Dream interpretations anyone?

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jazzyboxer

Completely Boxer Crazy
This is a fascinating thread. Thanks BoxerCollie!

So what does it mean if I almost never remember dreaming? Is that unusual?

Thanks!
Faith
 
Actually no. I have a few friends who never (or very very rarely) remember dreaming. Some people will even insist they never dream...which is utterly untrue. Everyone dreams. You have to dream, or you would literally go insane. Dreaming is the mind's way of working through trauma and stresses and healing itself, just as sleeping is the body's way of doing the same.

Some facts:

People dream between seven and ten times each night, going through a cycling period.

When you dream, your body is paralyzed and your mind will show waves almost identical to those you have while fully conscious.

Despite popular myth, a dream usually takes about the same amount of time as it SEEMS to take while dreaming...roughly thirty seconds to ten minutes. However, there are cases of time distortions where a dream can seem to take much longer than what time actually passes.

The dreaming periods are longer the later they are. Therefore, you will have more intense dreaming periods and longer periods of dreamstate closer to when you wake up than you do right after you fall to sleep. These are the dreams you are more likely to remember.

Dreams you wake up while experiencing you are more likely to remember.

Dreams are stored in very short term memory. 50% of dream content is lost to your memory within five minutes of waking. 90% within ten.

If you 'don't dream' or have trouble remembering your dreams, try these excercises:

1) Keep a notepad or tape recorder by your bed to record your dream if you wake up after having one. That way, the imagry is not lost. Hint: A recorder is better, as it takes more concentration to write than to simply speak. The more you concentrate on something, the faster the dream will dissipate.

2) Repeat to yourself as you are falling to sleep that you will remember your dreams. Continue to repeat to yourself (mentally, not verbally :) ) even as you fall to sleep. Effects of this are usually immediate, and at the most, a couple of days will go by and you'll find your recall greatly improved.

3). Upon waking from a dream, try not to move position or open your eyes. Oddly, position seems to have an effect on recall. I can't tell you the amount of times I've woken from a dream, gone to the bathroom (and have utterly forgotten it) only to return to bed and lay in the same position and have the dream suddenly slam back into my memory.

As you are laying still like this for a few moments, repeat to yourself the images of the dream you want to keep. This will help record them in long term memory and make recall later easier.

Also, medications and stimulants can effect your dreams and patterns of dreaming sleep. Some may make your sleep lighter and your dreams almost nonexistant, others will give you very intense dreams. Some painkillers like to trap me in a certain pattern of brainwaves (Delta pattern sleep, I believe, but I can't recall for sure). While in this sleep you are actually both semi-dreaming and semi-awake. You will feel that you're awake all night but have wild, disjointed thoughts and imagry...you are actually sleeping and dreaming, just very shallowly thanks to the chemicals.


Finally...did you know that daydreams are actually a type of dream? When you stare into space, let your mind wander, you are actually entering a shallow type of dream state...and your brainwaves prove it! Some scientists believe these periods of daydreaming are nearly as important as night dreams are to your mental health and development, and children who daydream more often than others have a higher intelligence, greater creativity, and in general handle stress better than those who don't.

Food for thought!
 

xenaprincess

Boxer Insane
Hey BoxerCollie...thanks so much for that interpretation!! I take comfort in it really, as I have always told myself that my grandfather was there to tell me all will be ok! This is just so awesome because you pretty well described me to a tee! I am extremely emotionally driven and have lived a life where my kids always come first! In fact, my ex always "accused" me of being "too involved" with the kids! I too dream in color and I LOVE to write!
And finally, I have had several relatives who have passed on visit me in my dreams! When my father died, it was timed at 5:10am. That morning I awoke with the strangest "feeling" that ran from my toes right up to my head and I felt like "what the HECK was that?"!! I looked at the clock and it was 5:12am!! For weeks after I had several dreams of my father and the first one touched me sooo much. I felt a little at peace and more accepting that he was gone because in that dream, he came to me with a beautiful glow around him...smiling so peacefully at me, and turned to look out into the yard at his garden. Later that day, my brother had almost exactly the same dream...like it picked up where mine left off! He dreamt that my dad put his arm around my brothers shoulders and walked with him down the yard to the garden. No words were spoken...it was all just so peaceful! :)
Don't be surprised if we all bug ya now everytime we have a freaky dream! :D
Thanks so much!
 

El28

Boxer Booster
Love this thread!! I too dream in color, have dreams about dreaming, tell myself if things get bad that I'm dreaming and to wake up ( like a cartoon cloud pops up above me and it's me telling me to wake up) LOL, double dreams, can dream, wake up, fall back asleep and continue w/ same dream, and of course the usual teeth falling out of my head (I guess too much dental work in my life), falling over water and never landing, snakes (hate um!), trying to run (slow motion), dreaming that eyes too heavy to open,and so on so on! I've had dreams everynight..or naps, for as long as I can remember, sometimes I'm wore out LOL! I would love to go to a sleep clinic and have them monitor me, it would be cool! Oh and the famous school dream, my dad drops me off @ my old middle school, I go inside and realize I'm naked, go to the restroom, wrap myself in a roll of paper towels and continue w/ my day!
 
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owen's mum

Boxer Booster
OK, I'm about to get way to personal here. When ex-BF was still here, I used to have dreams regularly of a very...um...intimate nature :o . Always involving him. I haven't had one since he quit sleeping in my bed (about 6 weeks and moved out last week.) Although the other night, I had a dream I was pregnat (sp?) and was out buying maternity clothes :eek: ! (Not a posibility! Although a girl at work had an abortion and told me about it a couple weeks ago :( .)

Goodness, I this this is the most :o thing I've ever posted :o .
 
Keep 'em comin!

El28:

Realizing that you are dreaming is a form of lucid dreaming (though true lucid dreaming also involves you 'taking control' and directing the flow). When you lucid dream, ninety percent of the dream content loses its symbology, because you are now controlling it somewhat with your conscious mind, and not your subconsious.

Dreaming you're dreaming is a way your mind has of slapping an exclamation point on whatever its trying to tell you. Basically, 'this is so important I'm gonna show it to you twice!'. Sequence dreams..or dreams that you return to when you fall back to sleep, have to do with two different things...firstly, you may be maintaining a bit of your dream state brain waves...so technically, you never really STOP dreaming, even though you are mostly awake. Remember, dream state brain patterns are almost identical to conscious thinking brain patterns. If you don't do anything major that requires definitive concentration, it is more than possible to return swiftly into the dream state and...well, pick up where you left off. Like pausing a vcr. Also, sequence dreams where you DO pursue significant activities and yet return to the same dream...such as dreaming part of the dream one night, waking up and going about your day, and then resuming the dream the following night...this falls into more the recurrant dream category. There is something important, again, your mind is trying to specifically work through.

Teeth dreams usually have little to do with dental work (though a worry about dental work can cause them). More, they have to do with fears about your appearance, how others see you, and sometimes with keeping secrets or being unable, for some reason, to express yourself properly. The appearance one is easy to see. I mean, if someone is glamour model gorgeous, then smiles and shows yellow, rotting, breaking teeth...well, you get the picture.

We covered the snakes. Falling dreams are always about being out of control...you're never more out of control in life than you are when falling. You literally can do NOTHING when falling from a height to stop what's going on. Once you're in the air, you're basically done until you hit the ground.

Eyes too heavy to open usually signify a great emotional or physical exhaustion. So does dreaming that you're sleeping.

Naked dreams have to deal with exposure, humiliation and helplessness. We never feel more helpless than when we're naked out in public. You have no protection between you and what people see. Your private life is suddenly public. That you cover yourself with paper towels suggests you are trying to shield this emotional exposure, but that your attempts are really rather flimsy and perfunctory.

***

tanya&jazz:

Your boyfriend's dream has a two fold meaning. The first is he's very responsible. Responsible people hate feeling like they're slacking in their duties in any capacity. Therefore, discovering a whole floor of horses he didn't know he had suggests he therefore hasn't been caring for them and they've been going without because of his oversight.

The second meaning is that he's exploring new avenues of his own potential. He's discovering things about himself he did not know before...hence the discovery of both new rooms and new horses. If the dream has a pleasant sense to it, its probably this meaning more than the other. He finds joy in the discovery, and is always seeking ways to improve himself.

***

The Shadow:

Your dream, even though you say you are more levitating than flying, still fits the classic Flying dream scenario, and shares its meaning. That you had it more as a teenager suggests it was more relevant to what you were going through then, more than now, which makes sense. The dream itself would fit more with what a teenager is going through than most adults, though it is still relavent to adulthood. Let me explain.

Open fields suggest health and clarity. You can see everything, nothing is obscured. Hills denote a rise and fall of easy versus difficult times, but nothing even remotely insurmountable...just the ususal up and downs of life. However, you continue to concentrate, trying to levitate. You seek freedom, desire it greatly. You want to be free of even these simple ups and downs, to break free of the shackles around you. However every time you even start to feel that freedom, something else happens to drag you back down again. It's frustrating, and you start to both anticipate and fear this...in effect, contributing to it happening. People who are sure something is going to go wrong, after all, usually find subconscious ways to MAKE it go wrong. You fear your freedom will be taken from you and will make you fall back down, and therefore you fall back down. Yet you keep trying...and that's all any of us can do :) That you regain control before painfully hitting the ground shows that the restrictions are not as bad as you might think (it never hits you as hard as you fear it will), but it is still immensely frustrating.

****

Owen's mom:

Actually, believe it or not, most dreams of an intimate nature mean nothing of the sort. And a lot of dreams that seem mundane and benign mean very strongly something of an intimate nature. It's weird, I know...but true. So nothing here to be truly embarrassed about. Having such dreams during your relationship could simply be a dreaming reflection of real events, or a way that your mind used to embrace the idea of being in a relationship, that you were changing and growing, going from 'I' to 'we'. When the relationship ended (and my condolences, by the way), the 'we' went back to 'I' and therefore such processing was no longer needed...hence, the dreams stopped.

Dreaming that you're pregnant is a common dream as well, though not quite so common to make it into the top 6. It's clearly more common among women, but believe it or not, some men do have it as well! It has nothing to do with actually being pregnant usually (though, clearly, if a woman is pregnant and dreams she is, that's understandable). It means you are developing some part of yourself...some part of your personality. You may be excercising your creativity more, or advancing in your job, or in some personal goal you have set. You could be coming up with a new idea or project, or even developing a sense of your inner child, retouching with basic, innocent pleasures you had forgotten. The shopping for clothes suggests a change as well. We buy new clothes when we want to improve our appearance, replace something old and tattered, or paint a new picture of ourselves to the world. Sounds like since the beau left you are truly regaining a sense of your own identity and have freed yourself to grow personally once again. Bravo!
 

Linda/NJ

Boxer Insane
I keep having a nightmare! Me still working at my prior job. I hated it there & was laid off, so I was thrilled to leave. Why on earth do I keep dreaming of working there with the same people or going back to work there with the same problems! I wish I can erase that job from my memory. Thanks:)
 

elvis_baby

Boxer Insane
Rabbits

This is great if you can help i have this re-occuring dream quite often,

I used to have 4 pet rabbits which have all died years ago, however in my dream I am at my mums house in present time and I go out into the garden and can see the rabbit cage and realised I have forgotten to feed the rabbits or clean them out in about 7 years. When I go down to the cage I assume the rabbits will be dead when i open the cage, but funny enough they all seem healthy and have survived all thoses years without food/water. Why such an odd dream.

The only other re-occuring dream is I dream i am round the house of my Grandad and nan (old house). My grandad is dead in real life but i can see him clearly in my dream but No one else can. He tells me he is dead and its his ghost. i am always scared to see him in my dream because he is a ghost and try to get out the house and wake up terrified. i was really close to my grandad which is why i find this odd!!
 
Linda/NJ:

But you can't erase that job from your memories...that's the problem. The stresses that happened to you there have to be worked through and accepted before you can move on. Perhaps they have caused anxieties that your future job (or the one you now hold) will turn out the same. Or perhaps something is happening around work that reminds you of the other job and makes you worry that things could turn into the same unpleasantness. Losing a job is a trauma, even if we absolutely loathe it. It leaves us with questions of security and worth, both financial and personal. Dreams help us accept and work through all sorts of trauma, and this is a trauma that happened to you. The next time you dream this, if you realize it while its happening, look around and tell yourself, 'I'm past this. It can't bother me any more. I've moved on.'

elvis_baby:

Rabbits can be in themselves symbols of good luck and virility (positively) and symbols of overconsumption and greed (negatively). I don't think this dream really has to do with the rabbits as a symbol, but rather your realization that you haven't cared for them in so long. You're realizing or fearing that you've neglected some aspect of your life, or have shirked in your duties, but you are probably over-reacting...and your subconscious knows it, that's why the rabbits are just fine. If you honestly WERE shirking your duties, the rabbits would reflect that by being ill, dirty, or deceased. Don't be so hard on yourself, you're doing a good job! :)

Ghosts frighten us, even if they are of our loved ones! Ghosts in dreams can represent aspects of ourselves or our relationships that we have neglected or failed to develop, or that have 'passed on'. While I do believe spirits can visit us in dreams, they usually don't invoke such feelings of fear. Usually they come to offer comfort, or an acknowledgement of protection. So I do not think this was actually your grandfather visiting. Rather, you are somewhat afraid to fully reconcile yourself with his passing, afraid that to do so would truly 'bury him'. Therefore when he acknowledges that he is, indeed, dead, you react in fear...because you don't want to fully admit it, because admitting it would be moving on and betraying him in some way. It doesn't matter if its days since he's died or years. Everyone works through these things in their own way and their own time.
 

Faughtey

Banned
Most of the time I don't remember my dreams. But there are two that I've had many times in the past. In the first one, I'm floating at night over houses. They are all lit up and I feel happy and peaceful as I look at the pretty scenery. Quite often it's wintertime with snow covering everything.
The second dream is filled with adventure and fun. Skydiving, skiing, racing horses and cars to name a few. :)
 
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