I FEEL ASLEEP: Talking about sleeping and dreaming

[Sheana]

Man, I should probably read that too. I know I've always thought about drawing out some of my dreams.

I'm still not sure what to make of the ones that actually cut away to me and my family watching the dream on TV and commenting on them. That's awfully meta of my brain.

[spineshark]

Hmm, so reading that comic I just realized something. My dreams always seem to be mute. Unless there are people near me talking in real life I never hear voices, and other noises like music or incidental sounds are also rare. I do "feel" thoughts a lot though. It's just that they seem to pop into my dream-brain, rather than being spoken by anyone in it.

[Sheana]

Sounds intruding on your unconscious mind can bring interesting results. The sputtery, old sprinklers in the courtyard outside my apartment that go off between 1am and 5am once resulted in Ghost Rider writing me a traffic ticket (the sprinkler sounds turned into a pen scritching on his ticket pad).

[SamuelMarston]

I used to have experiences of conscious sleep paralysis about twice a month.

Not so much anymore.

[Merus]

Originally Posted by Sheana

Sounds intruding on your unconscious mind can bring interesting results. The sputtery, old sprinklers in the courtyard outside my apartment that go off between 1am and 5am once resulted in Ghost Rider writing me a traffic ticket (the sprinkler sounds turned into a pen scritching on his ticket pad).

I remember having a dream when I first got my alarm clock. I was in one of those mega-malls, you know the ones that are kind of their own town, and it was deserted, and I could hear a siren in the background. I wander around trying to find this siren, and then I thought, "wait. Maybe that's my new alarm clock. I should check." Snapped wide awake, and yeah it was the alarm clock.

Although that's nothing compared to my parents. My dad tells me he had this game with mum where he'd start having conversations with her while she was sleeping, and he'd be someone in her dream. If he said the wrong thing, she'd get confused and wake up.

[Makkara]

Originally Posted by Sheana

Most obscure reference in a dream my brain's ever come up with: those Rhino soldiers from the old Babar The Elephant animated special.

Ruled by King Rataxes. He's the best character in Babar. (The worst is the old human lady who symbolizes French colonialism in Africa.)

Ever since a few months before the first time I went to Japan, I've been having a lot of dreams about traveling. Most of them involve stressing over missing some mode of transportation or losing my luggage. I had one of these last night. When the dream started I was in Tokyo, except it was the water town in a standard JRPG. When the time came to go home, I did so by riding a cruise ship across a Norwegian fjord.

[Alex]

For some reason my body won't let me sleep more than a few hours. This is rather upsetting.

[Dizzy]

I could have slept well last night but I was all panicky and had all this energy I needed to extinguish. So I "calmed" myself down and tried like hell to think of pleasant thoughts! What sucks is that in the morning, you know whether you got a good night's sleep or not.

/sleeplog

[dussssstin]

so check this out!

For the past week or so ive had the most crazy hottest sex dreams ever. NOTE NOT WET DREAMS. Anyways it's been with a different girl I know every night and holy crap they're awesome.

I had to tell someone so I ran to TT. I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate this information.

[reibeatall]

Originally Posted by xScribble Hero

I had to tell someone so I ran to TT. I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate this information.

I told her last night.

[Sanagi]

Originally Posted by Sheana

Man, I should probably read that too. I know I've always thought about drawing out some of my dreams.

I'm still not sure what to make of the ones that actually cut away to me and my family watching the dream on TV and commenting on them. That's awfully meta of my brain.

I frequently have dreams where I'm not present in the scene, more like I'm watching a movie. And I have had a dream roll credits before.

[Sheana]

I once had a dream that played exactly like a movie theater preview. It was about Spock getting drunk on New Year's Eve on some alien planet in as many bars as he could before midnight struck. It had narration, credits, even the green 'Preview' screen at the very beginning.

[Ghost from Spelunker]

Usually when I sleep, no alarm can wake me until I've had at least 8 hours. Maybe a pokeflute would work...

In my dreams, I don't experience anything that I've never experienced before. Like if there's some new video game that I've never played, I'll wake up right before I start it up. My dreams are uncreative.

[Ganietzsche]

Does anyone find their dreams have a consistent sort of geography to them? As in, there's a place that you know is your school/uni/work or whatever but it appears radically different in the dream and recurs in that same form in other dreams?

[Bergasa]

Awesome topic.

My sleep patterns got really messed up last year, to a point where I was going to sleep at 3 in the morning. I would basically listen to epic podcasts in my bed. Things are better this year, but I still couldn't fall asleep before 12 if I wanted to.

As for dreams, I've always found them fascinating as well. I've had some neat ones, but what I want to ask is about dying in your dreams. Whenever I have a dream where I am falling, for example, I will wake up a split second before hitting the ground. In my first year Psych course, there were some oddball theories that came up about how the "dream" world is actually the real world, and the lives we live are actually dreams. This theory has plausibility for a couple of reasons: firstly, you phase into this "dream" world when you are in danger (ie. about to die). Secondly, you may enter it in periods of non-danger for the same reason that we concieve our "sleep" for-- merely to recharge.

Another thing that I heard is that the people you see in your dreams are all people you have seen in real life. Your mind isn't capable of creating a face on its own. Neat stuff, eh?

[SabreCat]

Originally Posted by Bergasa

As for dreams, I've always found them fascinating as well. I've had some neat ones, but what I want to ask is about dying in your dreams.

For whatever reason, my dreams abhor violence. If I pick up a gun, I just point it at people and make bang-bang noises. If I get into a fight, we're in slow motion such that we can't land sufficient hits to injure each other.

...Which makes it all the more shocking when a dream goes nightmarish, and I look down to find myself covered in wounds and blood.

[Paul le Fou]

Originally Posted by Bergasa

I've had some neat ones, but what I want to ask is about dying in your dreams. Whenever I have a dream where I am falling, for example, I will wake up a split second before hitting the ground. In my first year Psych course, there were some oddball theories that came up about how the "dream" world is actually the real world, and the lives we live are actually dreams. This theory has plausibility for a couple of reasons: firstly, you phase into this "dream" world when you are in danger (ie. about to die). Secondly, you may enter it in periods of non-danger for the same reason that we concieve our "sleep" for-- merely to recharge.

I've died in dreams, or at least, kind of. One time, I got shot to death, although I don't remember if I died (what I do remember is lying on the ground, bleeding out, staring into the face of my dead friend next to me) or woke up right before/just as I finally perished.

Another time, as I mentioned above, I was thrown out of a tower, but I never saw myself hit the ground or die (although I didn't appear in that dream and the understanding was that I had indeed been killed).

I think there was one other time when I got shot, but as it was in the feet and legs I don't think it was fatal.


Also, that "dream world" thing is total bollocks. For one, it's far too inconsistent on a day-to-day basis or even within any given dream, compared with a very stable consistency in our waking world, and far too malleable overall to have any grounding in reality beyond neurons firing subconsciously while we sleep.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Ganietzsche

Does anyone find their dreams have a consistent sort of geography to them? As in, there's a place that you know is your school/uni/work or whatever but it appears radically different in the dream and recurs in that same form in other dreams?

I used to have dreams in a building I identified as a certain aunt's house, though it bore only a passing resemblance to it. I know I've had one or two other cases of repeat geography in my dreams (not counting dreams that are repeated wholesale, of course) but that's the only one I can think of right now.

[Sheana]

Originally Posted by Ganietzsche

Does anyone find their dreams have a consistent sort of geography to them? As in, there's a place that you know is your school/uni/work or whatever but it appears radically different in the dream and recurs in that same form in other dreams?

Oh for sure. There's this one place that recurs in a hell of a lot of my dreams. The dimensions and what's in it vary slightly from dream to dream, but it's basically the same place: a sort of city-in-a-building. It's vast and occasionally tall and seems to be a combination mall and hotel with random things like personal suites and museums and stairwells and trains in it.

[Dhroo]

I've definitely had more than a few dreams where I died; I remember one I had when I was a kid where I was killed by an Alien, but I was alive again almost immediately after. That usually happens, come to think of it. If I die in a dream it rarely has any lasting consequences.

Other than that, I have a lot of chase/pursuit dreams, where I'm on the run for some reason. Usually it's because I'm a member of some resistance group against a fascist regime, or because I'm personally important and everyone's after me, sort of a Y: The Last Man kind of thing. These dreams are usually pretty fun and exciting instead of stressful or scary.

Oh yeah, and lots of dreams where I'm back in high school and screwing things up, forgetting assignments, etc.

[Bergasa]

Originally Posted by Paul le Fou

Also, that "dream world" thing is total bollocks. For one, it's far too inconsistent on a day-to-day basis or even within any given dream, compared with a very stable consistency in our waking world, and far too malleable overall to have any grounding in reality beyond neurons firing subconsciously while we sleep.

Not that I am a proponent of the theory, but couldn't it be possible that while the world we see in dreams seems less stable/coherent, that that could just be how real life is? You are imposing our earthly knowledge on this, and as such what seems disjointed to us by our "real world" standards, could simply be the norm, which we have no experience with. Maybe in that "real" world, we are beings who can assume any form, and zip around the galaxy at will?

[Paul le Fou]

Originally Posted by Bergasa

Not that I am a proponent of the theory, but couldn't it be possible that while the world we see in dreams seems less stable/coherent, that that could just be how real life is? You are imposing our earthly knowledge on this, and as such what seems disjointed to us by our "real world" standards, could simply be the norm, which we have no experience with. Maybe in that "real" world, we are beings who can assume any form, and zip around the galaxy at will?

Possible, maybe (although I doubt it), but not nearly probable enough to warrant serious discussion.

Which makes more sense:

We live and are aware in a stable, consistent world where things behave the laws of physics and when we go to sleep, neurons fire off and create surreal, costantly-shifting images and storylines and impossible places cobbled together from all sorts of different random thoughts

or

We live in a magical world where anything can happen, but when we sleep (or apparently are in danger) we flit off to a boring, predictable world where everyone experiences more or less the same things and nothing changes inexplicably or happens that violates every sort of science


Yeah, no.

[Sanagi]

Wikipedia link posted in hopes of ending thread drift

[Paul le Fou]

Originally Posted by Sanagi

Wikipedia link posted in hopes of ending thread drift

Exactly. Thank you.

[Bergasa]

Well, as I said, I am not a proponent of the theory. I was enjoying the discussion though, I can't get anywhere that intelligent with my friends.

[ArugulaZ]

Wow, I had a doozy of a dream earlier today, proving that I have a severe case of Mega Man on the brain. Okay, for some reason, Mega Man was inside a shopping mall that had been converted into a makeshift hideout for Doctor Wily. He eventually encounters a boss; a large machine with a mysterious canister floating inside it.

Thinking that it would give him the upper hand, Mega Man dons golden armor with a flowing tail and ponytail that makes him look like a cross between Snake Man and Mega Man X. In true Mega Man 9 fashion, the armor only looks cool, quickly draining the blue bomber's life energy. He switches back and gets the machine down to its last few bars of energy.

Then Roll appears out of nowhere and stops the battle. She approaches the damaged machine, reaches a hand inside the cylinder of light masking the identity of the canister, and pulls it out. "This isn't Wily's brain in a jar," she shouts. "This is just a can of green beans!"

Mega Man stares dumbfounded for a second, then lets out a bloodcurdling scream of frustration that can be heard for miles.

[Alixsar]

Originally Posted by ArugulaZ

Wow, I had a doozy of a dream earlier today, proving that I have a severe case of Mega Man on the brain. Okay, for some reason, Mega Man was inside a shopping mall that had been converted into a makeshift hideout for Doctor Wily. He eventually encounters a boss; a large machine with a mysterious canister floating inside it.

Thinking that it would give him the upper hand, Mega Man dons golden armor with a flowing tail and ponytail that makes him look like a cross between Snake Man and Mega Man X. In true Mega Man 9 fashion, the armor only looks cool, quickly draining the blue bomber's life energy. He switches back and gets the machine down to its last few bars of energy.

Then Roll appears out of nowhere and stops the battle. She approaches the damaged machine, reaches a hand inside the cylinder of light masking the identity of the canister, and pulls it out. "This isn't Wily's brain in a jar," she shouts. "This is just a can of green beans!"

Mega Man stares dumbfounded for a second, then lets out a bloodcurdling scream of frustration that can be heard for miles.

That's pretty great.

The other day, I kept waking up every hour or two. Each time I fell back asleep I'd have a dream about being at work. Not about anything bad happening at work; just being there doing mundane things. I had six mini-dreams about working. On my day off. It sucked.

A co-worker said she had a dream about me the other day. Apparently some customer came in and gave my friend a hard time and she bitched her out. And then later she saw me walking with this same person. I told her that she was my girlfriend, and she explained that my girlfriend was the bitchy customer. And apparently I told her "I know. I never heard the end of it. She's a total bitch sometimes." right in front of her.

The funny thing is that I could actually see this happening in the real world.

[Eirikr]

I had a dream the other night that I was totally going back to this girl's house with her to get some relations on but when we got back, JOHNPINKAS appeared out of the bathroom with his arms raised and a smile on his face. Cockblocked!

The dream also had something to do with Zelda II. I think the girl was playing it.

[Dizzy]

I dreamed about a trailer for a new Inspector Gadget movie, with the title role played by Chow Yun-Fat sporting a thick mustache. And I guess he was solving some mystery while protecting a family made up of D. L. Hughley and Regina King as mom and dad respectively, and some anonymous boy with long, permed hair as their son. Then I heard the IG theme played in a turntable R&B style. That jolted me right out of my sleep.

Then I went backed to sleep and dreamed about a some undercover cop movie where Hayden Christenen is trying to protect his friend Method Man from his new buddy, who might be a cop. His new buddy is getting angry at Hayden and threatens to kill him. Then I had yet another IG dream, only this time Inspector Gadget was played by Morgan Freeman! Terrifying.

I really hope there is no new Inspector Gadget movie coming out. I'm going to freak if there is one.

[Guy]

My dreams are never very interesting, but every dream my dad has told me about has been pretty great. The last one he mentioned involved him having to call Dell's tech support, but the phone was answered by Micheal Stipe. "I thought you were with REM!" says my dad. "I do this now," Stipe replies.