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It Creeps Beneath Your Crawling Skin: Tell Me All About Your Strange Dreams and Nightmares

By Cindy Davis | Posted Under Comment Diversions | Comments (94)

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When I was a kid, I had a recurring dream—which is disconcerting enough on its own—where I was trapped in a town taken over by killer robots. Apparently, my Skynet fascination began early. Anyway, the dream was always exactly the same: I ran about the town, terrified and hiding from the killer robots as best I could until I was rescued by my (biological) father. In later versions of the dream, I was rescued by my adoptive father. Makes perfect sense though, a kid dreaming about fears and being rescued by someone who makes her feel safe. But a lot of dreams and nightmares aren’t so easily dissected and some of them linger in our minds for years, leaving us to wonder, “What the hell does it mean?”

I’ve always been a person who has vivid dreams, although I can happily say that the frequency of the nightmarish ones has diminished. There is, though, this one dream I had many years ago, that I still find myself trying to understand. Am I crazy? (Certainly.) A closet psychopath? (Don’t think so.) Was I on drugs? (Refuse to answer on the grounds…) Who knows where these things come from? Anyway, here’s the dream; analyze or ridicule me if you must, I can take it (and dish it back).

I was hanging out in my apartment and I smelled something burning. So I went into the kitchen, walked over to the stove and opened the oven door. Out jumped my cat—yes, from a hot oven—and he was in a most peculiar state. Smoke was billowing from his back, which was split open and…are you sure you’re ready for this? Sitting inside the middle of kitty’s smoking, flayed open back was a hot dog, in a bun, with condiments (mustard and relish, I think?). Despite his…er…predicament(?), kitty seemed to be just fine. He ran around the room and *poof* I woke up. Yes, I know, clearly there is something wrong with me. But don’t pretend you aren’t just as forked up. You’ve had some inexplicable, freaky-deaky dreams too. Share them, so we can all be even more frightened of each other than we already are.

P.S. OMG, this is unbelievable. This morning after writing, I went for a walk/jog (okay, okay, there may have been more walking than jogging.) and I was thinking about my dream. I’ve related it many times to many people and it always ended the same way, “There’s something seriously wrong with you. You’re a closet serial killer. Remind me to lock up all the knives at night.” But guess what? I’m not frakking crazy. After all these years, it came to me while on my walk, clear as day: A wiener. A kitty. One inside the other. Smoke. My dream was about having hot sex. Smoking hot, safe (with condiments) sex. Holy shit. Pajibatherapy, people: it’s free.

Now, please to let us analyze you.









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Comments

let me preface this by saying that I dreamed this the night after visiting the County fair.

I was visiting a pig pen, and there was a giant pig with a cravat and bowler hat. They took the pig away and butchered him, then brought us all a pork chop cooked to perfection...with a little tiny bowler hat perched on each pork chop.

Posted by: meh at June 3, 2011 5:18 PM

Or....You were first coming to the realization that meat is murder, and hot dogs come from animals, but your subconscious substituted any animal with one you loved already, like your cat.

Posted by: John G. at June 3, 2011 5:20 PM

Damn, I totally got the significance and was going to be so happy and smug to deliver the meaning. (My dad was a Freudian analyst and was amazing at analyzing dreams. He once knew my friend was pregnant from a dream she had.)

In a similar vein, when I was in high school I had a dream about the boy I had a crush on. He was generally clueless even though I had been throwing myself at him. In the dream we were cooking something and I walked over to him and clubbed him on the head with a giant cucumber. I did not ask my dad to analyze that one.

Posted by: rhombus at June 3, 2011 5:21 PM

The first nightmare I ever remember having was the Count from Sesame Street chasing me from rooftop to rooftop in downtown seattle screaming that he loved to count and eat children.

And last night I had a dream I was lost in the desert for 43 days with my mother and we had to eat tumbleweeds to stay alive, sometimes we had a a car and sometimes we didn't. We saw a baby cougar but were to scared to eat it because the momma might come by and catch us.

Posted by: Jadashay at June 3, 2011 5:22 PM

A dream/nightmare.
My family is moving from our home. My father is drunk and cannot drive, though he tries and, after failing, he then puts me behind the wheel. In this scenario I am always eleven years old. I am always left to drive the truck alone and on my own. I drive endless miles, always wondering if I'm on the right road. Invariably, I cross a huge overpass and stop at a run down truck stop/convenience store. My dad is inside, buying beer. I ask if he wants a ride and he refuses, cursing me for my incompetence. The travel then takes me through wild roads, through mountain passes and eventually to a very large city, usually St. Louis (which, in real life, I have never seen). Towering freeway overpasses lead directly into small residential/shopping areas and I become hopelessly lost. By sheer chance, I find the freeway, take the on ramp, speed up to the overpass and promptly drive off the uncompleted structure into the abyss. I wake up, screaming.
Many variations on this basic premise but the end is always the same. I have it at least couple of times a week.

Posted by: Spender at June 3, 2011 5:23 PM

I dream about my teeth. They turn to dust in my mouth, or splinter until I bleed. The worst is the dream where my teeth are being pulled one by one while I'm being tortured. Had these dreams for years...

Posted by: Mulva at June 3, 2011 5:31 PM

When I was younger my nightmares always had to do with insects: Giant insects, swarms of insects, insects with human faces, etc.

Now that I am older and a parent they all have to do with someone breaking in and standing over me or knowing "he" is down the hall going after my children. Fucking SUCKS to wake up in a sweat with my heart pounding, afraid to move.

Oh wait...sharks. I have shark dreams a lot. Just writing this makes me kinda freaked.

Posted by: klingonfree at June 3, 2011 5:31 PM

One time, I dreamed that the government thought my family were aliens, so they locked us in our minivan with a drum of gasoline and set us all on fire.

I once dreamed that I was playing a game in the woods, capture-the-flag style, except my team was just me and I was being chased by all the boys in my high school, and if they caught me they were going to eat me.

I regularly dream that I'm being chased, and it's almost always set in my childhood neighbourhood, which is normal, or it's set in this "other" neighbourhood that I've never been to. I don't recognize it. And it's not as if it's some random strange place, it's the exact same strange place, every time. The feeling of eerie familiarity is almost worse than the fear of being caught.

I had a Doctor Who dream the other night, Tennant and everything, but it wasn't a SEXY dream and I was rather peeved with my subconscious for wasting such a prime opportunity.

Posted by: Lauren at June 3, 2011 5:44 PM

1. When I was a kid, probably around 5 or 6, I was sleeping over at a friend's house. He had a bi-level house where the family room was on the lower level. Since the house was built on a small hill there was one window that was ground level and a sliding glass door along another wall. We were sleeping in that livingroom.

I had a dream where I woke up there and saw some terrifying man haunched over in the ground-level window staring at me. He (it?) had long, shaggy dirty hair. He had a huge smile, filled with pointed teeth, black, shining eyes and was carrying a large butcher knife. He looked right at me with those black eyes, grinned at me and I could hear him laugh a low, raspy laugh. He then bolted from the window, ran around the corner of the house to the sliding glass door. I could see his silhouette through the blinds as he struggled furiously to for open the locked door. He kept jerking and jerking on the door trying force it open and then I woke up.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening wide awake and terrified until my friend woke up. Easily the scariest dream I ever had, especially when combined with the fact that I wasn't at home.


2. I had another dream, about 7-8 years ago, where Brad Pitt shot me in the neck and I died.

I was sitting in a convertible in some dusty, old Mexican town. I was waiting for some people to cross the street. Brad Pitt was one of them. He turned and looked at me and I knew that he was going to shoot me and that I deserved it. He pulled out a pistol and shot me in the neck. I sat there in the car, my hand pressed to the wound and blood poured out.

I thought, "Yep. Brad Pitt just shot you in the neck. Hit an artery. You're dead. You had it comin'." So, I just sat there, died and then woke up.

Posted by: Forbiddendonut at June 3, 2011 5:50 PM

For some reason I have dreams with celebrities in them a lot. They're not even doing anything.

One was with David Tennant as Doctor Who and he needed a backpack. So I'm like, "Okay", and I go get a backpack while he sits in my living room watching TV. I give him the back pack. He holds it in his hands and gives me a weird look. "Let's get one that's a little more manly..." 'Cause it was small and pink, and may have had Dora on it.

I dunno. Weird.

Another was with Will Farrel (sp?). Who I'm not that much of a fan of. He's marrying someone in my family, so he was at my cousin's house. (We visit their huge house every summer.) Except the entire time he's acting as if the whole night was a skit for SNL. That's pretty much it.

I've had elephants yell at me because of a yellow bird in my pocket.
I've had my cat also split open from the back, except I'm frantically applying Neosporin while his flesh is falling from his bones. (Although I think this was during the time where he did literally have a hole in him from a popped abscess.)
I've had James Marsters as himself, and JM as Spike.
I've had wolves come in through the mail slot and eat my entire family as I'm running through the house completely terrified, and seeing all my family torn to bloody shreds. Not to mention I was like, five at the time.

I also have had TONS of Deja Vu type dreams. I had a dream of a guy (When I was around 7 or 8) that I had never met before. Then, almost 5 years later, I saw him in the exact same position as in my dream, wearing the exact same thing. He was my Aunt's boyfriend.

And one more thing, I have lots of dreams about my teeth. They fall into my hand in a crumbled, bloody mess.

Posted by: Candee at June 3, 2011 5:56 PM

Last night I dreamt that I found a group of armadillos abandoned in a snowbank. I was determined to save them and started carrying them one by one down the road to a cottage I was living in. When I was carrying the second armadillo back I was stopped by a soldier who said I couldn't do that; the armadillos were being used for an experiment. I got very angry and risked my life to save them. I got several armadillos back but on my fourth or fifth run the soldier shot me through the heart.

...I have really bizarre dreams. Every damn night.

Posted by: beckster at June 3, 2011 6:02 PM

This was possibly the most bizarre dream I ever had, and I will qualify it by saying that I had just had my wisdom teeth removed, and I was on painkillers. The dream was that I was on the 10th hold of the local golf course, there is a creek that runs across the fairway. I was next to the creek, having a knife fight with a cow who was wearing a purple and white Hawaiian shirt. I don't know what the fight was about and I also seem to remember that my Dad was involved in some way. But it just may have been that he was playing golf and wanted the two of us to get out of the way.

Posted by: Fizbin at June 3, 2011 6:11 PM

I have dreams where I'm frantically trying to talk to people and no one is listening to me. I have important, sometimes life saving, things to say and people walk away from me while I'm trying to tell them. It's so damn frustrating.

I've also had this other dream that is kind of stupid, but funny. I dreamed I was in a sort of post apocalyptic place and I'm looking for my father. I'm running through an abandoned office building looking in every room, but I'm also trying to hide from some kind of military men who are chasing me. I find a room and call for my father, and out of nowhere, the man in charge knocks me down and stands over me screaming. Then he pulls me up by my hair so that I'm on my knees, shoves a machine gun into my face and says: "Oh, you're looking for your father? You want your father? I'll tell you about your father. I AM YOUR FATHER!"

I start laughing in that dream and wake up laughing.

Posted by: ZombieNurse at June 3, 2011 6:19 PM

My(highly unreliable) opinion on your dream, Cindy, is that you were concerned for the safety of your cat and whether or not you were taking good care of it. Also, you were hungry.

I used to have a similar one as a kid to your robot dream, except we were overrun with man eating dingos/dogs. Also, I think my family was missing or dead somehow. I was stuck at the neighbor's house.

I also had a nightmare based on a skit from the show Square One. (The Dragnet one, I forget what it's called.)

Posted by: Socrates_Johnson at June 3, 2011 6:39 PM

I'm always in a crowded mall or something similar, desperately looking for a restroom and every single one I go into ends up looking like the steambath out of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and every toilet stall is busy. Sometimes I add a little spice to it and have mafia guys chasing me through the mall while my bladder's about to burst.

I should probably get my kidneys checked.

Posted by: snapnhiss at June 3, 2011 6:45 PM

MATHNET!

Posted by: Lauren at June 3, 2011 6:47 PM

Oh yeah, and I had an erotic dream about Data. That was just once though.

Posted by: snapnhiss at June 3, 2011 6:49 PM

Ok I had to delurk for this.

One time I had a dream that I was riding a bicycle backwards down a hill. My bike went over the side of a cliff and I grabbed onto the edge of the cliff and the seat of the bike got caught in my back pocket. I was dangling over the edge of the cliff and some people tried to help me and the first one fell over the edge of the cliff and died. Eventually I was saved by another person after the scene had drawn a huge crowd and everyone was really happy that I was ok and no one seemed to even care that someone had died during the rescue efforts. I felt really bad about the person who had died after I woke up.

Last week I had a dream where I was a zombie and no one wanted to hang out with me because they were scared I would infect them. I remember being very lonely in this dream.

I also had a dream last month that my puppy had brain surgery and was walking around with an open top skull. I hired someone to come and help take care of the puppy. He kept scratching at his brain and the person I hired to help decided the best thing to do for him would be to take his brain out so he would stop scratching at it. Then the puppy ate his own brain. I basically flipped out at the person I had hired and had to explain to her why my puppy should not have been allowed to eat his own brain. Eventually she got it and apologized. I can't remember whether the puppy died or just continued having a happy existence with no brain.

This is what my dreams have been like ever since I stopped smoking weed like 6 months ago.

Posted by: wuggle at June 3, 2011 6:57 PM

Recurring figures: Tyra Banks, Mickey Mouse, my 6th grade History teacher, Coco's Twitter pictures, Rupert Murdoch

Recurring storylines: forced to go back to kindergarten, stuck in a ship onstage that didn't leave when it was supposed to, forced to rewrite "x" flop show the night before opening, falling from a great height because I pushed myself off a ledge, attacked by giant killer mosquitoes, Freddy Krueger and/or Chucky repeatedly killing me in my bedroom

Recurring conclusion: I'm fucked up in the head if this is what I dream about more often than not

Posted by: Robert at June 3, 2011 7:12 PM

There are two that I can recall. Basic stuff mostly, I guess.

The one always seemed to have me trapped in a neighborhood, running from house to house trying to avoid a tornado that was pretty much sentient and seeking me out. The more I ran or hid, the tornado would split off into another one and soon there would be about 20 of them all converging on me and I'm screaming at the people around me to hide, but all they would do was stand there fascinated by all the cool tornadoes.

The other one occurred at an earlier age and years later I found out that they are actually common occurrences and have a term for them: Hypnogogic Dreams or Nightmares. Basically we all have them (from what I gather anyway) and they occur in that time between awake and just falling asleep. I'm not really sure if they're true dreams or not, because they seem to happen before I fall into true REM sleep.

The dream always revolved around an object that would become the focus of my attention, and that object would keep getting larger and larger, and in my dreams I'd be shouting that it was becoming too large. This would go on, with rising intensity until I somehow realized, in trying to stop the growing thing myself, that my hand was becoming increasingly large as well, but when I went to mentally reach out and touch my hand, I'd notice that my other hand was growing increasingly tiny. The contrast would be at once terrifying and fascinating. Usually I would wake up at the point where I couldn't take the fear any longer.

Apparently this dream itself is not mine alone, that the phenomenon of hypnogogic dreams produces the same or similar visions in most cases. I can sometimes reproduce the feeling as I'm falling asleep, but it never has the intensity it did as a child.

I've never really looked into the possible meaning behind this particular 'dream' but aside from the self-aware attempts to recreate it, I haven't had them as an adult, at least not that I'm aware of. It's possible that it's occurred during those times when you're drifting and all the sudden you spaz awake, knocking shit over or biting your tongue in the process. I have always imagined that they represented my tiny fetal memories fighting with my older conscious memories and the idea that my body is growing rapidly and somehow the fetal memories can't deal with it. Or it could be just some manifestation of how big the world is and how impossible it was for my still-forming brain to wrap itself around the idea that I was so small in comparison to the world, the universe, etc..

Posted by: Protoguy at June 3, 2011 7:15 PM

Candee, I used to have teeth dreams, where they were all wobbly and sometimes fell out. I finally attributed them to all the pain I endured with my braces, especially my lower front teeth.

The one non-recurring dream I had that stayed with me, involved me kissing a girl I'd never met but felt intense, intense love for, but after about 4 minutes into it, she turned into a tree just outside of my elementary school football field.

The obvious culprit would be a particular girl in third grade who I had a crush on but who had basically stomped on my heart when her and her evil little friends pretended that she liked me too, but then said she didn't, giggling their way back into the school.

Posted by: Protoguy at June 3, 2011 7:21 PM

As a child, I had a recurring nightmare that a wicked witch enslaved all the children and turned them into zombies. She had also cut off my moms head and put it in a fish tank. My dad and I were the only two not affected. We pretended to be zombies and poisoned the witch. All the children were freed and my mom turned out to just be in a cabinet under the tank. It was still terrifying. I couldn't go back to sleep unless I slept with my parents, and I always had a follow up "safe" dream where I was riding my bike down my street surrounded by a cheering crowd.

Posted by: McSquish at June 3, 2011 7:35 PM

I forgot to mention this earlier, but yesterday my Mom came up to me and said that she dreamed that she cut her arm and that mercury was seeping into it. Because the mercury was seeping in, it caused her arm to turn into a cucumber. And my Dad wasn't doing anything about it.

Pretty weird...

Posted by: Candee at June 3, 2011 7:56 PM

I think we need a group hug.

Posted by: Cindy at June 3, 2011 8:04 PM

But don't kill me, please.

Posted by: Cindy at June 3, 2011 8:05 PM

Protoguy, I relate to the tornado dreams. They are also a recurring motif.

Wuggle, stop lurking! Come join the party, here and on Facebook. Pajibans are family, so come on and let us treat you as such. (I mean that in a good way.)

Posted by: Spender at June 3, 2011 8:13 PM

I have the teeth dreams too. I've heard it's supposed to mean you're anxious about money if you dream they're falling out/crumbling.

I have two major recurring dreams:

1. I'm driving a car near a river/creek that is huge, raging whirl of whitecaps. Each dream differs in the location - sometimes I'm in the country, sometimes I'm driving through a city - but I always end up on a road or bridge near this monstrous river, and I always know that it's cold despite what time of year it seems to be. And I end up driving off the road/bridge and crashing headfirst into the river, where I drown in its raging waters.

2. I dream that my high school band instructor is screaming at me for one reason or another (forgot my instrument, messed up a solo, etc., etc.). He was a huge part of my high school life. He was more like a drill sergeant than a teacher, and was prone to angry outbursts, but damn if he didn't make us into a hell of a band, and damn if he didn't make me into a better student as well. Still, I don't think all that was worth occasionally waking up crying because I had a dream that he was berating me in front of all my peers. I think he'll always be my bogeyman, or more accurately that voice inside my head telling me to do better.

Posted by: MelBivDevoe at June 3, 2011 8:28 PM

When I was a kid I had two different nightmares. The first was the usual, being chased by a killer keep slipping in the grass can't run fast enough. Those I would bolt awake and then just go back to sleep. The other kind would really freak the shit out of me. When I was really little, I would have to go to my parent bed, as I got older, I would just try and not sleep for at least an hour, or preferably the whole night.

It just me in an endless sea of white. Like some gigantic room with white tile floor, white ceiling, and I would guess white walls. I say guess because it is so large I can't see any walls per se, just an endless white. A pin drops making a loud echoing noise (and echoing and echoing...) then another drops, then another drops, then I freak the fuck out and wake up.

Posted by: LwoodPDowd at June 3, 2011 9:09 PM

i just had a nightmare where i wrote a really bad fanfic about Twilight so bad the characters came to life and punished me.
other nightmares i had where similer to freddy kruger stuff i was running froma monster and somehow teleported myself through a locked door and behind it i heard the guy say "somebody please tell me where that animal is the he saw me and said gotchya." then i woke up.

Posted by: UtahDynamo at June 3, 2011 9:12 PM

BTW, pro tip for any smokers out there looking to quit. The dreams on Chantix fucking rock. They are weird as shit, but at the same time ultra detailed, the colors the textures the sounds just make the surreal world feel more real. I've used it to quit a couple of times now (I'd take it for a month or two until I have quit, then a year later some high stress event would happen and I start up again.) When I am on it I would sleep in because I wanted to get back to my dreams. Even though they would change course when I went back to sleep, they were still fantastic.

I suppose though, that if you are prone to nightmares, supercharging them to make them extra twisted and hyper-realistic may not be the best idea.

Posted by: LwoodPDowd at June 3, 2011 9:17 PM

The earliest bad dream I can remember is from when I was 7 or 8. I was wearing an enormous Cinderella-style ball gown and being chased by "Bad"-era Michael Jackson all through a deserted parking garage. Analyze THAT!
(I guess I really didn't like that music video?)

But lately my bad dreams have involved needing to hurry and run away (usually from zombies), but feeling like my legs and feet are trapped in molasses. More frustrating than frightening, really.

Though what does rock is the occasional lucid dreaming. Not long ago, I had a dream that involved JGL and I remember distinctly thinking, "We should sex" and then we did. It was *awesome*.

Posted by: Htom Sirveaux at June 3, 2011 9:31 PM

I have a few recurring dream motifs:
1. Elevators (everything from a cardboard box hoisted up by pulleys and ropes to what was basically Willy Wonka's great glass elevator)
2. Libraries
3. All-out kill-or-be-killed battle royale-style situations

Not always together, though.

Posted by: Shibuyama at June 3, 2011 9:39 PM

I attended a dream workshop held by a dream counselor. She mentioned if you read anything in a dream it would all be gibberish. Thing is I read in my dreams a lot, but it is always two completely storylines on the same page that alternate, as in the first paragraph starts the first story, the second story starts the second story, the third paragraphs is actually the second paragraph of the first story and so on. Both stories always end up being the most god awful boringest stories ever (like this entry), but they do make sense. Does anyone else here read in their dreams?

The other thing is that I actually have smelled things in my dreams which according to the dream counselor is extremely rare. They are always nasty smells.

Posted by: shake at June 3, 2011 9:47 PM

A few recurring beauties:

1) In high school, with no clue of my class schedule or my locker combination.

2) In college, and I realize in the last semester of my senior year that I've failed to accumulate even a smidgeon of the credits I need to graduate. And although my dream persona would seem to be the current-day me, I'm absolutely terrified to tell my parents (both now deceased) that they need to fork over another semester's tuition.

3) I'm in a waiting room, desperately trying to keep my teeth in my gums as I wait for an appointment with the dentist.

4) I'm in a high-rise building, and I either need to escape to the street or evade the roaming hoards of baddies. In either case, I can't figure out how the elevators work (they keep dropping me off in vacant floors), and the stairways invariably lead me to crumbling, dark passages too narrow for me to pass.

Lately, my dreams have pretty much rotated amongst these choices. So, yeah, I'm kinda fucked in the head.

Posted by: boscobarbell at June 3, 2011 10:48 PM

I have a recurring nightmare that I'm about to marry someone, but I really want to call the wedding off. The groom is usually faceless, but one time he was a young Jack Nicholson.

Posted by: Dorothy Snarker at June 3, 2011 10:55 PM

I usually don't remember my dreams at all, but when I do they're inevitably really really violent and fucked up.

My worst was where I was on an island, and it was the whole world. It was all very modern, but still tucked into a jungle. Life was good for a bit, but then it was the end of the world and it was my job to kill everyone. So I killed off everyone on the island with a knife. After everyone was dead and I was trying to decide between offing myself with the knife and jumping off of a cliff, a tall ship showed up. I'd never seen a ship before and it sort of shattered my reality. The island was not, in fact, the whole world. So I hid behind a postcard rack because I was really afraid that the newcomers would kill me, you know, for killing everyone else. Then I woke up.

My favourite one was where I was Bruce Lee, with a little embellishment (like I could leap really far). I was just having fun with my abilities, engaging in a little parkour, when suddenly the vampires from Buffy started attacking me. So I fought them valiantly, but there were a lot, so I started running away from them. I managed to lose them for a bit, but it was clear that they would find me eventually, so I met Dumbeldore on a rooftop. It was really quite pretty and I knew that if I could seduce him properly, he'd do a spell and help me get rid of them. So I started to compliment his beard and slowly rub my fingertips against the back of his hand. Then I woke up. Yes, I love Bruce Lee, Buffy AND Dumbeldore. And only one and a half of those things sexually.

Posted by: Tits McGee at June 3, 2011 11:06 PM

Wolves. Chasing me. Around a kitchen table. On freshly waxed floors. And I'm wearing socks. FOREVER. And eventually I realize it's a dream and try to wake myself up, but I can't, so I start to wonder if I'm tied up because I can't thrash myself awake.

OR: Someone beheads Hercules in front of me with a katana and then comes at me. And then I wake up and fall back asleep and it happens again. All night.

Bad dreams don't really turn into nightmares until you can't escape, I think.

Posted by: esme at June 3, 2011 11:16 PM

One thing: Running in dreams is nearly impossible. I have to dream I'm leaning really far forward and let inertia propel me, because I can't get forward motion started. I always imagined this was because I was lying still and the brain needed that real sense of motion to imagine real running.

Posted by: Protoguy at June 3, 2011 11:40 PM

Roughly a week ago:

I dreamt I was one of a team of five "experts" who stole $500,000. What did I do with my divvied up piece of the pie? Why I went to Dunkin Donuts of course.

Where those fuckers messed up my order and closed while I was there.

Luckily I still had $499,995 (well, until some old guy interrogated me and I had to give it back).

My childhood self never came up with something that twisted.

Posted by: grace b at June 3, 2011 11:51 PM

LOTSA weird ones that I can't remember.

But the recurring one is like clockwork, every tech week for a show I'm in: half my brain is asleep and in the dream where we're doing the show, and I have to make an entrance; the other half is awake but only enough to tell the asleep half that I have no pants on.

I have spent nights literally propped up on my elbows while the Cue vs No Pants battle royale rages.

I hate tech week.

The end.

Posted by: Ian at June 4, 2011 12:10 AM

I dreamed that my teenage son was a serial killer and he was kidnapping teenage girls, then torturing them to death and then dismembering them and hiding the body parts in our house, like under the couch or in cabinets. It was a horrible dream, gruesome and graphic, and I woke up suddenly, sitting up in bed, sweating and gasping for air. I was so disturbed, I went to my son's room, woke him up and asked him if we was ok, if he was a serial killer. He told me I'd had a bad dream and walked me back to my bed.
I went back to sleep.
Then I had the same dream, only this time it was a "Three's Company"-style sitcom complete with laugh track and showing how I had completely (and hilariously) misinterpreted the events of the previous dream.

Posted by: Vangie at June 4, 2011 12:53 AM

I'm pretty sure I could talk about dreams forever. The unfiltered psyche is weird. As a child I had some pretty awful, terrifying dreams. The first dream I remember having involved my mother bringing me with her to an appointment. There are a couple of middle aged women behind a desk, and they ask her if she "was sure." She says yes, and then they motion her to what looks like one of those pencil sharpeners they have on the walls of classrooms, only huge and on its side. She sticks her arm in one of the holes and after a moment pulls it out, missing the hand. That one was recurring. I must have been around six.

I also had a dream about my brother being decapitated. We were fighting with pirates in the living room and one of them sliced his head off but it was kind of hanging by a thread and he was screaming. My mom called from the kitchen and asked if James was ok at approximately the same time that the thread snapped and his head fell off completely and he stopped screaming. I was like "yeah...he's fine."

On a stranger note, I had a dream that involved a gift shop at a zoo/museum. They were selling capuchin monkeys (like, the real, live monkeys) but there were two cages of them and one was marked $3 while the other was $33. So my friends and I went up and asked the sales clerk (who happened to be Riffraff from Rocky Horror) why the monkeys in the second cage were more expensive. He took one of the monkeys out to show us and said, "These monkeys are special. These monkeys can talk. But they only say oooooonnnnnne thing." So I asked what they said and he handed me the monkey and the adorable little thing looked up and me and said in its tiny monkey voice, "Hey, sexy!"

But I still think the "oh, shit, it's the end of the world. I MUST GET LAID" dream was the funniest I've ever had.

Posted by: dr. pisaster at June 4, 2011 1:31 AM

OH OH! Also. I dream about interior decorating a lot. Especially if I'm close to a move. Always I find out that my new apartment/house is bigger than I thought - like there are extra hidden rooms or something. And the decor/architecture is always amazing. I had a kitchen with a domed stained glass roof once. SO COOL.

And LwoodPDowd's comment reminded me of another one - It involved a haunted house that looked a lot like my grandmother's house, at least from the outside. It was a little creepy but mostly the haunting was benign - just scenes from the past repeated over and over again, like a broken record, and not necessarily creepy scenes - things like a cardinal hopping around in the grass outside on a loop. But the thing that struck me most about the dream was how intense the colors were. They were much more vivid than they ever are in real life. It was absolutely gorgeous and I wish that I could experience the world like that always.

Posted by: dr. pisaster at June 4, 2011 1:50 AM

I don't usually remember my dreams. It both pleases and aggravates me. I have a feeling that most of my dreams are kind of scary,but I also have a feeling they're pretty damn cool too. So three days ago when I woke up with an audible scream escaping my throat,I knew I was right.

My dream began(or at least this is where I remember it from)with me in a solarium(which was odd because it was clearly night time). I was just kind of hanging out in there and feeling pretty good and started swaying back and forth and then dancing to a tune that I can't place. There wasn't any music actually playing,it was just in my head. Suddenly I was cradling a huge fluffy cat and we were swaying back and forth together and I was ooing and awwing at the kitty and talking to it. I remember a lovely feeling of peace washing over me and then BLAMMY! Kitty goes away,the music is no longer and I'm not in the safety of the solarium anymore. Instead I'm nose to nose with what I can only assume is a zombie. He had white cloudy eyes and gray skin that was sloughing off and melting down his face. I should also point out that until the zombie popped up I was seeing myself in the dream,but not seeing through my own eyes until the dead guy showed up. Then I saw him through my own eyes as if he were an inch from my face. It was so scary and such a shift in perception that I woke up with an honest to goodness horror movie scream. The weirdest part was the zombie was whispering something to me when I woke but I have no clue what he was saying.

I'm pretty sure I know what it means though. Zombie Apocalypse,people. Hide your giant,fluffy kitties and take some non-solarium shelter.

Posted by: ContessaVonSweet at June 4, 2011 2:03 AM

Worse dream I've ever had, the one that still makes me feel skeevy:
I'm the best friend of a man who's either a Mob guy or a cop/attorney type. Either way, he's got enemies and he's not the nicest person in the world, but he's someone I love like a brother. Best friend has a very sweet wife he absolutely adores.
I'm also psychic.
This is important because one of the best friend's enemies broke into his house and brutally raped his wife. Because I am psychic, I relieve the experience, from the rapist's point of view. He... really enjoyed it. (This is the bit that still makes me question my mental health).
All this happens in one room, like a hallway. There's a door in front of me, and the best friend beside me. The wife is so devastated, she's basically psychotic, and she's on the other side of the door. My best friend, of course, is screaming to get to her.
I stop him, and go in first, knowing that she has a knife, she's out of her mind, and it's not going to end well for me.

I don't even WANT to analyse that fucker. Even more weirdly, in the dream I was male, but in real life, I'm female. One who clearly has a very fucked-up subconscious.

Oh, and that was the second night in a row I'd had a nightmare that made me wake up in tears - the first night, a semi-trailer jack-knifed on a freeway, wiped out a couple of cars, and I was trying to uh, do what I could, really.

I was writing an Honours Thesis at the time, you think that might have played a part?

Posted by: ScienceGeek at June 4, 2011 3:57 AM

From when I was 4-9, right before I'd wake up every morning, something odd would happen.

I'd see my room in the dream, but I was looking at it from the ceiling. Then I'd suddenly fall and land on my bed and I shit you not, I'd wake up bouncing, as if I'd just fallen onto my bed.

Call me crazy, but that's why I truly believe that when you dream, there's a transparent dream cloud coming from your head that dreams take place in.

Posted by: Brittany at June 4, 2011 5:17 AM

I have bizarre dreams most every night. They are vivid, in living color, and no matter the subject I am always a willing participant who never questions the absurdity of said dreams until I am awake. Sometimes they are just your typical WTF dreams. Last night included a Monty Python meets Busby Berkeley musical number where everyone was pantless & sang praises about their buttholes. (and it wasn't even Butthole Day)

But that isn't the really weird thing about some of them. Some dreams last only a single night in real time but feel as though they last for months- and not just abbreviated excerpts either. I have actually had to pause for a few moments to catch my bearings to be sure the dream has ended and not just waking up within said dream. Sometimes these dreams are very monotonous as though I'm just living someone else's ordinary life. Other times it's more like a jail sentence being forced live life out an existence within blank world other times it's fully developed but something is missing such as other people or traffic or something more minute.

Then I also have the sequel dream which can have many years gaps in between visits. I'll have the dream one night, wake up the next morning and 30 seconds later, it will evaporate leaving nothing but the impression about that dreamworld's complexities. I'll try to remember it but I can't. For years I'll try to go back to that particular dream world but with no success. Then one night seemingly at random, I'll find myself back in that dreamworld as though I'm revisiting a town I once blundered into on my way to somewhere else. All the memories from that dream come flooding back as though I never left...until I wake up again and forget everything except that I made it back and added more inaccessible memories to it. The only other odd detail that I can remember is that when I'm there, it's real life that I have difficulty recalling.

It is the fleeting memories of the dreams that's the most frustrating. In my dreams I have made startling scientific discoveries that would have revolutionized things, come up with logical solutions to longtime world problems, written poetry and songs that could have been master works of art, and lived out stories my awake self would have killed to written about and wept for if I just would have been able to remember even a fraction of the details. I have no doubt that we all have done the same, and by a miracle of being able to recall some of those dreams that a few of us are able to create some of our species greatest (and sometimes horrifying) moments.

I refuse to believe I dream these things for no reason but to infuriate myself by teasing my mind with what might be only to have it shrouded with the amnesia of reality. Somewhere in the back of my mind there lies a treasure trove so vast that if I can just grasp one of them and bring it back intact- I would be a wealthy man indeed... Somewhere in the forgotten realms of unconscious genius and parallel worlds layercaked between a menagerie of odd places...including a stage show of singing assholes.

Posted by: bleujayone at June 4, 2011 6:56 AM

I dream about airports a lot. Running through them, being late for a plane, being on time for a plane, getting lost, etc. Sometimes I get on board the plane and sometimes I even get to where I'm going so I've given up trying to figure out what it means other than I get anxious about travel yet want to get the fuck out of here. Last night through elevators into the mix. Holding elevators while waiting on the rest of my family (which included inexplicably Zack G. in full irritating Hangover mode) to get their shit together to get on. Running for the doors just as they close and then waiting for what seems like hours for the next one. It really sucked. Everyone had piles of luggage they kept dropping it and Zach G. was just useless and kept getting separated and I had to go to the parking garage to find him where he was chatting with a construction worker. It was then I realized having a "friend" like him would make me want to commit murder on him every 10 seconds.

A lot of times I dream about zombies and the end of the world, or trying to escape a killer. I should probably cut back on my horror movies but those are pretty fun. One memorable dream from years ago ended with me and the remainder of my guerrilla warriors being marched in a victory parade by vampires to our execution. We'd been fighting against them taking over the planet but had lost the war and my crew was all that remained. That one was pretty badass.

Posted by: TylerDFC at June 4, 2011 9:15 AM

Waves. Big waves are my recurring nightmare. It's like in Inception when Mal randomly shows up and everyone's like "sigh, there's Mal again". Only for me it's waves. Any dream that involves water will also eventually involve said water morphing into massive waves that get bigger and bigger while the people around me deny there's a problem. I always run away while everyone else seems to not be bothered. Often I can see a giant wave in the distance while everyone else can't.

My other usual one involves being naked/getting dressed in a variety of settings. The most recent one was me getting into a tutu so I could perform the lead in Swan Lake. I couldn't remember the choreography but I knew that I would be able to practice it as soon as I got my outfit on, but I kept putting on the wrong tights and had to take everything off and start again. I just knew I had to get dressed so I could practice and remember what I was supposed to be doing before my cue to go onstage.

So basically during the day I manage to keep my general stress levels about the uncontrollable nature of the world pretty low, and then at night all of my anxieties about life are manifested in ridiculous stress dreams. Joy!

Posted by: Nina Junger at June 4, 2011 9:58 AM

Growing up in Berlin, Germany, while the wall was still standing and the Cold War in full effect, I had nightmares about nuclear war. Weirdly enough, it would not involve actual nuclear weapons, but pillows.

You read that right. Pillows. I dreamed I was really small - like an insect if you will - and being crushed by a enormous pillow.

To a kid of maybe 6 or 7 years old, that is very, very frightening.

Posted by: FabMax at June 4, 2011 10:29 AM

I basically flipped out at the person I had hired and had to explain to her why my puppy should not have been allowed to eat his own brain.
wuggle, that just about killed me with laughter. Gruesome to be sure, but hilarious.

Posted by: MyySharona at June 4, 2011 11:24 AM

I have several recurring dreams.

1) The dream starts and I'm in the back seat of a car speeding down the highway. I don't know how or can't get into the front seat and if I do, I don't know how to stop the car. So I just huddle on the floor in the back and hope the car stops when it hits something. This dream pretty much stopped when I learned how to drive.

2) Now I have a new car dream. I'm suddenly in the passenger seat of a car, trying to steer and work the pedals all slanty. Again, for some reason I can't make it into the driver's seat. I think this is obvious, I feel out of control or that I've had control taken from me.

3) I'm in high school, and it's very stressful. Not sure where to go, everything seems really pointless. At some point I remember that I grew up, graduated college, and I'm 32 and I don't have to be there. I tell everyone to fuck off. It's very satisfying.

4) I have a lot of dreams about an old friend, who I was very close to but we lost touch and a lot of things were unresolved. She pops up in lots of different situations whether they should be related to her or not (high school dreams make sense for her, others do not).

5) A lot of my dreams are like good movies, and I'm both in the movie as a character and watching it from the audience. I get really mad if I'm woken up before I see how it ends.

6) I once dreamed that my mother was leaving us to join the Merchant Marines and she was wearing a pirate shirt and I kept crying and saying that she shouldn't leave and she said she had to and I woke up sobbing. That was weird.

7) My favorite recurring dream of ALL TIME: I'm sitting at a dinner table, there is a huuuge steak on a plate in front of me and I don't really want to eat it. Suddenly, the lights go down, a spotlight hits the table. The steak is dressed in a sequined dress, wearing a Marilyn Monroe wig, and singing "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." It is awesome. I'm clapping along. The song ends, the steak jumps down and runs out the door, playfully tweaking the cat's nose as it leaves. I cheer because that was a hell of a show and now I don't have to eat it.
I once told that dream to my creepy psychiatrist and he said I was having a gender crisis. I am not having a gender crisis, and I wasn't having one at 15 either. I think I just had the dream once and enjoyed it so much that I kept having it. It's my favorite dream.

Posted by: MyySharona at June 4, 2011 11:44 AM

Oooh oooh, does anyone else do this?
I'll be in that about-to-fall-asleep stage and I'll either feel like a giant (like me and the bed are just this massive breathing thing, the size of a house) or I'm really tiny and the size of a bug. It's kind of funny, and I just wallow in whatever feeling it is because it feels so strange.

Posted by: MyySharona at June 4, 2011 11:46 AM

My husband died from cancer 5 years ago. For 3 years I had variations of the same dream.
I search everywhere, through cities, towns, buildings and dumps. I comb allies and abandoned apartments. I ask people if they have seen him and no one ever answers.
I usually have transportation but is is something like an inflatable car. Always somehow inadequate.
Often in these dreams I found myself in cob-web covered attics and basements full of objects and each object is not quite as it should be and disturbing to see. Dolls with no arms, boxes that talk, and pillows with daggers in them.
I must have had 100 of these dreams. Never saw him.

Posted by: Magsie at June 4, 2011 12:35 PM


I had this dream about two years ago... I'm standing in a very big cemetery with a lot of hills and topiary animals. I'm wearing a black trenchcoat and smoking a pipe, this old-fashioned Sherlock Holmes kind of pipe. I'm standing beside a ridiculously large tree, one the size of a building, watching a young blond man I don't know walking through a narrow path of very tall tombstones. He's short, maybe twenty years old or so, very bony and pale, but in spite of his deathly appearance, i find him attractive. He's dressed in all black, this shiny black Edwardian suit with a blood red tie. It makes him look like Count Dracula. He doesn't seem to notice me at all, even though he's coming toward me. He looks up for one moment, but he doesn't have any eyes - just two empty holes. He stops at a coffin-shaped bed of white roses, lies down in it and start squirming and writhing around, kind of like a snake. He looks like he's screaming, but I don't hear him making any noises. His body sinks into the rosebed, he's literally swallowed up and seconds later, a white rabbit hops out and away from the bed. I look to my right and I see a large black bird, a raven or a crow, but pretty, perched next to me on a tombstone. I hold out my arm, the raven hops onto it and then my shoulder, and I start walking home with it. I get these weird electrical sensations throughout my body as I'm walking, like i'm plugged into a socket or something. It's through the bird's feet. He starts talking to me telepathically, telling me that I'll die unless I go back and save Bo. Bo, apparently, is the white dude I just saw in the graveyard. Once I get home, the bird jumps onto the windowsill, does a weird little two step dance with his wings outstretched, cawing at me all the while, and flies away. I feel sleepy and the brightness of the sun is hurting my eyes, so I shut my window and pull the curtains. I take my clothes off, crawl into bed and try to sleep, but I just keep tossing and turning. It feels like I'm sinking into my bed and I can't get up, so I claw onto the sides of the bed and pull myself out. It's night time now, and I don't know how long I've been in bed. I grab a flashlight and run back to the cemetary, where I see Bo approaching the same plot where those roses are, but now there's a casket sitting in the middle of it. He climbs in, dressed all in white this time, sort of like a white tuxedo. I jump in after him (and I'm completely naked), fall down and drop on the floor of a cave. There are several huge, muscular, wrestler-sized red-skinned men wearing black leather and bondage gear standing around Bo, who is serving them drinks behind a bar, stacked high with colorful glowing bottles of alcohol in a pyramid-shape. It looks exactly like a stereotypically gay Devils S&M party in Hell. Bo still doesn't see or acknowledge me, even when I push through the crowd and get right in front of him and wave money in his face for a drink. Bo is led away by one of the men and pushed onto a table, where he's groped, fondled and rubbed up against by these leering, lustful Herculean men in their red latex devil suits and poked at by pitchforks. He looks completely bored and out of it - at one point, he dozes off. They strip his clothes off until he's in nothing but a pair of black thong underwear and knee-high white athletic socks. They lick his face and rake his flesh with their rotten nails. I call his name, Bo opens his eyes and sees me and he grins earnestly, like he recognizes me and he's delighted that I came. And once he notices me, I remember who he is. His face changes and he's even more beautiful than before. He jumps up and starts trying to dance with me. I wipe his tears away, and when I gaze into his eyes, I feel dizzy, like I've been drugged. I pretend I'm okay, but my vision is warped, as if I'm the one who's plastered, but I don't remember drinking a drop. I feel nauseous and I stumble around slowly with my hands still on his hips to keep me upright. I whisper in his ear that I love him and I want him back. He roughly grinds his crotch into mine and kisses me, his body is very hot but his mouth and tongue are ice cold. It feels like he's draining my energy, I pass out and slump over in his arms and then all of a sudden, I'm in a real casket at what is supposedly my funeral and Bo is one of the four pallbearers carrying me into the graveyard. There are about forty or so people at my funeral, but my family or friends aren't there. I don't recognize a single person and no one realizes that I'm still alive. I should feel panicked, but I'm calm. I don't think it's really happening to me, like it's all an elaborate prank someone is playing on me. Bo is wearing a dirty dull black suit and he's smoking my pipe. He starts walking away, so I climb out of the casket and call his name. He turns, takes off his shades and winks at me. The casket I was just in disappears, and only the bed of white roses remain. I lose my footing as I try to follow him out of the cemetery. The bird comes back and blocks my path. He tells me I just switched places with him, and he's got my life now. I really can't remember anything else, and I'm sure there are other details I may have missed, but they are completely unclear to me. I'm a writer, so I tried to make everything coherent, like a story. Unfortunately, I think describing and trying to make sense of a dream takes all the spontaneity and magic out of it. But I think I'm seriously crazy whenever I think too critically about this dream. Guess that's one of the reasons why I'm such a big David Lynch fan: this dream felt like I was trapped in one of his films. I don't know if anyone should analyze this weird-ass dream - it's not worth it, it's too weird. I'm pretty sure it's about my fear of dying from sinful behavior. Of being doomed by my lust and seduced to death. Not necessarily about my being gay, but what could happen or is happening to me as a result of sexual obsessions I can't get rid of. Maybe the symbols of the white rabbit (promiscuity/immortality) and black bird (grim reaper/reincarnation) are the key to understanding this better? (P.S. - Bo looks like the very sexy, very dead River Phoenix, but i think i did that on purpose. Wishful thinking.)

Posted by: Brian K at June 4, 2011 12:56 PM

I also have these terrible dreams where my husband cheats, lies or just leaves/dissapears. In some of them, he cheats and then tells me it's not cheating because he never really loved me anyways and you can't cheat on someone you could never love. He sometimes throws in that I am too short and I have a bad memory. I should note that he's the a pretty awesome partner and wouldn't have married me or stayed married to me if he didn't want to, so this is all pretty unrealistic and he thinks it s hilarious. I usually wake up pissed off, but very relieved that he's lying there with me.

I also sleep talk and walk. And I'm really really mean in my sleep. I put an ice pack on my husband while he was sleeping and all I can remember is laughing. I stuck chocolate under my pillow, while glaring at my dorm roommate, then woke up covered in melted chocolate and panicked that I had shit the bed. I also can't keep my clothes on and if there is milk around, I will drink all of it in my sleep. Another roommate found me chugging a 4 liter jug of milk in front of the open fridge, with the milk spilling down my front. Buck naked. I woke up when he saw me, calmly put the milk back in the fridge and walked back to my room without a word. It's settled down a bit lately, but my husband no longer has any qualms about hitting me in the arm if I am snoring/talking/about to get out of bed so that kind of keeps the bitch at bay.

Posted by: Tits McGee at June 4, 2011 2:19 PM

I've always had dreams about checking to make sure doors are locked. I will run around and around a house, checking all the doors are locked while something or someone outside tries to get in. I always stay just one lock ahead of them. I also have extreme trouble using phones in my dreams. The buttons are always too close together and my fingers are too big. Since I've been take a new medicine for my migraines, my dreams have become very intense, vivid and lucid. It makes my normal stress dreams so much worse.

Posted by: tipsywoozy at June 4, 2011 3:27 PM

Christ, where to begin...

My oldest reccuring nightmare involves me trying to save a space shuttle from some kind of disaster. Occasionally it's something about the moon, which is too close to the earth, but only I know about it, and I have to tell someone on the ship. As I get closer to the launch pad, I start screaming that they can't go up, but the rockets are starting to fire. I get right under the ship and plead with them not to go, but I'm incinerated by the flame, and everything is violently shaking and rumbling.

My second oldest is the Alien dream. It's always just one Xenomorph like the first movie, and it's the only nightmare where I know I'm dead before I wake up.

There's the one where I'm on a space station hiding from a T-Rex wearing a little crown and cape, and he's yelling at his soldiers that they have to find me

there's the one where I'm fighting a giant blue rectangular bear-like monster with a lot of eyes. I have a crowbar, but it's not doing much and the rectangle bear just keeps wearing me down more and more.

The one where I'm trying to disarm a nuclear device, but I can't figure it out, so I just throw my body over the thing and hope that I'll at least prevent anyone from getting hurt, then whichever girl I'm infatuated with at the time shows up next to me and starts laughing, asking me why I even bother. That one's new, probably within the last 5 years

Posted by: A. Biro at June 4, 2011 3:48 PM

I've had recurring nightmares where I'm frozen in place while some hideous thing moves slowly towards me to eat me. It's usually zombies, but more frequently it's been those goddamn Weeping Angels from Doctor Who.

I wake up around when the monster sinks its teeth into my arm.

Posted by: Ozioma at June 4, 2011 4:27 PM

Occasionally I dream super vivid, and they're mostly awesome. One time I dreamed I had incredibly powerful telekinetic powers and could control them with much finesse and skill. I was a world-renowned art/jewel thief, and I was cruuuuushed when I woke up and realized it wasn't true.

As a kid- Some friends and I were going to investigate the archetypical SCARY HOUSE on the hill. We had stopped about a quarter mile from the house and were forming a plan when I notice a 50 yard section of solid wood fence off to the right. It's not actually fencing anything at all, it's just there. I get distracted staring at this fence and my friends leave me there. I go to the other side of the fence and there're vampires there. Like French dandy vampires, very polite in brocade clothes and powdered wigs, carrying handkerchiefs and lace fans. They eloquently explain that since I looked behind the fence I shall now be bitten, and that it's not that bad and they're sorry to inconvenience me, but those are the rules. So then we bargain on how many bites, location of bites, which vampire gets to bite where, and we decide the first bite will be in the crook of my left elbow and as soon as I'm bitten, I woke up.

Posted by: ZombieMedic at June 4, 2011 4:43 PM

OK, I read through a bunch of these but not all, because I am about to go to bed and I don't want to sleep with all these images and thoughts in my head (too late.)

I will say this though: I love talking about dreams. Love. Some similarities I've noticed among you all is how many animals are being split open! and teeth! That's bizarre to me.

Sometimes I think certain dreams are just that - sleep pictures that don't mean nothing. But other times, I think dreams really can show you an insight into your real thoughts/feelings/situation. It can also tell you something about others that your subconscious might have noticed but that you yourself might not have. What is also especially interesting is how you interpret a dream. Like, how you choose to see your dream is also an added look at your self.

I once had a dream that convinced me that I could not stay at my job any longer because it was making me complacent and making me unhappy, and it made me feel like a cog - and I started job hunting that week. Now I'm at a different job and I'm much happier. So see - dreams sometimes are so much more than just dreams.

When I was really young, I taught myself how to dream lucidly, and this was before I knew what being lucid in a dream meant. I used to have really intense terrible nightmares (I don't dream so much anymore though. Or if I do, I don't remember them as well as I used to) and I used to have to train myself to realize that it was a dream and wake. My dream self would always stop mid-chase/mid-jump/mid-scream/mid-panic and just close my eyes, and I would say, wake up, and open my eyes. And I would keep doing it until I was finally awake in my bed. It was neat little trick, but I haven't used it in a while because I just haven't had bad nightmares recently. Nowadays, my nightmares are more like... the constant feeling of dread, rather than a scream-out-loud crazy psycho killer type. So I wake up feeling awful, rather than afraid.

anyway... I'll read all you crazy people's dreams tomorrow after I'm done sleeping.

Posted by: denesteak at June 4, 2011 6:28 PM

Posted by: Jerce at June 4, 2011 8:22 PM

The only dream I have on a regular basis is, like many other Pajibans, about my teeth. Mostly I dream that they have fallen out but occasionally I dream that they've gone back to the pre-braces look. I attribute it to having braces in my early 20's because before that - no teeth dreams ever.

Posted by: Kelly at June 4, 2011 9:04 PM

I had a dream when I was young that I remember to this day (many, many years later) because it was so strange and vivid. I was standing in front of the Dairy Queen in my home town, wearing nothing but a grass skirt. I was hula dancing and I had a raging boner. That's pretty much it, except that I remember feeling really good about it in the dream.

Posted by: Uriah Creep at June 4, 2011 9:30 PM

Like a lot of you I am extremely fascinated with dreams.

Protoguy-

I also had those hypogognic dreams or whatever they're called when I was a kid. I don't anymore, but I'd always be at the top of either my basement stairs or the stairs to the second floor of my house. I'd leap or just go flying down the stairs and jerk awake before I hit the bottom.

Also, the most disturbing dream I've ever had is from when I was in Kindergarten or First Grade. I was standing at the top of my basement stairs. I jumped to the bottom of the stairs in two leaps. When I got to the bottom, I was knocked backward by an invisible force so I was laying on the stairs. Then in front of me, a shape that resembled the cross thing from the Blair Witch Project materialized in midair in translucent flames (this was about two years before Blair Witch came out, and certainly years before I saw it). Two horn-like shapes protruded from the top. I shut my eyes and had a vision of the houses in my neighborhood sinking into these hellish flames and being consumed by the fire. That's all I can remember, but I'm pretty sure there were some additional things that I remember interpreting as Satanic imagery. I guess going to Catholic school as a little kid can really fuck with your head!

Posted by: Patrick the Bunny at June 5, 2011 12:32 AM

1. When I shower in my dream, I am always standing on a bed ???

2. I am rollerskating along subway tunnels and I am fantastic. I can do spins and skate backwards and uphill.Probably from "The Warriors" I hate waking from this one

3. I am back in my house I lived in when we got married. I am cleaning it and it keeps getting dirtier ( weird because I am not a slob) and I'm also concerned that none of the doors lock. I have this dream so often that I know I'm dreaming, so I stop worrying that we sold our house and moved back here and just wait to wake up.

4. When I was a kid I had a recurring dream that we were walking to my grandmothers house in Arlington, MA and walked by a shed that was filled with bikes, skooters, and other riding toys. I took a bike and then the owner Mr McGregor would chase me. I reaized after a while that I was freaking out over Peter Rabbit stealing veggies from Farmer McGregor's garden.

Posted by: kirbyjay at June 5, 2011 10:21 AM

Ooh, forgot the phone. In dreams, I cannot remember numbers, can't make sense of the phone book, and cannot dial the phone.The phones are always rotary dial.
I am not a phone person at all. I hate talking on them, never text, seldom answer a phone, and hate that people are so addicted to them. Could be a connection :)

Posted by: kirbyjay at June 5, 2011 10:30 AM

Hey MyySharona!!! that happens to me too!!! i call it the Big/Little sensation, and it happens to me when I'm really tired, it's really weird, and everytime I try to explain it people look at me as if I'm crazy... I watched an episode of House where they said something about this, and I was relieved that it actually existed and it wasn't only in my mind!

My most awful dream: I was a zombie killer, but the zombies where adorable dog puppies, only they were contagious to humans. It was horrible to kill them, but I had to! I was traumatised the next morning, and my friends called me evil-puppy-killer for weeks...

Posted by: Beee at June 5, 2011 3:51 PM

Also, best dream: I'm in my bedroom, and my piano teacher comes in, and my room is a mess because I wasn't expecting her, but then I remember it's monday, and I have class on tuesdays, so I realise it's a dream and I shout: AAARRRGHH!!!! THIS IS A DREAM!!! INCEPTIOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I open the window and start flying into the most beautiful sunset. Oh, Nolan, you even make my dreams entertaining...

Posted by: Beee at June 5, 2011 3:59 PM

Last night I dreamt that I was fucking Amy Adams.

Posted by: the new transported man at June 5, 2011 11:25 PM

This is great. You should host more dream sessions for us so we can therapy each other.

Ok, off the top of my head:

Dreamt my ex-boyfriend paid for a lotto ticket from the skeevy convenience store next to my work, and I picked the numbers, and we won $20 million.

I'm so fucking fair as a person, even in my dream I was thinking, "Well he purchased the ticket so the money is legally his... And I DID just break up with him so I don't want to be all bitchy... so I'll just ask for $1 million... that will be fair... nah, fuck it... I want half!"

So we split it halfsies and I told him not to spend his money and to make sure to open a 401K so he could start saving.

I remember the numbers, too and wrote them down.

Posted by: LBeees at June 5, 2011 11:33 PM

My reoccurring leitmotif (I can't say it's a reoccurring dream since the scenarios are always different) is that I cannot dial 911 in a dream. Ever. I'll be an observer to a crime, I'll be the victim, it doesn't matter what the circumstances are– I will end up with a phone in my hand and attempt to dial 911, only to somehow screw it up. I'll dial the wrong set of numbers, fat-finger the pad, accidentally hang up...I have never once been able to call and I've been having this type of dream for around a decade.

Posted by: JennieHaniver at June 5, 2011 11:52 PM

BROCCOLI DREAMS! Whenever I eat broccoli I have the wierdest dreams that night. Serious, halucinogenic dreams. My hubby thought I was crazy, but now he has them, too. BEWARE OF BROCCOLI!

Posted by: BWeaves at June 6, 2011 9:44 AM

One thing: Running in dreams is nearly impossible. I have to dream I'm leaning really far forward and let inertia propel me

Protoguy, I have something extremely similar: I need to run, but I can’t so I’m leaning all the way forward but somehow not lying down and I drag myself along with my hands. Sometimes quite quickly.

There are a lot of recurring elements in my bad dreams, and they are so transparent and banal that I am kind of embarrassed:

When I am extra-stressed about money, I dream about mice in our house. They seem to be my brain’s symbol for poverty.

I have a mouth FULL of gum and try to speak, but no one will listen or understand. I try to take the gum out, but there is always more.

I am yelling at people who I feel have mistreated me in the past. There is often smacking as well. Haven’t had these in a while, but they were very frequent for several years and regularly featured people from high school.

I used to have a recurring dream where I would start screaming and yelling at my sister’s ex-husband and IN THE DREAM, I would be telling myself I have to stop and it will only cause trouble for her.

The missed exam/undone homework/actor’s nightmare dreams have, thankfully, stopped, but I had those for years.

Weird Dream:

When falling asleep one night, I dreamed that I had forgotten to pick the baby up from daycare. In the dream, I was frantically trying to find the baby and get to it before the police found out what I had done. I GOT UP and phoned my best friend to come and help me and as she answered the phone I came out of the dream, but screamed into the phone, “DO I HAVE A BABY?”. I was single and childless at the time. She was the same friend who has awakened me not once, but twice, from a dream where I was about to get busy with Jon Stewart, so don’t feel too sorry for her.

Scariest Dream:

I was riding a horse out in an open field. Suddenly, I am being chased by a bear. There is a long chase and the horse and I run away, but suddenly I am in my apartment. I’ve hidden behind the couch and I KNOW someone is in the room. He is going to do terrible, terrible things to me. To let me know he is coming for me, he starts rolling marbles across the floor to let me know he is aware of where I am hiding. I hear the footsteps approaching and I wake up.

(When I woke up, I went and called my mother and burst into tears. I was 27. I think my unconscious chose to up the ante in my dream: You think the bear is scary? I’LL SHOW YOU SCARY!)

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 10:54 AM

I have recurring car dreams too: out of control, not in the driver's seat, trying to get to the driver's seat, no brakes. They made me driving phobic for a while. I think, for me, they represented feeling out of control or "not in the driver's seat". As I said above, my dreams are transparent and banal.

Not a dream thing, but I go through phases, especially if sleeping in a new place, when I "wake up" to go to the washroom and can't find it. What happens is I am half asleep and in my mind I have a perception of the room I am in, but the reality is different. As a child, I sometimes moved furniture to get to where I thought the door was. It's worse in a very dark room which is unfortunate because that is how I prefer to sleep. When I sleep in a new place, I remind myself as I drift off of where I am and where the washroom is.

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 11:19 AM

I'm alone in here, aren't I?

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 12:38 PM

That's kind of dream come true. In a good way.

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 12:38 PM

I'm giddy with the freedom, but what to do, what to do.

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 12:39 PM

I'm going to do a little dance (skip make a little love) and get down tonight.

CUE THE MUSIC!

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 12:53 PM

Something with a little pep in it please. This isn't a funeral.

Oh, I don't know. Something from the 1990s. It'll remind me of my (relative) youth.

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 12:55 PM

I'm not feeling it. We're alone here. How about something from the "I don't hate this as much as I should collection."

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 12:56 PM

That girl, ooh, that kind of girl
That's the kind of lover, that girl, ooh
That kind of girl
Smooth type of girl

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 12:58 PM

Now you're speaking my language! One moment while I loosen my chignon.

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 1:00 PM

She's outspoken, I'm heartbroken
Just the kind of girl to keep my love life rollin'

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 1:00 PM

Schtum! Schtum! What was that?

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 1:03 PM

Are those gummy bears?

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 1:04 PM

mmf vfp mmvpfs smsmg?

Posted by: Mrs. Julien at June 6, 2011 1:06 PM

Sorry, I had bobby pins in my mouth.

Those aren't bears, are they? They're octopi. GUMMY octopi. That is just wro---

Posted by: Mrs. Julien. at June 6, 2011 1:07 PM

Jesus Chr&st those things can move. It's like they're still in water.

Why are my shoes wet? Where the f*ck did all this water come from?

CRAP! I can't move. My legs won't work.

Posted by: Mrs. Julien. at June 6, 2011 1:09 PM

That's so funny. I have dreams like this where I can't move or there are scary sea creatures.

.
.
.

but I'm not...

I can't be...

I'm awake and on Pajiba.I'm awake and on Pajiba.I'm awake and on Pajiba.

Why does Dustin have a harpo.....

Posted by: Mrs. Julien. at June 6, 2011 1:12 PM

She's the kind of girl that captivates your soul
That girl, ooh, that kind of girl
A rude girl type of lover, that girl, ooh

Posted by: Mrs. Julien. at June 6, 2011 1:14 PM

Strangest dream I've had: My boyfriend & I were at a county fair/hay bale jamboree. We were dressed all in black and trying to be there all incog because my family was there (we were trying to avoid them) as well as ninjas. There were a lot of people being shady at this fair. I was trying to stay out of sight when two people walking past each other bumped and one of them dropped a small box without noticing. I quickly snatched it before the ninjas noticed and opened it up. Inside was a small, struggling little fetus.
Now I have never wanted to have children, though I have had uncontrolled biological moments of hormonal mutiny. Anyway, I started feeding this little fetus, still trying to avoid my family who somehow found me and offered to watch it while I gathered feeding supplies and tried to find a larger box because this thing kept growing. Everytime I came back with a slightly bigger box it was already too small, because this fetus became an infant, which became a large baby, which became a large toddler - within minutes. I was frantic.
After the toddler stage I came back to find a fully grown female ninja, dressed in complete ninja garb, thanking me for protecting and raising her so she could complete the mission for which she had been sent here.

Posted by: mfg at June 6, 2011 2:00 PM

Teeth. Exams. Always.

My newest one is that my husband leaves me with our three kids.

Posted by: samantha t at June 7, 2011 3:00 PM

This thread has long since died but I have to post mine.
Both recurring as a child.
1. Im running in the woods scared to death (btw i live nowhere close to woods) trying to get away from someone. I slip and fall and bam im awake and can't breathe. variations - im running in my house (which isn't really my house but is in the dream) and same thing slip and fall down the stairs and im awake. My house was a ranch - not stairs.

2. I am walking around in a dusty dirty world and am the only one alive and I am looking for people and am only a child in maybe 4th grade. I just walk and walk and walk. this does not seem scary but as a child scared me to death. I always tell me husband I am going to survive a nuclear bomb and live in a Post apocalyptic world - I know it - I have seen it. He thinks im nuts!

who knows!

Posted by: jenniferk525 at June 8, 2011 3:35 PM