What's it like to have a dream?
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To answer out of order, I don't analyze them. I don't think there's really any reason to.
Sometimes it can be a window to the subconscious, but it's mostly just random things.It's really hard to answer what it's like. I dream very frequently and quite often vividly. What it's like varies so much night by night. Lately, for maybe the past three weeks, I've been having one nightmare after the next after the next. For me, I tend to enjoy the scarier dreams that deal with "monster movie" plots. Zombies, clowns, ghosts, etc. Those are fun for me because they're not real irl, so it's easier to enjoy.
The problem I'm having right now is that these nightmares are too real and too targeted. "Nobody likes you" or bleeding out or being alone or getting cancer. Just all the horrible things my brain can do to make me wake up miserable, I guess.
When I'm stressed, I have a set of reoccurring themes that makes it easier to identify as a stress dream and therefore not be as effected by the events or emotions in the dream. Themes are: tsunamis, bears, brakes failing, or physical abuse.
One of the greatest problems I have after dreaming so vividly my whole life, is that I'm terrified that my brain will flip a switch when certain situations arise. For example, I've often dreamed about drowning. As in I'm in a pool or lake or ocean and for some reason am unable to get air. So I start panicking and doing anything I can. As I finally can't take it anymore, I gasp for the air that isn't there and... Huh. I can breathe water? It takes a bit, but inevitably the dream says look at you, you've always been able to breathe water, you just never tried.. So when it comes to the real world, I'm terrified that if there's a situation where I need to hold my breath for a while underwater, my brain is going to just lean into the many lessons learned and tell me to just breathe and it'll be fine, because I've always been able to breathe water, duh.
So. None of that probably answers your question. But it's such an esoteric and personal and varied thing from person to person. Or from week to week within a single person.
If you do want to dream more, try to keep a little notebook on your nightstand and when you wake up with these dreams you rarely have, write them down. It clues your brain in to start remembering them more and then you will start to truly dream.
Sometimes I'm glad I don't dream considering nightmares and overthinking the meaning of things.
What I'll say about not dreaming is life feels more mundane.
Wake, self care (brush teeth, shower, eat), work, chores, brainrot, sleep.
I feel like even bad dreams would shake things up more.
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Sounds like you probably aren't getting enough sleep to get into REM very often. 4-5 an hour isn't the healthiest.
Valid. I'm trying to fix it.
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?For me personally it's a bit like... the creation of memories. And the synthesis of what I like to call "ambient feelings" – like vibes or atmospheres people, places or situations give off. A lot of layered emotions, a lot superpositions, where something or someone is multiple things at the same time. "Chimeras", which are blends of people I know for example.
Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
That's normal. I swear that my dreams are really detailed sometimes, but the memories become muddy the more I think about them.
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?
Yes. I take my dreams very serious. They are weird and hard to describe, sometimes they are cruel in a way. I consider myself a pretty reflected person, but from time to time my dreams show me stuff I don't want to admit to myself.
That said, I love dreaming. Reality is rigid and boring. I like to imagine we live and absorb impressions only so our brains can dream. Which is bullshit
but I enjoy the thought. -
I'm not sure if I have them and don't remember them or just don't have them. Like you, I may get a little something during short naps but next to nothing during longer sleep.
Related to this, are you able to picture images in your head while awake? There's a phenomenon called aphantasia that I've participated in a couple studies on. I'm somewhere around a 4 or 5 on the picture in the wiki. I recall at least one of the studies exploring the correlation between aphantasia and dreaming.
Holy shit yeah. I'm at a 5. Zero ability to picture things in my mind.
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For those who don't dream much, I'm curious of your surrounding sleep habits and how much you've looked into changing your habits. This could be a big indicator you're not getting into REM sleep, which is not good.
Do any of you drink alcohol, take other prescribed substances (or not prescribed)?
Have you tried eating foods rich in magnesium or taking magnesium supplements?
I have woken up aware that I dreamt perhaps a half dozen times in my adult life.
Alcohol: no
Medicine: no
Drugs: no
Never tried loading magnesium.
Terrible sleep hygiene.
Comfy bed, dark room.
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?Everyone dreams, FYI. It's an integral part of sleeping. You just don't remember it.
It's like being awake except more entertaining things are happening. It's a window to the subconscious in the sense I can tell problems from the day appear in them, but not in a Freudian way where they mean things.
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?I have aphantasia so don’t really have full fledged scenic dreams with a narrative like some people have.
It’s more like I see my daughter crawling and falling into the plug socket so I need to go in after her, and then I’m suddenly in a field full of wasps.
I don’t ‘see’ much, it’s more like flashes of images and emotions; and I’ll often open my eyes and talk or shout but still be asleep mentally.
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For those who don't dream much, I'm curious of your surrounding sleep habits and how much you've looked into changing your habits. This could be a big indicator you're not getting into REM sleep, which is not good.
Do any of you drink alcohol, take other prescribed substances (or not prescribed)?
Have you tried eating foods rich in magnesium or taking magnesium supplements?
I don’t really dream much but my watch says my REM is fine.
Cutting out weed after a stint gives me more dreams than usual, but then cuts back to my baseline once in a blue moon after a while.
Take lots of magnesium, have always been like this. Also have aphantasia though so not much to my dreams to remember.
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?wrote on last edited by [email protected]I used to be like that, unable to dream/remember dreams. Turns out that was because I had nightmares and terrors and stress dreams and my brain simply didn’t want to remember them.
I took a shaman drug (that I won’t mention, because I absolutely do not recommend it for anyone ever, and regret taking it myself) over the course of many months, and it absolutely gave me the permanent ability to dream and recall, and even consistently lucid dream (I don’t recall dreams every day, but at least once a week now). I now have a whole town that acts as a hub to get to all the places I’ve dreamed about more than once. It’s kinda fun.
However, these dreams are massively emotionally taxing. I often encounter my mother (the point of the shaman drug is to interact with dead ancestors), so I’ve relegated her to a middle floor of “my house” so she’s easier to avoid.. those experiences are.. just so overwhelmingly taxing. They do help with some closure stuff even tho I know it’s just my brain making up both sides of things, but it’s draining all the same.
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I have aphantasia so don’t really have full fledged scenic dreams with a narrative like some people have.
It’s more like I see my daughter crawling and falling into the plug socket so I need to go in after her, and then I’m suddenly in a field full of wasps.
I don’t ‘see’ much, it’s more like flashes of images and emotions; and I’ll often open my eyes and talk or shout but still be asleep mentally.
Thanks to this post I just learned I also have aphantasia!
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Yeah I get fragments too.
Usually wake up to some pieces of life in a zombie apocalypse... And I was a blacksmith? Making bullets? Farming tools? WTH
That's a good skill to have in that scenario. Dream you must have planned well!
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That's a good skill to have in that scenario. Dream you must have planned well!
I've always been fond of working with my hands but growing up and living in apartments doesn't support wood or metal working.
I'm a keyboard jocky my whole life.
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I used to be like that, unable to dream/remember dreams. Turns out that was because I had nightmares and terrors and stress dreams and my brain simply didn’t want to remember them.
I took a shaman drug (that I won’t mention, because I absolutely do not recommend it for anyone ever, and regret taking it myself) over the course of many months, and it absolutely gave me the permanent ability to dream and recall, and even consistently lucid dream (I don’t recall dreams every day, but at least once a week now). I now have a whole town that acts as a hub to get to all the places I’ve dreamed about more than once. It’s kinda fun.
However, these dreams are massively emotionally taxing. I often encounter my mother (the point of the shaman drug is to interact with dead ancestors), so I’ve relegated her to a middle floor of “my house” so she’s easier to avoid.. those experiences are.. just so overwhelmingly taxing. They do help with some closure stuff even tho I know it’s just my brain making up both sides of things, but it’s draining all the same.
I live a extremely clean life. Zero drugs. Makes me want to try a induced hallucination...
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I live a extremely clean life. Zero drugs. Makes me want to try a induced hallucination...
Good call.
Hallucinations are fun, if they are purely visual and you know they are coming..
I have olfactory hallucinations as well as occasional auditory (related to migraines and headaches, not drug use) and those are just very mundane. Lol
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There are many kinds of dreams, each with a different sensation.
- There's vivid nightmares which leave you in a state of panic, often unable to go back to sleep due to a hyper focus on every little sound and touch.
- There's action dreams which give you an adrenaline rush and a state of random anger.
- There's emotional dreams which leave you as an empty shell, crying or full of longing for something out of reach.
- There's horny dreams which leave a puddle in your bed.
- And there's also happy dreams which fill you up with joy and leave you refreshed and full of love for life.
Of course there's also the forgotten dreams which can be anything, but don't really matter to you because you can't remember having them. But they often leave behind the feeling you're supposed to be doing something, which can drive you crazy during the day.
Also the dreams that feel like distant memories and can sometimes be difficult discerning if they really happened or not
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I don't really dream. It's extremely rare to the point where I'll have a handful in a year and I don't remember them. Waking up with an emotional reaction to an odd dream inspired by life events or entertainment... Then the details slip away from me and I can't even talk to anyone about the experience.
What's it like for you?
Do you enjoy, dislike or analyze your dreams?
Is it really a window to the subconscious for you?I had a dream not too long ago (week maybe) where I didn’t dream about an event or a past, but I dreamt about a project I was working on and I invented something for myself that I can actually build right now if I wanted, but it is meant for me a decade or two in the future.
I’m a wood carver and I’m currently carving a gift for my brother in law. The dream was me fixing a lot of the things I had issue with in the project, and a future idea about my parents that I’ll be writing down and brainstorming until the times comes that I’ll probably want to build it.
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Brakes failing is the worst! Also, half the time I can’t reach the pedals, and/or see clearly over the steering wheel.
Or I'm just outside of the car and have to kinda hop hobble stretch to get in and grab the E brake
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I had a dream not too long ago (week maybe) where I didn’t dream about an event or a past, but I dreamt about a project I was working on and I invented something for myself that I can actually build right now if I wanted, but it is meant for me a decade or two in the future.
I’m a wood carver and I’m currently carving a gift for my brother in law. The dream was me fixing a lot of the things I had issue with in the project, and a future idea about my parents that I’ll be writing down and brainstorming until the times comes that I’ll probably want to build it.
That's awesome. This is the kind of thing I feel like I'm missing out on.
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That's awesome. This is the kind of thing I feel like I'm missing out on.
Don’t get too excited, this is an extremely rare occurrence for me as it’s only happened once before. But 12 years ago when I worked in a call center doing tech support in the US. It was near constant nightmares about getting calls in the call center, and the beep in the headset. I didn’t get good sleep or enough sleep between shifts. You win some you lose some.
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Don’t get too excited, this is an extremely rare occurrence for me as it’s only happened once before. But 12 years ago when I worked in a call center doing tech support in the US. It was near constant nightmares about getting calls in the call center, and the beep in the headset. I didn’t get good sleep or enough sleep between shifts. You win some you lose some.
My career is starting to stabilize and stress is going down.
From tech support to server work. Job hopped until I got a good work life balance now.
