[foster kid]

let me pose this question...have you ever had a dream about something wether it be meeting some complete stranger of getting a job or a raise,and like a week or sooner os maybe a month later your dream happens? you meet this stranger and become friends or just what ever the dream was but it comes true and you had no knowledge of anything happening ...it just did...........that has happened to me like 3 or 4 times in my life of 21 years........almost creepy

[Clint Eastwood]

Usually when somebody remembers their dream is when they wake up during REM sleep. That's like when you jolt awake during the middle of the night and you have no idea where you are. But nevertheless, everybody has to dream. If not, you'll begin to dream when you're awake, which isn't good if you're trying to convince people that you're sane. There are certain ways to not dream, such as taking certain drugs, including alcohol. Insomnia can also halt dreaming, but you would probably know if you haven't been sleeping. If you don't remember your dreams, but you do feel well rested, that's probably because you're getting a very good sleep pattern, which has you sleeping all the way through REM, up until the cycle comes to a stop whenever you wake up. I wouldn't worry about it unless you start hallucinating.

[Kilala]

I was just browsing through, and this topic really caught my eye. Dreams are another mystery to mankind. There are many different ways to read into them... So I thought I'd like to share my knowledge and thoughts about the subject.

First off, what are dreams? What is happening when we think we switch off and go into a deep slumber. One this is for sure, and that is that our brains aren't joining us. The theory behind why we do actually dream and the analysis of these dreams has intrigued and interested mankind and fascinated scientists and psychologists for centuries.
Of course this has led to research being carried out by many professionals. Delving deeper into the unknown areas which we would like to explore. But... the fact of the matter is, what have we 'actually' found out?
Studies have shown that we typically experience and recall our most vivid dreams during the kind of sleep called Rapid Eye Movement (R.E.M). Although we seem to be unconscious, our brains are still very much active during this type of sleep. One of the obvious signs that come to attention that a person is undergoing this particular sleep is when their eyes move back and forth underneath the eyelids - although coincidentally the rest of the body will tend to be motionless. Quite obviously, this is how this type of sleep got it's name, due to the eye movements. According to some facts, Rapid Eye Movement sleep occurs once every 100 minutes - and may last a duration of approximately 15 to 45 minutes. Apparently... we generally have this R.E.M sleep 3 to 4 times a night! Did you know that? Were you aware of the fact that your brain was triggering this so often? I wasn't... Not until I researched it anyway.

What do dreams mean? There is a famous psychiatrist we have all heard of. Sigmund Freud. He studied and looked into dreams, identifying an area of our brains where the mind actually stores all of our memories and so called.... desires! Go Freud! It was in fact Freud's belief that dreams were in fact visuals of the subconscious. He thought that every symbol in our dreams perhaps stemmed or came from one of our unknown desires buried deep into the depth of out subconscious mind. How deep is that? Currently as we speak there are other (more modern obviously) scientists and psychiatrists etc. working hard into researching this subconscious realm. Maybe one day we will in fact get more understandable answers. But for now... It still remains a mystery.
In the past, for example like in the ancient times of the Greeks and the Romans, they believed that the importance of a dream was in fact to provide information about the past, present or future events. Nowadays there are more skeptics among us. If someone claims to this description to why they indeed have their dreams they would be immediately labelled as a "Psychic". Some would believe... others would ignore.
To this very day Scientists continue to argue and debate about the issue of the 'True Meaning' behind a dream. A dream can mean something special to the individual. Perhaps a known desire. Or a forgotten one. But do we sometimes really get warning signs in our dreams? How do we know when these are occurring? Will it ever be known to us mere mortals?

Why do we have dreams? Many an intelligent person has tried to guess this. But as you can understand, we don't know if any of what we find out or theorize is true. Here are a couple of the theories that are out there.

One theory seems to suggest that dreams are the result of our brain trying to interpret external stimuli during sleep. For example, the sound of the radio may be incorporated into the content of a dream. (A reference to Antrobus, J. (1993). Characteristics of dreams. Encyclopedia of Sleep and Dreaming.)

Another theory uses a computer metaphor to account for dreams. According to this particular theory, dreams serve to ‘clean up’ clutter from the mind, much like clean-up operations in a computer, refreshing the mind to prepare for the next day. Brand spanking new haha... (A reference from Evans, C. & Newman, E. (1964) Dreaming: An analogy from computers. New Scientist.)

Yet another model proposes that dreams function as a form of psychotherapy. In this theory, the dreamer is able to make connections between different thoughts and emotions in a safe environment. (A reference from Hartmann, E. (1995)Making connections in a safe place: Is dreaming psychotherapy? Dreaming.)

A contemporary model of dreaming combines some elements of various theories. The activation of the brain creates loose connections between thoughts and ideas, which are then guided by the emotions of the dreamer. (A reference from Hartman, E. (2006). Why do we dream? Scientific American.)

Personally I think we dream to escape from reality. It's a way with coping from the stresses of this world. A temporary place in paradise. Well... thats for when we're having a 'nice' dream. Nightmares... I still need to think on those.

Well thats it from me for now. Just a quick little essay on my thoughts etc.

[KeybladerXIII]

That was quite an eyefull!

[Meier Link]

Originally Posted by KeybladerXIII

That was quite an eyefull!

Umm, I am going to be blunt since this is one of my topics, old but mine still the same.

I posted this in Inellectual Discussion for a reason, the same goes for any posts I make in ID; it is because I do not want spammy one liner responces. Your comment added nothing to this conversation and is not relevant to the thread at hand at all.

I would appriciate it if you took your spam back and went to GC with it.

A contemporary model of dreaming combines some elements of various theories. The activation of the brain creates loose connections between thoughts and ideas, which are then guided by the emotions of the dreamer. (A reference from Hartman, E. (2006). Why do we dream? Scientific American.)

I find this to be very interesting. A culmantion of ideas and thoughts driven by emotion. This brings a thought to my mind, if dreams are as created as this states (by emotion). Would the dream be influanced by the emotions while in REM or would it mainly be driven by your current moods and emotions that where going on right before one falls asleep.

[Kilala]

Originally Posted by Meier Link

I find this to be very interesting. A culmantion of ideas and thoughts driven by emotion. This brings a thought to my mind, if dreams are as created as this states (by emotion). Would the dream be influanced by the emotions while in REM or would it mainly be driven by your current moods and emotions that where going on right before one falls asleep.

It certainly is food for thought... Generally I don't think we can control what thought or mood we're in. The brain is always activate thus taking us for a ride continuously. So with that in mind perhaps it's more a case of while in R.E.M?
I know there have been times where I go to sleep happy and thinking about say some TV show I had just been watching, and I wake up thinking about something else completely random or about breakfast.
As our minds are always on the go, I don't think we can control what happens when the lights go off. If you know what I mean? Or I could be rambling. Sorry... <_<

[Neo Nagisa]

I think that it's from the mood and emotions you have right before falling asleep. I always go to sleep thinking about either tomorrow, something that I dread, something that made me happy, or something I wish I had. And as I'm sleeping, I dream about whatever it is I was thinking about. But my dream doesn't stay on the same subject. After I fall asleep and dream about what I was thinking, it changes to something completely random. I think this is because of the stages of sleep. Right when I fall asleep, I am in the first/lightest stage of sleep, thus the memory is still on my mind. As I fall deeper into sleep, it changes. Sleep is an interesting time for me. I'd much rather live the life I do in my dreams than in rl, I can tell you that much.

[Kilala]

Originally Posted by Nagisa Kaworu

I think that it's from the mood and emotions you have right before falling asleep. I always go to sleep thinking about either tomorrow, something that I dread, something that made me happy, or something I wish I had. And as I'm sleeping, I dream about whatever it is I was thinking about. But my dream doesn't stay on the same subject. After I fall asleep and dream about what I was thinking, it changes to something completely random. I think this is because of the stages of sleep. Right when I fall asleep, I am in the first/lightest stage of sleep, thus the memory is still on my mind. As I fall deeper into sleep, it changes. Sleep is an interesting time for me. I'd much rather live the life I do in my dreams than in rl, I can tell you that much.

Ah ha then is Mr Freud right? ^~ You dream of desires, or a so called reality you'd rather be in than you are now?
Of course the mood you go off to sleep in is relevant to the first dream you may have, but what about others? Ever had those dreams of when you wake up and you just can't recall what happened? What about those? And according to the statistics we have more than one R.E.M occurrence in our slumber... It's poses so many questions... So little answers.

[Alpha]

Originally Posted by Meier Link

... or if anyone has been like this and has figured out how to stop this kind of madness

I am like this, though I never used to be. I haven't remembered dreams in ages, and contrary to a post I red earlier, I have had the worst sleeping patterns of my life over the last year (combination of being a student and doing early-morning shifts).

I heard once that eating copious amounts of cheese will give you wack dreams, so I decided to try it. I had a few slices before bed... and nothing happened. Not one to give up that easily on an urban myth, I steadily increased my cheese intake. By 'steadily increased' I mean the very next night I ate between 250-500 grams of cheese between dinner and bed. It was just your normal supermarket cheddar, nothing fancy, and was, of course, when cheese did not cost $10 a kg. That night... was wild. I remember the dream being VERY colourful, and bright, but I don't think too much happened. I woke up feeling fairly crap, but I had eaten a lot of cheese. Though probably meaningless, I still remember the vibrancy of this dream, so, Meier, if you want to get some dream action, stock up on de cheese.

[Dean Winchester]

I don't know why but a couple of my dreams happened already.


I remember last year, i kept having this reoccuring nightmare where i was chased through this forest by a unseen hellhound. It eventually catches up to me and rips me apart. -_-

[RinoaHeartillyAngel]

Most times my dreams are about things I wish to happen or I need, I'm worried about ecc.
For example, Lately I really feel I need to go on vacation, so I keep dreaming of the places I usually used to visit during Summer vacation and all my friends.
Sometimes I have nightmares, other times I see in my sleep my everyday life, and other times I have really weird and crazy dreams that doesn't even make sense.
Dreams can usually be influenced by everyday life, wants or needs, inner desires, or even a movie you might have seen.
Dreams in reality last for only a few seconds, even if you have dreams of a whole lifetime. Someone can remember their dream, if they've seen it a little before waking up and not be woken up by something or someone else.

[RagnaToad]

Originally Posted by Meier Link

I myself do not dream or atleast i do not remember any of them at all except on very very very rare occasions.

You 'not dreaming' is not an option. If you don't dream, that means you don't get an REM sleep, which would mean someone waking you up every time you've been sleeping for 2-3 hours or so.

Not recalling dreams is pretty normal. I only tend to remember the dreams I have right before I wake up. Although I can remember something I dreamed about when I'm doing something that 'reminds' me of the dream. Like I would be 'Hmm, thát's what I dreamed last night'.

Dreams are just a way for your mind to get things sorted out up there. Not rarely does it happen to me that I dream about stuff I've been reading/seeing/doing right before I went to bed. Just the other day, I had a dream where I was Veronica Mars' boyfriend or whatever. Really creepy to wake up to your actual girlfriend when you've been kissing a fictional person in your sleep.

I guess that doesn't qualify as cheating.

But yeah, there's no real 'meaning' to be found in dreams. Nor is there a spiritual dimension to them.

[nix]

I remembered a bit of my dream last night, first time in a very long timei can recall having one.

It was only a brief memory i have now though, me and a group of faceless friends (dont think they were actually faceless i just cant recall who was who).. Anyway we were walking a country side path going somewhere but we were ambushed by a lone predator, he had his cloaking device up for the majority of the dream and he didnt actually kill anybody (pussy) he just randomly appeared and quickly vanished. So we were just randomly shooting into the tree's/cliffs every so often in paranoia in hopes to clip him, but no joy.

I have no recollection as to where we were going or even how i came into the possession of a fully loaded sub machine gun and side arm in the back arse of nowhere..

Anyway, the dream was interupted by me ma stirring me and giving me a cup of tea, so we never made it to destination unknown

And i haven't even watched predator in months, whats up with that?

hehe anyway I never usually remember them and im also sure i just dont dream much, possibly for the reasons mentioned above by the Toad.

[RagnaToad]

Originally Posted by nix

we were ambushed by a lone predator, he had his cloaking device up.

At first I didn't know what you were talking about.

I was like "A dinosaur with a cloak on?", but then I realised what kind of 'predator' you meant...

[nix]

Yes! Now you understand

I have a really strange dream sometimes. It always happens the same way, and always scares the shit out of me. It starts off in some kind of basement (from TV or something, I've never set foot in a basement through lack of availability) with a wooden staircase. So I go over and start trying to walk up said staircase. The trouble is that, for some insane reason, my legs back in the real world start moving too. Of course, there are no stairs in my bed. In my mind I can see the stairs, but my (real world) feet can't find them. I start kicking like mental with my real feet, trying to get up dream stairs. I've injured my beau a good few times doing this. It's such a horrible feeling; I can see stairs, but I can't get up them because they are not there. I never seem to learn.

Sleep paralysis is also a horrific thing. Ever had that? It's so scary. I wake up sometimes and I can't move, at all. I can look around, but my body feels like it's composed of pins and needles and jelly. I am fully awake, but my body's not caught on yet. The last time it happened I was convinced I was having a stroke. I try to shout, or make noise, and all that comes out is a series of bizarre mouth-breather cat noises. My boyfriend found me once, fresh from an impromptu couch nap, in this state. He just looked at me and asked me stuff, while I'm giving it the 'Heeeeeelp mmmmeeee' whisper-screech. He then asked if I was having a seizure and started laughing. He's caring like that.

It's dreams/experiences like these that really get me thinking about the connection between my subconscious brain and my nervous system. I accept that dreams are just random spouts of info, meaningless really, even if sometimes they could be seen as foresight. A friend of mine was staying over once, and in this house all that seperates the couch from the bed is a sheet; he awoke to what, for all intents and purposes, sounded like me having sex. I was not having sex. In the morning he started to make fun of me about it: 'Dreaming about Johnny, were we? Eh?' I wasn't dreaming about Mr. Depp, or anything like it. I remembered my dream from that night too. It was about me fighting with a bank who wanted to give me 13% APR on a mortgage, and I was convinced that it was 1.3% APR with the decimal point moved by mistake. I'll need to watch myself when I'm applying for a real-life mortgage; apparently my subconscious thinking about it turns the rest of me on.

The subconscious mind has so much untapped power. I just wish there was a way, apart from meditation and what have you, to get at that power and be able to control it, not have it manifest itself as mortgage-related sex noises and a nonexistant-but-****-you-I'm-walking-up-them-anyway set of stairs. There's a part of my brain that can make me do things I don't want to do, or can shut my body down so that I can't use it even when my conscious mind is fully awake. It's scary, and it's cool.

But as for bog-standard dreams, I tend to think of them as a psychological outlet. Your brain can't stop mulling over information, letting it out of your system. If you don't have anyone to talk to, you start talking to yourself, simply to let information go somewhere (this I learned in college). I think dreams are a subconscious version of that. It's just your brain letting go of scraps of information interpreted in its own phenomenal way. Except for when it starts making your body do stuff without your permission. That's when things get cool.

Alpha, I would like to thank you for your recon effort into the cheese-nightmare myth. That's a lot of cheese to have to eat before getting results. My mother is convinced that anything bigger than a cheese slice three hours before sleep will result in mind-twisting nightmares. I can now tell her that a little Dairylea for supper is ok.

[RagnaToad]

Originally Posted by Govinda

The trouble is that, for some insane reason, my legs back in the real world start moving too. Of course, there are no stairs in my bed. In my mind I can see the stairs, but my (real world) feet can't find them. I start kicking like mental with my real feet, trying to get up dream stairs.

The opposite happens to me!!! Those things happen to me when I'm almost awake, and my brain is starting to link up with my body again. If you know what I mean. For me, it's mostly running toward something or trying to fight someone in my dream. My brain is starting to control my muscles again, because I'm almost awake again. In my dream I'm trying to punch someone in the face, but my brain is sensing that my muscles aren't actually moving. So for some reason, the brain passes on that message and drops it into my dream, making it so that I can't seem to use my arms any other way but in slow-motion. Really frustrating.

It's kind of the opposite, but also kind of the same. Cause I believe my arms/legs are actually moving a little bit, since my brain is starting to control my muscles again. But they don't move like I want them to, in my dream.

Originally Posted by nix

Yes! Now you understand

Actually, that's the alien, not the predator. And that movie sucks big time. I laughed during most of the scenes.

[nix]

Ummm its clearly a Predator, and yes the new movies are shit.

And people for the love of god please use the correct terms, its Conscious and Unconscious. Not Subconscious

Originally Posted by nix

Ummm its clearly a Predator, and yes the new movies are shit.

And people for the love of god please use the correct terms, its Conscious and Unconscious. Not Subconscious

When I learned about them they were two terms. The subconscious is closer to the surface though, easier to reach. Freudians prefer subconscious, Jungians unconscious.

[RagnaToad]

Originally Posted by nix

Ummm its clearly a Predator, and yes the new movies are shit.

And people for the love of god please use the correct terms, its Conscious and Unconscious. Not Subconscious

Actually, you're right. The dinosaurs are the aliens and the human-like creatures are the Predators? That doesn't make any sense. And was that the kind of predator you were referring to earlier? I thought you meant predator like in those American shows 'To catch a predator'.

And Unconscious and subconscious is something different, if I recall correctly.

(EDIT: After doing some quick research, I found out that some philosopher dude once introduced the term 'Unconscious mind', which shows a lot of similarities with Freud's Subconscious. I'll read into it later...)

Being unconscious is just being not-conscious. The subconscious however is the part of our mind that we cannot access (or not directly) and contains information, thoughts, fears, memories that we're not aware of ourselves.

We might not always be able to recall a memory that would cause a current phobia, for isntance. But there's a good chance you're subconscious has 'saved' that memory and used it in its own way.

So subconscious stuff is stuff we're not really in control of.
Unconscious is more just an adjective to indicate that we're not fully awake.