Do you ever believe your dreams were real?
10My whole life I’ve had this problem. Sometimes, especially if I wake up in the morning then fall back asleep, I believe my dreams were real. Earlier on, I would often react to other people based on the dreams until I figured it out (typically within a few hours).
Recently, it has become much more common. This has been a mixed bag. On the one hand, it can be confusing. On the other, I’ve gotten to the point where in my dreams I look for details. Usually in the dream I don’t register whether those details match with reality or not, but once I wake up I can compare those details to what’s around me and determine that I was dreaming immediately.
Anyway, this happen to anyone else?
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I hardly ever remember my dreams, but I have certainly experienced repercussions from my fiancee (and my ex before that) because I did something in a dream that made them mad at me in real life. So I know it’s not too uncommon.
I often have dreams that are intense and realistic (even bordering on lucid dreaming). Sometimes I’ll wake up and wonder why I’m not still in the dream, or I’ll be really sad that I’m not still in the dream world because cool stuff was happening, and often I’ll remember intense dreams for hours or days or even years, but I’ve really never had trouble distinguishing dreams from reality.
Your “looking for details” comment reminds me of how people who are into lucid dreaming will use “reality checks” to quickly determine if they are dreaming. A common one is to try to move the fingers of one hand through the palm of the other hand. It will fail in real life of course but it succeeds when dreaming. So they will practice this move while awake and while dreaming and use it whenever they’re not sure “where they are”.
Also for what it’s worth, I’ve been writing down my more interesting dreams for the last 20 years or so, and I think my dreams have gotten deeper and more complex and easier to recall as a result. I’ve got some really weird ones, sometimes with long involved “plots”, sometimes spanning multiple nights, or characters popping up again years later.
@awk I once dreamt that I was best friends with Scott Thompson (of The Kids in the Hall fame) and we went to a pancake restaurant for brunch, and was seriously sad for about six weeks that it wasn’t true. And when I think about it, I’m sad again.
@awk
That’s awesome.
When I was interested in lucid dreaming, I did manage to get a couple. They didn’t last long -only of few seconds in dream time, then I would awake.
As for reality checks, I think they are done to make them seem common to the brain, so it tries to replicate them during sleep, alerting the sleeper to dreams.
Very interesting topic, dreams are. I should probably get back to trying to lucid dream.
@awk I’ve had the dreams with “multiple episodes” too. Fortunately, they tend to happen more with the positive dreams for me.
I’ve never been able to lucid dream, but it sounds interesting for sure. Maybe I’ll start trying reality checks while I’m awake to see if I can get myself to start doing them in dreams.
I once had this dream that one normal afternoon my cat, Cloud, and I were hanging out on the porch of the house I grew up in and a creature came walking down the street and it proceeded to come up on my cat. After battle with the beast I was defeated and my cat consumed… I woke up to realize my cat had got let outside and never came home… That thing really killed my cat. I put on paper what I saw with a little picture I drew
I don’t think my dreams are real, but I have woken up feeling like I actually spent time with the people who were in my dream. Which is probably why so many people have thought that we really travel in our astral bodies while asleep.
Once in a while there are a few minutes of confusion about whether the events in the dream were real. Never lasts past 10 min. Doesn’t happen much.
I do sometimes get very vivid dreams that seem common and believable. For example, one night I dreamt that I was sleeping, and in my sleep clenched my teeth to hard that one fell out. I then wake up in my dream and try to orient the tooth back in its place. It’s always a relief after waking from these sort of dreams.
Thanks everyone
I feel a little less crazy now.
@Pantheist just because we agree, it doesn’t make you any less crazy!
I think all of mine are real dreams.
@cengland0
@cengland0
"To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them:
"To die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
the heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
that Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished.
"To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there’s the rub,
for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
must give us pause.
"There’s the respect
that makes Calamity of so long life:
For who would bear the Whips and Scorns of time,
the Oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s Contumely,
the pangs of despised Love, the Law’s delay,
the insolence of Office, and the spurns
that patient merit of the unworthy takes,
when he himself might his Quietus make
with a bare Bodkin?
"Who would Fardels bear,
to grunt and sweat under a weary life,
but that the dread of something after death,
the undiscovered country, from whose bourn
no traveller returns, puzzles the will,
and makes us rather bear those ills we have,
than fly to others that we know not of.
"Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
and thus the native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o’er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
with this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action.
“Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia? Nymph, in thy Orisons
Be all my sins remember’d.”
“We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”
@f00l stuff nightmares are made of…senior year oratories!
@f00l Oh, is this the song thread? My contribution is Bauhaus, Exquisite Corpse
I usually realize pretty quick once I wake up. I do hate those false awakening dreams, though.
One time in college, I was taking a nap in a lounge between classes. I’d set my cell phone to buzz me in enough time to walk to class. I felt it go off, I stood up, grabbed my things, and walked to class. The building I was in at the time was already pretty maze-like, so nothing seemed amiss until I walked past the gym.
There was no gym in that building.
Suddenly, I’m back on the couch in the lounge with my phone buzzing in my pocket. I stood up, grabbed my things, and walked to class. Along the way, I walked past the gym again.
Suddenly, I’m back on the couch in the lounge with my phone buzzing in my pocket. I stood up, grabbed my things, and walked to class. Along the way, I walked past the gym again.
(Yes, three false awakenings in a row.)
Finally, finally, my phone goes off for real, and I actually wake up. I assumed my brain was trying to tell me something and I blow off my class for more napping.
@sanspoint
Now that’s a great dream.
There are some dreams I would like to believe are real.
One day.
Who has ever experienced a lucid dream? A dream where you can consciously control what happens in the dream.
@mfladd My wife does it all the time. Closest I’ve ever come was once during a nightmare I said wake me up loud enough to wake myself up.
I’m considering trying out this course when I get some time though. Says money back guarantee if you can’t lucid dream in 30 days.
@Pantheist I remember being able to do it really well once. It was after waking up in the morning and going back to sleep. And actively attempting it. It was really bizarre to be able to actively direct what I wanted to do in the dream rather than being an unwilling participant. It could be a powerful if one were able to master this skill.
@mfladd
@Pantheist
Re Lucid dreaming: what do you gain by doing it, beyond a curious experience? Anything?
@f00l I’ll let ya know when I get there. I’ve seen all sorts of claims, but no idea if they’re true. The experience is enough of a draw for me.
@Pantheist https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lucid_dreaming.awoken&hl=en
@mfladd neat
downloading it now, thanks!
@f00l A few possibilities per google. I think it makes sense it could be a powerful tool if mastered. Or, just the best Tinder site EVER!
http://ultraculture.org/blog/2014/11/11/5-life-changing-benefits-lucid-dreams/
Another website talked about flying. This fascinates me because lately I have experienced a lot of flying dreams - not like ironman, sky flying - more like levitation. The ability to allow my self to float/move throughout rooms without touching the ground. But I have always been an active participant - observing, but not directing my movements consciously - thus, not lucid.
@Pantheist @f00l
https://no.pinterest.com/pin/2251868541470378/
@PH I think your future holds a lucid dreaming thread.
@f00l I couldn’t read this because I don’t have a WSJ account. Do you?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-benefits-of-lucid-dreaming-1407772779
@mfladd
I tried googling it, but google won’t show it to me. I guess because the article is from 2014.
try this link and then follow to wsj
https://www.facebook.com/Dr.AmySheinberg/posts/711446782256049
I have NYT and Wapo for under $100 a year. I would do WSJ also if I could get it digital for that price. They charge way too much and it makes me mad.
PS I managed to get the article into a pdf in case you still can’t see it.
@f00l Ooooo…that works. You’re so smart. Thanks.
I’m living my nightmares.
@Barney
@mfladd
Nightmare for @Barney maybe. Not so much for me.
@mfladd
I have narcolepsy & sleep apnea and I occasionally have memories which require some thought to determine if it actually happened or I dreampt it.
2 different i hate:
A. the “spiders or something are crawling all over me” where when you wake up you have to turn on the lights and remove sheets/blankets just to be sure.
B. The sure it’s real so later have a conversation about it that gets you in trouble. I once dreamed that my brother-in-law was getting “last rites” for the third time (as a Marine and had a burst appendix, plausible but no). Several months later i was talking to his fiancee-now-wife and somehow the 3 times thing came up. I later found out they got in a minor tiff because she was upset he hadnt told her all this, and he kept denying it (because it hadnt), and both therefore got mildly annoyed at me for a few weeks when it got sorted out.
Otherwise, i enjoy most realistic dreams and can occasionally on one that gets interupted (alarm or whatever) go back to sleep long enough to put happy closure on it quickly, setting a good mood for the day.
I often forget I can’t actually fly. Don’t worry though, I only try taking off from the ground.
Forgot to mention, it always works, because I’m still dreaming. IOW, in my dreams I forget my other dreams were just dreams.
When you feel as if you are seeing them come up in your life through signs. Messages, spiritual signs, and awakening…feeling as if it is all meant to be and intended by so much. -ie
I learned lucid dreaming to wake myself from nightmares. I don’t try it for anything else. I had serious insomnia growing up, seldom slept more then 3-4 hours, and had serial nightmares. Waking up before the scary bits is a good thing. And why I’m awake right now…sigh.
There are medical reasons behind vivid dreams (lucid means you know you are dreaming, vivid means dreams that seem real). Low blood sugar from diabetes, pregnancy, and major changes in how much you sleep/drink all alter your dream intensity. Not always the case, but important enough to look into it.
@Mavyn I’ve noticed I tend to have intense dreams more often if I take melatonin before going to bed as well.
/giphy wake up neo
Okay, so here’s one. I’ve been sick since getting back from vacation, respiratory thing. I’m exhausted from coughing and pushing to talk with laryngitis. I very rarely sleep during the day, but today was gloriously beautiful, 75, the house was open with a breeze blowing through, and I felt a strong urge to take a nap. It took me a long time to go to sleep, and when I did I dreamed I was…taking a nap. But in the dream, I was so deeply asleep that I couldn’t wake up. I would claw my way to wakefulness but feel like I was suffocating (which happens when I take a sleeping pill and am roused too early) and couldn’t stay awake. I dreamed that I heard someone calling my name from outside the front fence and walked to the living room but couldn’t go any further and laid down on the coffee table (false, the coffee table is cluttered) and fell back asleep. The calling voice woke me again and I was trapped, but realized I had wrapped a blanket around me before going to sleep (true). I got disentangled and shuffled to look out the door but the voice had stopped and I couldn’t see anyone. I went back to bed and back to sleep and the same voice woke me again, this time leaving a voice mail that I had to give him a copy of my mom’s death certificate or they would sue me. (I’m being run in circles by a gov’t agency wanting me to prove my mom died broke or pay all her gov’t funded medical expenses, so that’s where that came from, but there was no such voice mail) Then I dreamed there was a menacing presence looming over my bed, the same guy who’d called me from outside and on the phone. I woke and looked for him but he was gone. Where he’d been standing was a big teddy bear I donated to charity last year. One whole side of it was black, stained or burned and it was brittle and strangely heavy. I didn’t want it near me but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open so I stuck it in the bedroom closet and laid back down. When I woke up, I was not sure if I was actually awake or still dreaming (this has been an occasional problem for me) so I was pretty jumpy waiting for more weird shit to happen till I was (mostly) convinced I was in the real world. Here’s the creepy fucking thing. That closet door was a little bit open. I closed that closet door when I went to bed last night and hadn’t opened it. It’s an OCD thing, at night I close and where possible lock every door in the house at night. I don’t sleepwalk. There were two big dogs laying beside the bed that I’d have stumbled over as they weren’t there in my dream. So how did that damned door get open? Remember, I was not 100% sure I was actually in the waking world, so when I opened the door wide enough to look for that teddy bear, anything could have happened. Nerve wracking. No teddy bear, no creepy guy, no tear in the fabric of the universe (that was a different but similar dream) just my messy closet. Still, that cracked open closet door has left me with with a feeling of unrest.
If anyone is still reading this thread I have another good creepy one to share from a few years ago if you want to hear it.
@moondrake Does the door latch well, or could have a draft blown it open a crack?
@Pantheist It latches very well. And there’s a small filing cabinet on a set of plant wheels in front of the door. I needed a file cabinet and had no space so that was my solution.
@moondrake My next question was going to be do you sleepwalk. See you already answered that. Weird.
@moondrake
Have you checked that with The Doctor, to be completely sure?
Seriously, there are what could be called “tears in the fabric of the universe”. The ones we know of that are uncommon are likely not in your closet, your house, your yard, or on your street.
But there are also tears in the fabric on the universe elsewhere: such as in any mind belonging to a being who freely uses invented and/or consciously assigned and flexible symbols and symbiotics (such as human language) as a normal portion, articulation, and mediator of daily consciousness and daily life.
These “tears in that fabric” are built into its very weave, it appears.
The part of your very intricate and interesting dream I wondered most about was: where were your two family members during these episodes?
Perhaps they are still too new to your life to be incorporated.
Happy sleeping, I hope. Esp with these two as companions.
@f00l normally their beds are on the opposite side of the room in front of the reading sofa so I don’t step on them when I get up to pee in the middle of the night. But I’d been reading so I’d pushed their beds up against mine. Sitting there trying to read with my bed calling me and both of them asleep beside it is what convinced me to take an out of character nap. I assume the reason they weren’t in the dream is that they are too new to my life.
Many years ago I dreamed that I’d had a friend over for dinner, and as I was bidding him goodnight some dark force swept into the house through the open door. He was oblivious to it, so we parted ways and I stayed up a couple of hours watching tv and steeling my defenses against unwanted energies. I went to bed and as I was just about to fall asleep I realized that the darkness of the room concealed some sort of roiling black mass on the ceiling above the bed. In the instant of my recognizing it, it swarmed down over me, crushing and suffocating me. In those days I had a king sized bed and the dog slept with me. I started pounding the bed with my fist to wake Majiik to help me fight off this creature, and that woke me from the dream. Gasping for air and shaking off the intense nightmare, thinking I was never going to get back to sleep and I had to get up for work at 6, I turned to the bedside table to look at the time. It was 4:02 am. Then I realized that in the cubby below the clock where my books normally waited there was Nothing. As I realized this, there was a great wind as everthing in the room began being sucked through this tear in the fabric of the universe. The small bedside items first, then the bedsheet was stripped off and pulled through. The corner of the mattress went in and seemed to plug it for a few seconds, then the internal works collapsed and the mattress started folding up and squeezing through. I was scrambling to get backwards off the bed and drag Majiik, who was barking and posturing at the threat, out the door when I woke again. The bedside table was in its normal configuration and it was 1:20 am. I waited for something else to happen, and when it didn’t I finally fell back asleep. To this day, I cannot recall the actual events of that evening, the dream overwrote my memories.
I have a frequent recurring dream, easily explained by my nomadic childhood, in which everyone I love lives in a huge house on giant estate together. There’s always a basement or attic or outbuilding where something evil lurks that I must protect everyone against, but these are my happiest dreams. For the past year or so these dreams have reunited me with loved ones forever lost to me, and waking from them is the worst part of my day.
It depends if you had the same dream again and again or you tend to remember one particular dream then it is surely trying to give you some message
@amy01 When I was quite young (7 or 8 ), I had one dream that I had approx. 5 days in a row. I can’t remember the whole thing only that it was dark and that in it a hindu goddess with multiple arms holding swords was after me. I don’t know if it was Shiva, Kali, - at that age and time (1970 or 71) I didn’t even really know what a Hindu goddess was. All I know was that it scared the ever-loving shit out of me, night after night.
@mfladd
Would explain some lingering questions which I had about you.