Recurring Dreams

[scheherazade_79]

Do you get them? If so, do they follow a pattern based on your mood and where you feel you're at in life? If so, what is that pattern?

Mine:

All's well in Zade World
I'm always in Amsterdam in beautiful female company. Sometimes it's just a case of chatting up a woman working in a coffee shop. Other times it's more sophisticated and I'm part of a lesbian undercover organisation... that just happens to be full of really attractive women. And there's usually food involved.

Extreme stress / unhappiness
I get Nazi concentration camp dreams, where the harm is always being done to my family, not me, and I'm powerless to stop it happening. Those are the dreams where I toss and turn so much that I wake myself up. I also get falling dreams.


New Ventures
I'm usually flying. Sometimes not intentionally - like the pilot of a plane's been taken ill, and I have to land it based on my Microsoft Flight Simulator knowledge. It's never perfect, but I always manage to pull it off. I once even managed to land a futuristic space shuttle.


So am I the only prescriptive dreamer around here?

 

[Nirvanadragones]

Babies. Usually babies who are not mine. Loss, obviously. Jealousy, envy. Fear of abandonment. Rejection. Not being (good) enough.

I get chased by things a lot in my dreams. More specifically, I run away from things a lot. And I'm always scared of what I'm running away from. And usually what is chasing me is something unknown, with supernatural characteristics. I often try to just stop running, and face it. My explanation, is that it's symbolism for fearing the unknown. Especially of those things I consider "bigger" than me. For whatever reason.

I have a reoccurring dream of being in the middle of this huge ice palace. It's very light, and sound resonates. Nothing can be heard except for the dripping of melting water. Sometimes I call out. Mostly, I'm silent. No matter how far I walk, or how tired I get, I never get to the end of it. The symbolism is probably about persistence, facing difficult situations, and finding meaning.

Most of the people and elements I meet in my dreams, are different aspects of myself. Or maybe I'm just arrogant enough to believe this.

 

[English Lady]

When I'm happy and content I will often dream of school and laughing and joking with my friends there.

When I am worried about something I will have running away dreams, falling dreams (off cliffs, in lifts) or depth dreams (falling into water and sinking like a stone) and these scare me alot.

When it's deeper than just worry, stress and upsrt related I will have crazy dreams where my family are involved. Sometimes they will be being hurt and I won't be able to help, other times they will be yelling at me or hurting me. They freak me out the most.

I have two very common ones, but I'm not sure what triggers them off, precisely.

One is I am in a familiar place, usually my old Secondary school and I'm on my own and I have to get to class, usually science and I get lost. the corridors change and I get anxious and I get this sense of impending doom and eventually I wake myself up because i know something nasty is waiting for me.

The other is a link between nightmares, I will be in a very freaky dream and will wake up and because I've had this nightmare I'll go to turn on the light and it won't come on. I then go round the house (sometimes my house, osmetimes my mum's, sometimes a strange place) trying light switches in an absolute blind panic. When I wake from one of these dreams I cannot go back to sleep straight away and I *have* to put on the light straight away.

I'm sure that's all very revealing if you look at it in depth. *L*

 

[only_more_so]

I used to have a recurring dream, actually a couple, but I never correlated them to anything.

One dream, a nightmare, involved a giant shopping mall. It had escalators crossing back and forth in the middle of an atrium. The elevators moved so quickly that it was dangerous to get on, and I'd always fall and barely be able to stand up before getting to the next floor (because not getting up meant getting torn upby the teeth).

Another dream, which was a good dream, started with me running down the street, just for fun (which I don't do for fun). But then I would step and my foot would glide about an inch off the ground. A few more normal running slides, and I could concentrate enough to keep gliding and eventually fly by running without letting my feet touch the ground.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I used to have a recurring dream, actually a couple, but I never correlated them to anything.

One dream, a nightmare, involved a giant shopping mall. It had escalators crossing back and forth in the middle of an atrium. The elevators moved so quickly that it was dangerous to get on, and I'd always fall and barely be able to stand up before getting to the next floor (because not getting up meant getting torn upby the teeth).

Another dream, which was a good dream, started with me running down the street, just for fun (which I don't do for fun). But then I would step and my foot would glide about an inch off the ground. A few more normal running slides, and I could concentrate enough to keep gliding and eventually fly by running without letting my feet touch the ground.

Either back in the Army or wandering around naked. Sometimes even both!

 

[buxxxom]

I haven't recalled a dream since the death of my father, almost 4 years ago. I'm sure I do dream, just never remember them. I want to, though, because I want him to visit in a dream, as others have said a loved one has visited them.

Before that, the only two recurring dreams I've ever had were as a child, I dreamt of flying. Not in a plane, but with arms outstretched, swerving and swooping, finally coming to land at my grandmother's house, where she'd be baking biscuits. The other was after the birth of my eldest child, and I'd dream that our home would be invaded, and I'd be unable to protect her.

 

[rgraham666]

About the only dream I have is wandering a maze where the corridors get smaller and smaller. Eventually I have to crawl and then squirm.

I usually wake up before they crush me. Usually.

 

[scheherazade_79]

Interesting answers, thank you

You know, I'm starting to get a very soft spot for the folks of the AH. Everyone seems so sweet and vulnerable when they come out with stuff like this.

Thank you

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I have recurring dreams, but I couldn't tell you most of them off the top of my head. Most of them aren't even fully formed images.

I used to have this dream when I was younger. I would be at home, and trying to talk to my family. But the words wouldn't come out. It was as if I had laryngitis. I wouldn't be able to see straight either, as if my vision was impaired by something. Like if you push on the sides of your eyes, skewing them to the sides, while squinting. There dream were horrifying for me. Sometimes there would be something resembling a yellow/green bar of soap as the cause of my not being able to talk and see. If I could just get rid of it, I would be able to communicate again. But I never could...

Wow. All sorts of things coming back to me now.

I also had dreams of falling down the staircase. they were all from the view of the couch in the living room. I would see my shadow in the dark falling down the stairs. These dreams were from before I could walk down them face first, and I was still crawling down them like the very small child that I was.

I have also had hundreds of dreams where I would fall up off the the surface of the Earth, into the air. But it was as if I was superman tethered with a bungee chord. I would zoom up into the air, and then get slingshot back down to the Earth at breakneck speed. Over and over again I would just miss the ground, and try to grab onto a tree or a person to stop myself from being flung into the air again. This is the most terrifying of all of my recurring dreams.

And then there are the schematic dreams. No real visuals. Everything looks like an AutoCAD drawing. Sometimes they move, sometimes it's just static images flashing up every now and then in the void of my mind. This isn't a scary dream, but it is always unsettling and I never feel rested after this dream.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

The only one that I can think of (memory triggered by reading other posts here) is that I need to defend myself or another with a gun but can't pull the trigger for some reason, and everything would be alright if just could, but can't. Sometimes it's as if the safety is on but I know it isn't, and other times it's not defined. Weird - I've never had to defend myself with a gun, and shoot only rarely - it's not any part of my year-to-year routine.

Also a similar kind of dream where I need to run and can't.

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Babies.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Alas, dreams are the mind's rubbish. Dreams are the last chance to save stuff before it gets tossed. And like other trash its all gets mixed together. It's only coincidence that any of it has 'meaning.'

Naturally, I dont dream. All of the stuff in my head are keepers.

 

[snap1415]

My standard recurring anxiety dream is: I'm back in college. Today is the day for the final exam in a class and I've forgotten where the class meets.

My other recurring dream isn't so easy to classify. I'm living in a house and there are many rooms that I've never entered, many doors I've never opened. I wander though the house, shaking door knobs and wondering.

 

[CrimsonMaiden]

I have more "recurring themes" than actual dreams that are the same that repeat.

I used to dream about being in a car and it rolling over a cliff or down a ravine. After being in a horrific car crash, that dream got replaced by tornadoes. For years after the wreck, if I dreamed about something bad, it was tornadoes. The dreams about being in a car that rolls off the cliff have gradually slipped back in after being gone for several years.

The only other recurring theme I have is sex. Except... they aren't erotic in the least. Usually, I'm attempting to have sex, but something always happens. Either, we are in a weird place, or we are in room with everyone else, or someone interrupts us, etc. I can't for the life of me ever remember having a good dream about sex (ie, "wet" dream).

 

[impressive]

I have two.

One is a nightmare, and I cannot remember it. I just know when I wake that I had "that dream" -- and I'm terrified. I haven't had it for years, though. It was more common in my teens & 20s.

The other is more recent and once involved my fondest wish. I still have the dream occasionally, but it is now tinged with dread rather than hope. IOW, I don't want it to happen now because the outcome would be far, far different.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Also a similar kind of dream where I need to run and can't.

I forgot about that one. I am trying to run to or from something, but my legs won't move properly. I end up dragging myself by my arms at sometimes superhuman speeds. Those dreams have been annoying, frightening, and sometimes even a bit fun. In one I was crawling to work at 15 to 25 mph over the speed limit.

I have also had the gun dreams, where I pull the trigger but nothing happens. And then I end up making noises as if a child playing cops and robbers, as if that will cause the gun to fire and save the day.

 

[starrkers]

I rarely recall my dreams. Very rarely.

When I do, they are usually domestic bliss type dreams that change. Loved ones suddenly are different people, and locations morph too. And I'll accept the change for a bit, but then I'll get a "hang on - I was talking to dad, not you". Sometimes the dream continues, with me battling to accept the constant morphing. These usually devolve into nightmares.
Other times me realising things are morphing will end it.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I have gotten to the point where if I realize I am dreaming I either wake up or experience dream control. Dream control being a balancing act of staying asleep with enough consciousness to willingly bend your dream's reality to your will without waking up. It is very difficult. Sometimes I drift even further into the dream than before, losing what control I had temporarily gained.

But I have found that dream control is so worth it if you can accomplish it. The first step is knowing that you are in a dream though. Once you do that, anything is possible.

 

[Vermilion]

teeth falling out, usually in front of other people, always so real that I'll wake up and check my mouth. Recently I've even referred to my dreams *in* my dreams...

ie - I'll be dreaming that my teeth are falling out and I'll be crying and telling someone that ' this is like my dream about teeth falling out, but its for real'.

ack. hate that dream.



Extreme stress / unhappiness
I get Nazi concentration camp dreams, where the harm is always being done to my family, not me, and I'm powerless to stop it happening. Those are the dreams where I toss and turn so much that I wake myself up.

I had this one once. It was sickening and still makes me feel queasy to think of it.

 

[slyc_willie]

I used to have dreams as a kid that would leave me screaming and clawing my eyes, to the point where my mother would actually start crying and get hysterical in her effort to comfort me. Only once I ran myself down would I get back to sleep.

I've had one dream that technically qualifies as recurring, though I've only had it three times, several years apart each time. I'm always in uniform, standing under a tree, with the impression that I'm waiting for someone. A therapist once 'deciphered' the dream by saying it's about death, or rather, my feelings toward it. Oh, and I'm always aware of things being in fours in the dream: four medals on my chest, four stones on the ground, four clouds in the sky.

There's also always a bicycle somewhere nearby. Don't know what that would mean, but I'm always glad it's there.

 

[scheherazade_79]

It's funny. We're all so different, but the basic themes of our dreams are much the same.

Wonder what it would be like if you asked the same question to a group of people from a completely different part of the world, or a different period in history.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

teeth falling out, usually in front of other people, always so real that I'll wake up and check my mouth. Recently I've even referred to my dreams *in* my dreams...

I forgot about that one. I hate that dream...

 

[neonlyte]

Flying... but not for ages.

On Friday, I actually fell out of bed whilst escaping through a 'dream door' - it's like an ordinary door... except it isn't

 

[impressive]

I have gotten to the point where if I realize I am dreaming I either wake up or experience dream control. Dream control being a balancing act of staying asleep with enough consciousness to willingly bend your dream's reality to your will without waking up. It is very difficult. Sometimes I drift even further into the dream than before, losing what control I had temporarily gained.

But I have found that dream control is so worth it if you can accomplish it. The first step is knowing that you are in a dream though. Once you do that, anything is possible.

Lucid dreaming. *nods* I've done that -- but, oddly enough, not with recurring dreams.

I forgot about the recurring dream I used to have as a child (elementary school years): I would arrive at school and remove my coat to hang it in my locker -- and be naked underneath. I always awoke before anyone noticed me, but I experienced that moment of "What the fuck to I do now?" horror before waking. It never occurred to me to just put my coat back on.

 

[carsonshepherd]

My standard recurring anxiety dream is: I'm back in college. Today is the day for the final exam in a class and I've forgotten where the class meets.

I have that one and variations of it (I've forgotten my class schedule, I don't know where the classrooms are, etc etc) constantly.

I have the teeth-falling-out dream occasionally too.