[Ziggy Stardust]

My pee frustration dreams are a little different from all of yours.

Usually, when my bladder is full and I'm asleep, in the dream I am constantly going to the bathroom. Usually it's a normal bathroom with a normal toilet. I sit down and pee and feel better, but as soon as I step out of the bathroom I suddenly have to pee REALLY bad again. That's how it manifest for me, anyway. Sometimes I end up peeing somewhere inappropriate (in the dream, I have yet for this to actually manifest in reality), but mostly my dream is just repeated visitations to a toilet.

Where it gets really weird is when I have one of my recurring dreams. I have recurring dreams a LOT. But it's not like every night I have the same dream, rather there's like a "library" of 10-15 dreams that I tend to have repeatedly. Sometimes I won't have one for months, or years, and it comes back. Not to say I don't have 'original' dreams too, but the recurring dreams always leave a stronger impression on my mind. But what is really interesting to me is that sometimes my pee frustration happens in the middle of a recurring dream ... here, let me give an example.

There is a recurring dream I have that involves a zombie outbreak in my hometown. Me and some other survivors (usually college or high school friends) take refuge in my old high school and go around boarding up entrances and whatnot. Obviously, zombies always manage to get in, usually while I am going through the gym or the locker rooms. The exact course of the dream isn't always the same, but I am almost always in the high school running through various locations, while I hear screaming echoing down the hallways. The dream usually ends with me and a couple of other people trying to escape out the loading dock, when one of our zombified friends (always the same one, strangely) comes around the corner and bites me on the arm. Anyway, I've had this dream a number of times, but there has been a couple of occasions where I REALLY have to pee during this. So in the dream I go find a toilet and sit down on it, and am basically peeing non-stop (it never ends), while I watch through the open bathroom door the rest of the dream unfolding as it normally does, just with me as a spectator. Very odd feeling.

Another recurring dream I have is actually quite beautiful. It always begins with me waking up in the bedroom I grew up in. In the dream it is morning, but the light coming through the windows is that really distinct orangish light that comes with late afternoons, right before the sun sets. I am waking up in my bedroom and stretching, when I hear my dad call me downstairs for pancakes. I rush downstairs and the house is empty (but it doesn't feel ominous or lonely or anything like that). I hear someone calling my voice from outside so I open the front door. Instead of the suburban neighborhood the house actually resides in, the house is sitting in the middle of this broad grassy field. A dirt road going by the house heads towards a distant forest. Traveling along the road are like carnival rides and that kind of thing when they are all folded up on the back of trucks. A couple of my childhood friends are there calling me excitedly and gesturing towards the forest. We run down the path past all these rides and such towards the forest. As we approach the forest I can see there is a huge crowd of people, and dimly see the light of lanterns poking out from between the trunks, but they look like they are really deep into the woods. I always wake up just as I reach the edge of the forest.


EDIT: I have also on three occasions in my life sleep-walked. Once I stuffed pillows in all of the windows of my room because I had been having a dream about incredibly non-politically-correct Indians/Native Americans attacking the house. Another time I threw sheets and pillows around a room trying to fight off snakes. And (more recently, in fact only about a week ago) I (while dreaming) got up and went to my computer, turned on Google, and searched "how to meltdown a nuclear reactor"; I only remember that in the dream it felt super urgent, and for some reason the nuclear reactor that I was trying to meltdown was just a trash can full of boiling water. In all of these cases it was only the next morning that I realized what I did.

[Melchior]

The worst is when I figure out I'm dreaming. People talk about lucid dreaming "You can do anything" except my only experience with it has been horrifying.

When I was younger I almost always knew that I was dreaming; it was extremely boring, because I felt compelled to explain to everyone featuring in the dream that they didn't exist or weren't actually the real person they resembled.

The "difficult to handle or broken car" motif is probably related to worry about what is outside one's control.

EDIT: I often experience sleep paralysis.