Dream Frequency and Intensity

Freud, of course, posited that dreams were the expression of the subconscious, bringing our fears and hidden desires to the surface so that we could safely and sanely explore them. On the opposite end of the spectrum, some psychologists and neuroscientists insist that dreams mean absolutely nothing—that they are merely the random firing of neurons in the brain during R.E.M. And as is so often usual with such polar arguments, the truth probably lay somewhere in the middle.

I am not sure what dreams mean—I suspect they are tied to our fears and desires, but I also know that many of mine are utterly random, composed of people who I have not seen or thought of for years—and sometimes people I have never met! It seems somewhat of a worn-out question, anyway.

What I am interested in is the frequency of dreams. Yes, I know that we all dream several times per night, but why is it that we so often have such amnesia regarding them? Though by "we," I mean not me so much. I remember 1-2 dreams every night, and they are very vivid and rarely good dreams (though when they are, they are such frustratingly unattainable visions that I wake up feeling more shaken than I do from nightmares). It has not always been this way; I began remembering my dreams nearly every night about 3 years ago, when I broke up with my first boyfriend (which proved to be somewhat of a traumatic event). I thought it was just a phase, but it has yet to go away, though I have learned to adjust. But that's a whole 'nother story.

Tell me about your dreams. Frequency? Re-occuring characters or themes? Happy? Sad? Sexual? Also, I've noticed that I remember my dreams much more frequently when I am napping, even if the naps are several hours long. My dreams also seem to be a lot more bizarre during naps.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I remember dreams at most once a week. Usually they're pretty dull. A number of my recent dreams have actually been of me sitting at work really bored. I wake up and realize I haven't even gone to work yet, so I just feel .

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I tend to go through periods where I remember 1-2 dreams every night, and then go through spans where I remember nothing. Often, though, I'll wake up and remember everything vividly, but after a few hours, I won't be able to recall much of anything, other than that it was a wierd dream. Mostly my dreams involve work, but with my co-workers in odd situations (the last dream I had involved a co-worker being a bank teller). They're not usually sexual (at least not the ones I recall), and it's been years since I had a dream that left me with a feeling of dread.

Sometimes my dreams involve recurring fictional locations. I'll dream that I live in particular house/apartment, and though I've never seen it before in real life, in the dream it feels familiar, and I'll see it in multiple dreams.

Usually, I know all the people in my dreams, although they're often as I remember them the clearest. For example, Tritoch (my brother) appears frequently, but he's almost never an adult. I spent the most time with him before I left home for college, when he was 10-11, so that's how my subconcious perceives him in my dreams.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I always remember my dreams and I have dreams every single night. Most of them aren't bad dreams, but annoying. Like someone or something trying to stop me from something I want to do.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I love dreams! <3

When I was a little kid, I used to dream constantly about killing someone. Pretty much every other day, I would wake up from a dream where I just killed a man. It was usually provoked (for example the guy would harass my friend), but not intentional (I'd push him against the wall and his head would explode, or one time I pushed him down a flight of stairs and he broke his neck). My friend would always tell me to run. The rest of the dream was spent running away, running down stairs at first and then just running over land and through foreign towns. I never got caught, ever. The moral of that dream always seemed to be "if you want to get away with murder, just run away".

For a while when I was a teenager I would dream multiple dreams every day, and I had become increasingly adept at becoming lucid in dreams. Did you know that your brain can't actually "draw" hands when you're dreaming? It's a good trick to check if you're dreaming, just look at your hands. If you can't, you're dreaming (or blindfolded). Anyway I dreamt about secret agents and flying around and superpowers and stuff like that. i'm such a boy

Anyway, after a while I stopped doing that because I barely got enough sleep to survive, and I certainly never dreamed (although they say you dream every night, so I guess I should say I didn't sleep long enough to have dreams that I could remember?). The only dreams I would get would be the ultra-realistic kind, which I would mistake for memories. I even went to meet someone once because in my dream we made that appointment.

Nowadays I get quite a wild variety of dreams. I get realistic dreams that I can't separate from memories, I get wishful dreams where I'm married to my girl* with kids and a good job, and I get scary "what the fuck does that mean?!" Freudian dreams. I remember my dreams about once or twice a week, depending on how much sleep I get.

* Sometimes, I dream about casual relationships (there's no sex in my dreams, ever) with other girls, which makes me feel bad. I honestly believe these dreams are wishful thinking on the part of my brain, so it's really bad.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I remember most of my dreams from early childhood to early adolescence. It was impossible not to. Most were rather terrifying but a welcome surrealism made for an interesting experience nonetheless.

My dreams nowadays are fairly boring, yet still strange. I have no reason to remember a dream which bores me.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I used to keep a dream diary, which apart from being a great reference for artwork and poetry etc was also a way of increasing my capability to recall dreams.

The dreams that stick out the most in my memory would be those revolving around trying to attack someone but they seem unaffected, having some sort of secret super power (such as flying) that I can't prove to anyone, and dreams which seem to have a precognitive aspect. The latter may be the same as astrology's bullshit; it could mean anything, but I personally believe it may be a mild form of premonition.

I have the most vivid dreams when I nap during the day, or if I'm ill. The last two times this happened I had Groundhog Day-esque dreams where I thought I was awake, found something which disproved this (such as aliens or the London Eye being right outside my front door) and then thought I was awake again ad infinitum. The only good thing about these dreams is that I can lucid dream, since I realise I am dreaming.

More recently, I have had trouble distinguishing dreams from reality, despite their nonsensical nature. For instance, about a week ago I dreamt that it started raining really badly, and they had to take the roads in because of it. For some reason this also included anywhere outside of a room in the house, and on waking was so fixated in this belief that I lay in my bed for half an hour before realising it was okay to get up.

Mostly my dreams leave me with a sense of foreboding and uneasiness; I very rarely have dreams where I wake up smiling and only once to memory woke up crying (I think due to the nature of that nightmare I was fully justified in doing so).

FELIPE NO

I dream every night and always remember them, they are always in color and always very vivid. Oddly enough I have dreams even when I take 10-30 minute naps...

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I really love dreams. Whenever I have one, its always a great adventure, whether it be thrilling (ie nightmare) or heart-warming. Unfortunately I only remember my dreams, say, twice a month. If I could do something to make myself remember my dreams, then I'd do it, assuming it isn't some wacky program, or a program which promises something if you pay a lot of money.

My dreams are generally happy and frivolous, and those are my favourite types of dreams. The intensity of them is usually very strong, as when I remember my dream, I generally remember it to the last detail. Here's hoping my dream memory doesn't wane as I grow older...

Edit:: Nice thread, by the way.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I remember my dreams at least a few times a week usually. Occasionally I will have these great themes with storylines and and plots. Lately I find that I have been dreaming about my ex boyfriends a lot. Usually I am with them, or trying to be with them. Is it a secret desire? I don't know. But I recently had a dream with my husband and it wasn't a good one. Dreams are fun.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I think everybody has dreams they remember because they made an impression on that person (like the flaming skeleton wielding a sword that ripped up from my sheets one time), but as for it being usual for me, no, not really. I'll always remember bits and pieces, but very rarely the whole thing.

I believe that remembering dreams has to do with whether or not the person has completed a dream cycle (or has been interrupted during one). Meaning that if you are woken up or you set your alarm a couple of hours earlier than you might wake normally, you'll probably remember the dream.

Personally I seem to remember dreams when I wake briefly (say at 5am) and then go back to sleep for a couple of hours. That couple of hours will give me a vivid recollection of the dream I last had when I fully wake up.

My dreams never really have storylines, unfortunately, so much as random jumbles. I get a lot of emotional impressions, but never anything cohesive.


Anyone here tried experimenting with dream control?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Skexis

Anyone here tried experimenting with dream control?

Do you mean controlling what you dream about, or controlling what it is that happens in your dreams (IE: you're being chased, so you think "I dont want to be here" and suddenly you're in a different place)?

I've never really tried to control my dreams, from what I know, but as for what I dream about, that almost always has something to do with what I spend a lot of time thinking about before sleeping. Lately, of course, its been my (recently made) ex boyfriend. I find it really frustrating trying to get over a guy and stop thinking about him, when in my dreams we're usually together. Its always been that way after I've been broken up with, though.

Usually, I remember my dreams fairly easily. I should start writing them down again... I have a word document to keep track of my dreams. Its mostly for the benefit of my writing, but writing them down is supposed to help you remember them more and more.

Also, I'll find that my dreams are connected with dejavu (sp?) some times, mostly concerning places. I once had a dream where I was standing on a field, and a little bit away on a hill was a windowless brick building. I didnt remember the dream until a high school soccer game, when we were the visiting team. Facing the school from the fields was the school's gym... a windowless brick building. It was freaky, but its actually happened a couple times.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Temari

I find it really frustrating trying to get over a guy and stop thinking about him, when in my dreams we're usually together. Its always been that way after I've been broken up with, though.

I'm really kind of relieved that someone else has that problem. Unfortunately, mine is now going on 3 years and the guy's getting married. I would really, REALLY like to stop thinking about him, but I dream about him at least a couple of times a week (usually more), and I often wake up feeling completely immersed in those same emotions that were present in the dream. Sometimes I'm sort of confused which life I'm living and which I'm dreaming.

Edit: Okay, off to dreamland! Wish me luck!

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Skexis

Anyone here tried experimenting with dream control?

Yeah, in my teens I used to be really into lucid dreaming a lot. It is actually super fun, I really recommend it!

If you want to try it, there are a few really easy tricks to have control of your dreams, though not all work for everyone. First of all there's the transition from waking life to sleep. Apparently one of the easiest ways to get into a lucid dream is to imagine walking down a long winding stairwell until you fall asleep, and then step through a door at the bottom of the stairs, and you "enter" your dreamworld while still being conscious of the fact.

That trick never actually worked for me so all the tricks I used were to become lucid once I'm inside a dream. Like I said in my previous post, the easiest and most reliable "check" for me was always looking at my hands--when you're sleeping your mind can't draw fingers. It's also really interesting cause your mind does all kinds of weird things to avoid having to do so.

Another well-known lucidity trick is to have a note in your pocket saying something like "this is real". Whenever you think you're dreaming, get the note out, and if it's not there, you're dreaming.

The hard part is to keep dreaming when you realize you're dreaming. Personally I never had trouble with that but it's supposed to be really hard.

I had more and more control over my dreams as I became more "skilled" at lucid dreaming. In the end the dreams became almost like SimDream, where I could just rebuild the whole dream and then walk around in it like a God. To be honest, it was more fun when it was just a dreamworld and I had whatever superpowers I wanted.

Originally Posted by blue

I'm really kind of relieved that someone else has that problem.

I used to have that problem a lot when I went to college. I was madly in love with that girl (in some ways I'm still not over her, and it was years ago), so it's only to be expected. The dreams generally were of the "we broke up but now we get back together" nature though, so it's kind of different.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I used to try all sorts to lucid dream, but since the only techniques I knew of were about my hands and at random intervals in the day proving to myself I was awake (which I often forgot to do), it never really worked. I'm going to have to try some of these.

Thinking about it, I'm not sure I've ever had a lucid dream. From what I've heard, my experience would be controlled dreaming; where I can choose what I can do but I can't control my surroundings (although once I did summon up Ifrit to obliterate my would-be murderer, not sure if something that monumental could cound as a change in surroundings heh). Apparently lucid dreaming is a diluted form of astral projection, but that's a whole different kettle of fish.

FELIPE NO

I've taken control of my dreams before. I think part of it has something to do with me being a very impatient person. So in my dreams say I'm running away from a bad guy. It will be one of those dreams where you try to run but always slow down. Well in some dreams before I have turned around and was like fuck this, I'm gonna kick this guys ass. It is only a dream after all. So I'll turn around and beat the hell out of whatever or whoever is chasing me.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I remember my dreams atleast once a week. Sometimes I have really weird dreams and dreams that wake me up. I have had times where I would hear things in real life that at that moment would affect my dream. I've also had instances where it was more of an out of body experiance then a dream. ;p Don't have those alot.

And I sometimes get sleep paralysis but that has nothing to do with dreams.

Anyway I love learning about dreams. Wish I knew more though.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Bernard Black

at random intervals in the day proving to myself I was awake (which I often forgot to do), it never really worked.

That never worked for me either, and I've never actually heard anyone say it worked after they were told to use it--just people saying "try that one, it might work". There was another one that worked for me where you had to recall how you got from one point to another. If you can't recall how you got from one situation to another, you're probably dreaming.

For example I was in a classroom, and I was part of a band. Suddenly I found myself in a big hall at a sort of formal party, and the other bandmembers were saying we should go practice. At that point I became suspicious (I wasn't in a band at the time for one, and formal parties in big halls were pretty unusual for me), so I decided to try to remember how I got to the hall. I couldn't remember how I got there (nor how I got into my black formal suit and tie), so I told my "bandmembers" that I was dreaming and we didn't have to practice. (And they were kinda like "naahh, don't be silly..." )

So yeah, maybe you can try that one sometime too. Unless you're super forgetful I guess...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by blue

I'm really kind of relieved that someone else has that problem. Unfortunately, mine is now going on 3 years and the guy's getting married. I would really, REALLY like to stop thinking about him, but I dream about him at least a couple of times a week (usually more), and I often wake up feeling completely immersed in those same emotions that were present in the dream. Sometimes I'm sort of confused which life I'm living and which I'm dreaming.

I'm still kinda dealing with the same thing as well. I had a dream lastnight where my ex ruined my time in some badass snow-driving rally race in Colorado to as me to take care of her new boyfriend's pet hamster. (I've got no idea if he actually has one, but he did in the dream.) I attempted to flush the hamster down the toilet. I wish the dream had just been about me and the cool rally car race, but instead she had to invade my subconscience and ruin it.

I've tried on several occasions to induce lucid dreams, but it's something that I haven't been consistant about. I've heard that keeping a journal helps.

You guys seen Waking Life?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

How is keeping a journal supposed to help? I keep one off and on.

Is it suppose to decrease the number of dreams remembered or something? Or somehow help you be more able to take control in your dreams?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I meant keeping a dream journal can help in trying to induce lucid dreaming.

How ya doing, buddy?

I've heard that keeping a journal actually helps to remember the dreams. As you focus on trying to remember your dreams, it becomes easier and easier. Not sure how it would help lucid dreaming though. At this point in my life, I'd prefer to not be dreaming at all. O_o;

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

A couple times a month, I have a dream that I'm about to go in to a test that I haven't studied for. I'm told that this plagues college graduates for the rest of their days. At least, it plagues my dad >:\ We both have a distaste for college.

I'm a very stressed fellow, and literally ALL of my dreams (to my recollection) seem to hinge on that fact... Making them nightmares =( I want happy dreams~

How ya doing, buddy?

Just the other night, I dreamed that I missed a big exam. Then I woke up and realized that I've already graduated.

How ya doing, buddy?

Unfortunately, all my good dreams are never lucid, or I wake up when the amount of good fortune I experience seems to good to be true. All my bad dreams I can never do anything about.

I've recently within the past couple months or so have had many dreams in which I can reason by the events of the day. When I wake up I realize what part of the dream corresponds to what I've done the previous day and can link every weird concept or nuance back to an event in the day.

There are 3 dreams in particular that I can still remember from when I was about 6 years old. I was the best dream I've ever had, 1 was a nightmare and the technique I tried using to forget it, and the last was rather lackluster.

Good dreams involve finding rare games in a mall, only to find out that the store is closed.
Bad dreams involve completely missing stuff like final exams, waking up repeatedly, or running in place.

A lot of the time (maybe bi-weekly) I get sleep paralysis, or dreams I just cannot wake up from until I wait out a certain time length. If I try to wake up, I know I'm still sleeping or paralyzed and can't do anything. Those suck

Jam it back in, in the dark.