I've been dreaming a lot lately. Not quite sure why. But they've been real doozies. One night last week I dreamt that I let Baby Girl walk by herself in a parking lot (for the first time), ended up fighting with her at the door to the store because she didn't want to come inside, and watched her get run over by a car backing up. Needless to say I was unsettled when I woke up.
Another night this week I dreamt that a man broke into our house. He didn't want money, our electronics, even DH's guns. Nope. He wanted the stickers off our TV remote. Not all of the remotes mind you. Just one.
Don't ask me. I have no idea.
I can understand the one about my baby girl. She's growing up and starting to become more and more independent. It's understandable for mothers to have difficulty with those first steps. I've nursed her, fed her, clothed her and bathed her for almost two years. And now my angel wants to brush her own teeth, put on her own shoes, and go to the potty by herself. Apparently my subconscious is having a few more issues with this than I realized.
The remote guy defies logic.
Most of the time I don't pay much attention to my dreams. They're there. Unlike some people, I usually remember mine when I wake up but the memories are promptly whisked away by hungry girls, children to dress and a schedule to keep.
Every once and a while one sticks with me though. And those I pay attention to. Either because they hold some important meaning for my life or because they involve my story (or a potential story). I don't know how many times I've unraveled the solution to a plot problem I'd been working on in a dream.
I'll never forget the night I woke up from a dream where my hand was cut across the palm. All I remember was the blood seeping everywhere and the need to find someone to help get me to the doctor, a huge sense of urgency. I remembered this dream because it was so personal (it was like I was watching it happen to myself). It took me almost four hours where the vision would pop back into my mind for no apparent reason before I realized it was a clue. That night I wrote a scene where my bakery store owner heroine cut her hand afterhours chopping chocolate (while thinking about the hero) and the hero, whose computer store was next door, took her to the emergency room. It was the perfect setting to put them into - my independent heroine having to rely on this man for help. And this man who wanted no responsibilities was suddenly thrust into caring for this woman he'd been trying to ignore.
I've been more aware of my dreams the last several days - perhaps its because I'm waiting for a stroke of genius to show up and provide me that perfect scene that will become the cherry on the top of the book I'm working on. It's great the way it is but we all know how writers can be....I can't help thinking I can always make it better.
So what do you dream about? And do you believe dreams hold any significance for us?
Instigator
10 comments:
I'm sorry, but the first thing that popped to mind was that Buffy episode with the "Cheese Guy."
I think I actually need to get some sleep. A coherent comment will be forthcoming in the morning.
PC
In a high school psychology class we discussed dream analysis. We had to keep dream journals where we wrote down what we thought about before going to sleep and immediately recorded our dreams upon waking. We were looking for connections and significance. I don't know if dreams hold any significance or not, but I must tell you that I have some odd ones sometimes. I don't remember every dream, but there are many that stand out because they are so vivid.
One I remember vividly from childhood involved me at a yard sale at my house being chased by Beetlejuice. As he caught up with me he turned into Edward Scissorhands...hmm...wonder if it was something I watched...LOL. No matter what triggered the dream, it has stuck with me for a long time. Maybe because of the emotions it stirred...the fear...or maybe because it was so odd.
Another odd one happened about a year or so ago. I was a bridesmaid in a bright (and ugly) pink dress in a mob wedding. At the reception I was holding an infant talking to the bride when a rival mob family attacked and started shooting at everyone. I ran up a massive staircase (like that of the Lincoln Memorial) shielding the child with my body when I was shot in the back. I arched my back in my dream and woke up when I arched it in real life. The dream was so real, my heart was pounding and I was sweating as I sat up in bed. Not sure what caused that dream...never saw The Godfather movies or The Sopranos.
Many times my dreams involve me seeing things through the eyes of a heroine of a love story of my own creation. I have had several like that. Everything is so vivid and real.
I often wish there was a way to record your dreams. Like a video that you can watch over and over and show to others (at least some of the dreams).
Sorry for rambling...dreams interest me.
I think they must have some significance; I'm just not sure what.
I don't dream. Or at least I don't remember them. I have Restless Leg Syndrome and take two medications to help keep my legs calm at night. These meds also make me very drowsy and apparently erase all memory of my dreams.
But better that than a night with my legs twitching and jerking and keeping me awake.
PM
I don't know whether dreams have significance or not, but I know I always remember the weird ones--trying to drive a cardboard box--not to mention the distubing ones--falling off a cliff. (I always wake up before I hit the ground.)
Odd on the remote sticker theif. That's a new twist. :-)
I dream all the time and remember most of them. They are surreal dreams, compilations of images that I've either seen in movies, read in books, or fears that manifest themselves. Sometimes I'll dream 2-3 different dreams in one night, remembering all of them.
As a kid my dreams were horrific, showcasing monsters, robots, aliens, you know the kind of things that threaten a child. As I got older and became pregnant, I found myself rejected by my husband and fought demons trying to take my child. Throughout my life I've had spiritual dreams, good vs. evil and the resolution all depending upon the decisions I make or the confidence I have in my own spirituality, whether or not I'm willing to take a stand.
Dreams are windows into the subconscious and seek to explain what we cannot understand on a conscious level. Perhaps you couldn't find the remote recently and the dream simply identifies the remote's importance or your fear that you will lose the remote for good.
There is an explanation hidden in every dream. Some people live their lives without using their imagination so when they go to sleep the mind says, "Action", and the imagination takes over. Others use their imaginations so much that when they are resting dreams become vivid and real, and seem so when they wake up. I fall into the last category. I've woken up actually feeling as though my hand had been eaten by a large, mutated fly. I've been shot, stabbed, I often drown a lot. All are signs of being overwhelmed. And I usually am when these dreams occur.
Stephen King uses things like this to fuel his novels. If I wrote a book for every dream I've had, I'd be a millionaire. Some of them have been doosies.
Kathy
I have lots of silly dreams. I've never tried to drive a cardboard box, but there's plenty that rival it. I usually get myself all into a tizzy in my sleep, wake up all stressed out, just to recall that there's nothing going on that I need to worry about. It usually takes a long time for me to shake that feeling.
I also have a recurring spider dream. Sometimes its one big spider lowering down over my face from the ceiling. Sometimes its the sensation of them crawling all over me under the sheets. Since I'm a sleepwalker, this usually results in me leaping from the bed yelling, running across the room, turning on the lights and searching for the mysterious (and absent) spiders. Then I wake up, realize it was a dream, cuss, turn off the light and get back into bed. I do this once a week or so.
The funny thing...I'm not afraid of spiders in real life. Its weird. Of course, I'm afraid of one the size of a dinner plate inching toward my head, but who wouldn't be...
SP
Ha! I just remembered my dream last night. Me and a couple people (a friend from college, some people I didn't know, and PC) were sitting around talking and one of the women brought a guy over for us to meet. I said something to him and PC snapped at me that I interrupted him and was being rude. I kicked her under the table (not hard, of course) and she stuck her tongue out at me.
Wonder what that means? :)
SP
Oh, thank God I don't have the spider dreams! I'm terrified of spiders.
Usually I dream weird things that don't mean anything to me. Occassionally I get mad at someone in a dream (like my husband) and am really ugly to them, something I would never do in real life. :)
Recently I've been having dreams that resemble mysteries-murders to be solved, robberies, kidnapping, that sort of thing. I have no idea where these are coming from. I don't write suspense, although I do like a good suspense movie or horror movie. Hmmm...
Angel
Give me the stickers
"The Remote Guy"
Sometimes dreams become very detail oriented and envolve people you see on a daily basis in compromising situations that actually make you laugh hysterically when you see them the next time. Others are your suppressed memories coming to rear there ugly head. Such as I have this dream/nightmare where I'm young and have my hair in pigtails and someone is watching me swing on a swingset that is located at the top of a steep hill. As I am swinging very high in the air, I suddenly fall off the swing as I'm in mid air and just as I'm about to hit the ground I wake up. If I manage to fall back asleep that nightmare is always followed by flashbacks of the man that was watching me on the swingset chasing me down a deserted street and the harder I run to escape him the clumsier I get and I keep falling. Luckily for me I eventually wake up and don't have to relive in my dreams what I know happened when I was 6.
Sorry if I've bummed anyone out now but just trying to give you another perspective on Dreams.
By the way Hi "The Remote Guy"!
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