returning to dreams

[psy kick]

I have alos had that phenomenon that Randi mentioned; you are dreaming, wake breifly, and go back to the same dream.
So cool.

[Evolver]

3 years ago I had similar surgery to Randi's. Immediately afterwards, I began having vivid, often very violent dreams, many of which I could go back to after waking up.

Now, the violent dreams have stopped (thankfully), but I can still return to a dream if I go back to sleep quickly enough.

I have wondered if it has to do with any of the medications.

[Dark Jaguar]

I've never had that experience, to the best of my knowledge. However, I can go for years without remembering even one dream. But, no matter, they're just dreams.

[Curnir]

Mmmm I often have such dreams, but the dream is not always identical to the dream I had before I awoke.

I also have frequent dreams where my alarm clock plays a significant role.
Sometimes it's a telegraph or radio that I must press in order for it to work (snooooze) sometimes it's an alarm, other times it's an air raid siren, sonar device or other things that are woven into my dreams causing me to press the snooze button. I'm not sure if I am awake or asleep when I press the button though.

[arthwollipot]

I've never experienced this. If I wake up and then go back to sleep, it's always a different dream.

Mind you, my dreams are so wacky and way-out that the inherent illogic of them erases them from my brain within seconds of me waking up. I know I've dreamed, but I just can't get my head around what I've dreamed about. There are very few exceptions.

[money]

I've had this happen to me as well. I've never had any major surgery, so I don't think its related to that.

I also sometimes have whole dreams that I've had before, so I know what is coming, and just sort of go along for the ride...

[psy kick]

But when it involves Chris Kattan, you don't want to return to it!

[arthwollipot]

I also sometimes have whole dreams that I've had before, so I know what is coming, and just sort of go along for the ride...

I've occasionally had repeat dreams, but they're never exactly the same. I have had dreams that take place in the same location though.

[Suew0]

If these sort of dreams tend to happen more while recovering from major surgery, I should think it might be because you are sleeping more.

[Barefoot Bree]

I've had that happen. I usually have pretty vivid dreams, and can usually remember quite a bit of them - years of practice! :D

When I wake myself up screaming at the occasional "snake on the plane" type nightmare, I have to MAKE myself wake up enough to come completely out of it, or else I'll slip back into the same dream. Big bummer.

[arthwollipot]

I've taken to calling certain dream-locations part of my "dreamlands". I've identified the first house I lived in in the dreamlands after I left home. It was a cool house. I lived in a huge basement room. Then sometime after that I moved into another place with a bunch of students. All these are places that I've had repeat dreams about.

[psy kick]

My dreamlands are always buildings where I am looking to get out of, but can never, ever find the exit.

[Beleth]

I dream up the coolest buildings. And they all have immense bathrooms. I mean multiple-acre-big bathrooms with showers and sinks and water slides and lockers and piped in music and incense...

and either no toilets, or out-of-order toilets...

No place to take a whiz! How can that be? HUMONGOUS bathroom, and no place to relieve oneself? Oh... you're dreaming, Beleth... now wake yourself up, go into your real bathroom, and go drain your bladder in real life.

[arthwollipot]

My dreamlands are always buildings where I am looking to get out of, but can never, ever find the exit.

I often used to have dreams about running around huge buildings, leaping up and down stairs, opening doors, etc. It always seemed that something was chasing me, but it wasn't generally scary.

Those dreams seem to have stopped.

[hipparchia]

I guess the "multiple acre bathroom" is a universal human dream...especially after overeating watermelon in the evening, but not enough watermelon to make you wake up. Then you try to pee in the shower and there are other people around you, so you don't do it...and eventually have to wake up.

Anyway, today I dreamed of a cool purple bat-like cartoon character and tried to continue my dream to get more details. I will try to draw the character today...

[eowyn]

In the last year, I have occassionaly partly woken up and gone back to the same dream. I have no explanation as to why this started to happen.

[politas]

Mmmm I often have such dreams, but the dream is not always identical to the dream I had before I awoke.

I also have frequent dreams where my alarm clock plays a significant role.
Sometimes it's a telegraph or radio that I must press in order for it to work (snooooze) sometimes it's an alarm, other times it's an air raid siren, sonar device or other things that are woven into my dreams causing me to press the snooze button. I'm not sure if I am awake or asleep when I press the button though.
Oh, I get that kind of dream. Sometimes, I'm even anticipating the alarm, so I hit the snooze button before the alarm actually kicks in and starts making noise.

The worst ones are the ones where I dream I can control time, so I don't have to worry about getting up just yet.

[Curnir]

Oh, I get that kind of dream. Sometimes, I'm even anticipating the alarm, so I hit the snooze button before the alarm actually kicks in and starts making noise.

The worst ones are the ones where I dream I can control time, so I don't have to worry about getting up just yet.

Yupp. Those dreams are nasty.

[arthwollipot]

Weird. Never had one of those.

[moopet]

Occasionally I have dreams that follow on directly from where one left off years before, or ones feature the same characters. It's not just deja vu, since I often write down dreams and sometimes use them to kickstart short story writing. I think I spent too much of my younger life watching TV.

Incidentally, writing key points down about a dream as soon as I wake up really does seem to make me remember them more.

[arthwollipot]

Unfortunately for me, most of the "key points" about my dreams consist of "something about... a thing... and there was... something else, and I, um, did something..."

The ones that actually make some kind of sense are the ones I remember without having to write them down.

Last night I had a dream that I was driving a bus, and I hit someone who was crossing the road. I stopped the bus and came back, and a bunch of people had gathered around - apparenly the woman I hit was pretty popular. I told them that I was the guy who had been driving the bus, and they all beat me up.

[kedo1981]

I had this (jump back to a dream) thing all my life, nothing to do with surgery, I feel however that you (we) may be less awake and we really didn’t stop dreaming, this is (I think) what lucid dreaming is; you’re just a little bit more awake and your subconscious gets up to go the bathroom and your conscious mind sets down in the directors chair. Sex dreams are great when you can do this.

[Meffy]

I've had serial dreams set in several altered worlds, each fairly consistent from one dream (or segment on the same night) to another but distinctly different from each other. In two of dream worlds I could visualize maps of the area and drive around knowing in advance where roads went. In one, it was about a forty-five minute drive from Norfolk, Virginia, to New York City. :-D

The most recent involved a commercial-residential district near the University of Richmond -- altered nearly beyond recognition, but I "knew" the area -- and the ominous, undead-ish characters who lurked and worked in the businesses thereabouts. Utterly aimless dream, no point to it at all.

[edit] In my dreams, about half the time I'm "in character" as an anthropomorphic skunk, half the time as the mundane human that supports this character, and occasionally as someone else altogether (other furry characters or just some generic human). FWIW.

[arthwollipot]

Interesting. I'm always myself, although sometimes I'm in pretty odd situations.

[RSLancastr]

The most recent involved a commercial-residential district near the University of Richmond -- altered nearly beyond recognition, but I "knew" the areaOdd how in dreams there are often places and or people who have been radically altered from the way they appear in real life, yet we know in the dream where/who they are supposed to be.

One recurring theme in my dream (besides the "looking for a place to pee" theme already mentioned above) is that I need to yell and cannot.

The earliest dream I recall like this I can recall was when I was in kindergarten. In the dream, I was following my older brother and his friend as they played out in our yard. They were not happy about it (this was a common occurance in real life at the time). They tricked me into playing cowboys and indians, with me as the cowboy (I can still picture the cowboy hat I wore, one I really owned at the time). They, playing the part of Indians, tied me to the stake, which was a metal fence post which was imbedded in concrete along the side of our house (again, something which really existed).

After tying me to the post, they simply walked away laughing. I was furious, and tried to yell at them to come back, but I could barely make a sound. I tried to yell for someone in the house to come out and untie me, but again, I couldn't.

To this day I can recall the anger and frustration I felt at not being able to yell when I needed to.

I have a few dreams a year where this happens. Most recently was a dream in which I was arguing with my ex-wife. I got so furious that I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs, but I could barely make a sound.

I've read this isn't uncommon. The dreamer isn't just trying to yell in the dream, but in real life. Since the muscles involved in speaking are too relaxed to move like they would need to in order to yell, this translates into the dream as not being able to yell while awake (in the dream).

Sometimes I am tryingf to yell in anger in the dream, sometimes I'm trying to yell to warn someone of some danger. It's always very frustrating.

Perhaps it is related in some way to sleep paralysis?

[tkingdoll]

I'm plagued by my dreams, because I have at least one nightmare every night. It's quite tiring really. Often they're enough to make me shout out, which wakes me up, but I have very anxious dreams every single night.

I also dream every time I go to sleep, even if it's just for a few minutes or an hour or whatever, and I remember the dream vividly. As a consequence, I don't enjoy napping, because I actually wake up more tired and usually anxious.

If wake up mid-dream, it's very easy to get back into the dream. I just go back to sleep again and there I am. Of course, what I don't know is, whether the dream would have continued differently had I not woken up.

[vbloke]

I rarely remember dreams unless I'm woken up halfway through them.

The only dream I can remember with any clarity was from when I was a lot younger - it involved dinosaurs, Hyde Park and a lot of terrified bystanders.

[Evolver]

If these sort of dreams tend to happen more while recovering from major surgery, I should think it might be because you are sleeping more.
That, and either medications keep you in a dream state longer, or your body's awareness of your injury keeps your brain near consciousness longer. That's what I speculated.

[Hellbound]

Perhaps it is related in some way to sleep paralysis?

Somehow, I'm sure, if by nothing more than that both contain this symptom :)

I remember this happening in my sleep paralysis episode. Although on thing about the sleep paralysis is the sense of fear. It was strange, because I felt the fear before I realized anything else was going on. Then I realized I couldn't move. Then I tried to yell, but the best I could do was a low moan. Then I saw the Death figure at the foot of the bed reaching out.

Quite a memorable episode, although I'd rather not repeat it. It was very, very strange. The fear that I felt was completely unrational, and really seemed to have no cause. In fact, I was afraid before any of the hallucinations started (Death).

I still wonder if the sense of fear may be a cause of the hallucinations, or if sleep paralysis may somehow be connected to this. It seems that almost all sleep paralysis episodes include pure trerror, and for many I've talked to the fear starts before other things (like hallucinations, but not always before realization that they can't move).

[arthwollipot]

One recurring theme in my dream (besides the "looking for a place to pee" theme already mentioned above) is that I need to yell and cannot.

...

Perhaps it is related in some way to sleep paralysis?

Ooo, ooo! I've done that.

[Touched]

I've had sleep paralysis once or twice. The one time for sure had me "wake up" to see my mother staring in at me from the bedroom window, and it was disturbing. I tried several times to say "I see you", but I was unable to make a sound other than a little croak.

And I have those immense bathroom dreams quite a lot! I always call them "badly-designed bathrooms" because although they're very large, they usually have glass doors in the stalls (or no doors, and no dividers) so there's no privacy, or the toilets are so bizarre I can't figure out how to use them.

My aforementioned mother says she has these dreams too, and says that the toilets in her dreams aren't hooked up to any water supply, or they're just holes in the floor.

[psy kick]

Mine are usually amazingly mundane. Once I dreamed I was shopping for a nail file.

Usually I'm trying to get ready to go somewhere and it takes so long I wake and never get there.

[Meffy]

I've not had the "can't yell" motif, but it's not infrequent in the marathon or serial dreams for my personal inertia to become huge, so that walking requires huge exertion against an intangible yet resisting medium. I want to get somewhere, need to, but can't move with the freedom everyone else is enjoying.

Wouldn't be surprised if the psychological cause for this is similar to what brought about my adolescent and pre-adolescent dreams involving school buildings with hallways that went nowhere, staircases that ended in empty space so you must leap to continue, and confusing room numbering schemes. "I know big things are ahead but have no idea what... and they seem inacessible from here."

[arthwollipot]

I had another dream last night, where I ran over someone's foot in my car, and ripped it off.

Seems there's a car-accident theme going through my dreamspace at the moment.

[Touched]

walking requires huge exertion against an intangible yet resisting medium.
Wouldn't be surprised if the psychological cause for this is similar
I wouldn't assume it's psychological. That sort of dream is pretty universal, and I would guess is due to sensory information from the real world making its way into your dreams. For instance, becoming partially aware that your real-life body is not moving, and translating that into slow-motion moving. Just like we become aware of actually needing to go to the bathroom. Similarly, the universal naked or underwear dream might be caused by the simple fact that (unless you wear pajamas or something) you are naked or in your underwear.

Similar to this would be the dreams I used to get when I slept with the radio on, of obnoxious salesmen suddenly walking up to me and delivering long sales pitches, and no matter how much I told them to shut up, they kept on talking, and they would follow me wherever I went. :words: