Dreaming can be more than a simple state of the brain. We can experience waking dreams, daydreams, even dreams that appear to be shared or prophetic. Some people are lucid dreamers a special skill that not everyone can master. Some people experience specific recurring dreams, while certain sicknesses can bring on night terrors. Sometimes we can even experience false awakenings, where we think we have woken up, but are still dreaming. Here we will explore some of these phenomena.
Daydreams
Daydreaming was once thought to be a lazy pursuit, I am sure most of you have been reprimanded for daydreaming at one point or another. It is, however, a metabolically intense mental process, and can be very rewarding. In recent years, scientists have demonstrated that daydreaming is a fundamental feature of the human mind – so fundamental, in fact, that it’s often referred to as our “default” mode of thought.
Daydreaming is a crucial tool for creative thought, and allows the brain to make new associations and connections. It can spawn new ideas or methods; the daydreaming mind is free to engage in abstract thought and imaginative ramblings, and as a result, we’re able to imagine things that don’t actually exist.
Nightmares and Night Terrors
Chances are everyone here has experienced a nightmare. A horrible dream, complete with emotional turmoil, which causes the dreamer to wake and stay awake, nightmares are fairly common occurrences. The main purpose of a nightmare is to wake the conscious mind — usually to change sleeping position.
They can also be caused by stress or over-exhaustion. Surprisingly, children under the age of five do not experience nightmares at the same rate as older children, while children over five seem to have nightmares at a rate of once per week. Night Terrors, however, are not as common.
A typical night terror episode usually occurs in the first hour of sleep. The subject sits up in bed and screams and appears awake but is confused, disoriented, and unresponsive to stimuli. Although the person seems to be awake, they do not seem to be aware of any surrounding presence and usually do not talk. The person may thrash around in bed and does not respond to comforting by others. A person’s heart rate can escalate during the terror, along with sweating and harsh breathing.
Researchers have found that nightmares can serve as a benefit to the human mind. The intense feeling of dread and uncertainty might be preparing the dreamer for a tragic event or a stressful situation. The nightmare may occur for you to either come to terms with a traumatic past and emotionally heal.
Lucid Dreams
Some people, referred to as Oneironauts or Lucid Dreamers, are able to control the setting and plot of their dreams. A lucid dream can begin in one of three ways. A dream-initiated lucid dream (DILD) starts as a normal dream, and the dreamer eventually concludes that he or she is dreaming, while a wake-initiated lucid dream (WILD) occurs when the dreamer goes from a normal waking state directly into a dream state with no apparent lapse in consciousness.
A mnemonic-initiated lucid dream (MILD) can happen when the dreamer intentionally affirms to himself or herself that he or she will become lucid during the upcoming sleep. Reaching lucidity can sometimes occur due to dream-signs or spontaneously upon remembrance. These dreams can be fantastical, where anything is possible, and can often be very real — complete with touch, smell, and taste sensations.
Recurring Dreams
Recurring dreams are quite common and are often triggered by a certain life situation or a problem that keeps coming back again and again. These dreams may recur daily, once a week, or once a month. Whatever the frequency, there is little variation in the dream content itself. Such dreams may be highlighting a personal weakness, fear, or your inability to cope with something in your life – past or present.
Common recurring dreams themes often revolve around either being chased, water, tests, falling and teeth dreams. Recurring dreams usually start during a time of uncertainty or reflecting a stressful event in ones life.
False Awakenings
Have you ever thought you have woken up and gone about your daily morning routine: getting up, brushing your teeth, eating breakfast and going to work, only to wake up “again” and realize that what just happened is just a dream. That sensation is referred to as a false awakening. Some people can experience four or five false awakenings before they truly wake. This phenomena was the basis for the film Groundhog Day.
I have been dreaming of walking in a cemetery. This happens a few times lately. The latest being last night,” entering an old cemetery in China with a lady companion. I remarked that the scenery was so beautiful even though the cemetery was a very old but neat and tidy one situated in a bowl shaped landscape.
I had a dream were my joints had little Stubbs at the end but still had the rest of the arm or leg and I was able to fabricate anything I wanted from the stubb( it had three rows of small air holes and a botton) but I never needed to press this bottom to fabricate anything because it was controlled by my brain yet I could also think of figurative things or stuff like an app on a computer and would appear on my screen.
I have scary dreams and it feels like they will happen in my future. I did have a dream and it also happened in real life. Why?
I just woke up from a dream where I must’ve been fighting with my husband ( we’re not in the best place at the moment) and I went to use the bathroom and I looked in the toilet and found all these stolen phones he had put in there. When I picked one up it had photos of my best friend (they can’t stand each other IRL) and she was naked but covered in the pink bubbles I saw at the car wash today while washing my car… and she was giving birth…. She also had two people with her.
I keep having a recurring dream that my deceased aunt is moving me and my daughter into a room for rent next to the office of the job I just quit tonight I woke up crying I miss her but not sure what the dream means
Ive had a few dreams about a mate that passed away . in our younger days we were close , partied together , did alot of things together. One dream not long after he passed away we were walking and talking and drinking i think ,but towards the end he said he had to go this way and i said i would go with him and he said no he had to go alone i tried to follow but some sort of creature grabbed me it had six arms and held me back as it grabbed me i threw a… Read more »
I’ve been having this dream that Im getting kidnapped in broad daylight while walking to my apartment laundry room. And this dream feels so real it’s weird. In this dream this man and women had severly harmed me while I fought to not be kidnapped. They tased me and beat me. Well they took me to this house and put me in the basement. And locked me in a room down there. Long story short I somehow escaped by fighting my way out I run miles with the man chasing me on foot and women in a car. I cut… Read more »
I had a dream that a woman (whom I didn’t know) was trying to kidnap me so i started crying because I was 4 and my sister was trying to pull me away and the woman said “don’t you love me” and I said “leah help me please im so sorry please help me!” (leah is my sister) then I actually woke up to my sister running in saying “what happened” and i was screaming “Help!” and my heart was beating really fast I was breathing fast and my sister said its okay
I have these dreams where they occur in the same universe, I can remember past dreams while dreaming. I do not remember these dreams as dreams but as past memories from real life
I had a dream that i was at school and i was hanging out with my my friend whom i liked and he kissed me
I keep dreaming of my high school best friend and I don’t know why. I’m a girl and he’s a boy. Don’t know if that says anything. But from what I know I don’t be thinking of him. We have no sort of communication either.
I keep having a dream that I have nowhere to live so at night I sleep in the house I grew up in (noone new lived there yet). The new owner would come and make me leave the premises but I always went back at night to sleep.
Every night for 4+ years my dreams are made up of all important places and people in my life, although some are 1,000 miles apart in reality, combined into one town, which I have named my town. I have actually started mapping it out, due to curious loved ones. They are always good, happy dreams. I’m actually quite the tour guide in “My Town”. Also, the map of U. S. and world change often. Once the US was in the African desert and next to Iran.
One of my most current, somewhat “recurring dreams”, even though when I awake, can hardly grasp or remember the contents of, seems to be in a setting of either a school, or a hospital. I am either a student or a nurse. I am usually studying to become a nurse and am about to sit a test to this effect and I usually fail it. I am usually lost and wandering the halls, staircases and rooms of the hospital or school. And sometimes am looking in lockers along the way. It seems neverending. In some of the cases of the… Read more »
I dreamed someone I was once a good friend with was at my front door. I wasn’t dressed and hurried to dress, I had been asleep. I was having trouble getting dressed, and was yelling thru the door just a minute hold on and then I remembered they were deceased. ?? I never was able to answer the door
I dreamed of a cop pulling me over and then he got out and asked me if a perfume bottle was mine and stated he would get me another one then told me to meet him over their in the catacombs
Very different for sure I even remember the location where he pulled me over
I dont really remember my dreams but when I do I try make since out of them ✨
i had a dream where i apparently moved into a new house completely gutted out. smooth cement floors. i remember there was a black couch and a little more furniture. my mom and sister visited and i was terrified to go upstairs. it was almost as if my intuition was telling something very very bad was up there. there were also 6 six cats but i only saw 2 of them. one of the was a white cat named “sally” i think. what does this mean?
I have recurring dreams where my boyfriend and I are on the run from the bad guys . We have ‘operatives’ in every country, cool gadgets and cars to get away in and people who set up fancy hotel rooms for us too. When the heat is on us these people “clean” our room for us , get our bags packed and shipped out and leave us earbuds , keys and clues to help us escape . . We always make it out .
My boyfriend says I have issues that need to be settled . Any thoughts ?
for some reason i had a dream that i kept on trying to date some guy (i dont know him, im assuming hes supposed to be my classmate), and i joked with him all the time. i offered to go to the mall with him to pick out some clothes n stuff for him and he accepted but another girl started tagging along and he started picking clothes out for her. then i got really angry and jealous and wandered off to another isle where i just looked at phones and stuff. the guy came up to me and told… Read more »
Angry and jealous might be a unconscious feeling that you harbor within. You see phones are known to be symbols of communication and the clothes a part of your persona. See clothes in the search bar.
If you say you are aromantic it might be possible that these feelings are based off of being this way. The mall tells you what you are in search for but if you are behind it what does that tell you?
Great article about common dreams. I often have dreams about flying or being chased by a faceless killer. I am not sure why but when I stood up to my dad the next following dream I killed the attacker. I no longer have these dreams so it was based off of the fear that was created.