Dreams

[Nubclear]

I need to improve my dream recall because my dreams are a blur. Can anyone help?

Have a nice day (to anyone that helps)

[Dauphin]

Put a pen and paper by your bed.

[Pekka]

I remember my dreams everytime the following day. It's sometimes bugging me, because I see weird, bizarre and sick dreams often. I'd rather not remember them.

[Thrawn05]

I somtimes see the future in my dreams, usualy I'd dream of some meaningless converstation or just doing somthing and a day or two later... deja-vu!

It's scary.

BTW while we are on the topic of dreams, is it true that men generaly only see in B&W while women generaly see in Color? Because I think I break that rule.

[Pekka]

I see definitely in colours. No B&W for me. Haven't ever heard of that.

Sometimes it's pretty scary, because I'm not always sure if something happened in a dream or not.. I really have to think hard, and most of the times I get the answer, but every now and then, I just don't know.
Also I don't like it when I see violent dreams (too often), where I get killed in the most brutal ways. It sickens me that my subconscius comes up with stuff like that. And often someone I know kills me, tortures me.. so it's not very fun to remember it in the following day to every graphic detail.

[Gatekeeper]

Have an incredibly vivid nightmare. I guarantee you won't forget those. Either that or have a nightmare that ends with you "falling" into oblivion ... folklore says that dreams ending in such a way are bad portents.

Gatekeeper

[Nubclear]

I always have odd dreams eg walking into a mall where people are sticking needles in other peoples (for the children) private areas, etc etc....But I always view dreams as both stories and intellectual puzzles to solve I look forward to dreaming. And as of late, my dreams have been incredibly....symbolic. My psychologist is encouraging me to begin working on recalling my dreams with more clarity, etc etc....

So all I have to do is have a pen and paper beside my bed and i'll magically begin remembering things?

[Pekka]

tass, you could try it! If you wake up in the middle of the night, think real hard your last dream, try to think some clues that might get you remember more, and then write it down.. It usually starts from something small, and then you think real hard what else was there etc. and soon you'll have the whole dream in your memory. I usually remember few different dreams, and not just the last one...

[Gatekeeper]

This is all a dream, Tass. WAKE UP!!!! QUICKLY!!! Write all this down!



Gatekeeper

[Static Universe]

I have experimented a lot with this type of thing.

Before you fall asleep at night, try to concentrate on the idea that you want to remember your dreams. You don't have to focus on this one idea from the moment your head hits the pillow until you finally zonk out, but just set up in the idea in your mind. Your subconcious will carry it forward through the night. I have heard that professional atheletes and martial artists do the same thing. They run plays or techniques through their minds before sleep, and this improves the mind's subconscious memory, which reinforces the waking memory.

Don't use an alarm clock that plays music or radio. It screws up your memory of whatever dream you had. Get an annoying one that wakes you up abruptly. The music overwrites your short term memory and makes you remember the songs ideas or personal memories related to the song instead of the dream.

Stagger your usual alarm clock times. Your body gets into a cycle, and if you always get up at 7 in the morning, or when your body feels like it, your sleep cycle adjusts to maximize our productive sleep. When this happens, you are not actively experiencing dream time at the moment of wake up, and are less likely to remember you dreams.

The downside of this is that your last sleep cycle of the night will not be as productive, since you are deliberately disrupting it, so this may not work for you. Coming out of a deep sleep like this leaves some people feeling like they got no sleep at all.

When the alarm will bring you out of the deep sleep, immediately write down everything you remember about whatever you can remember. Over time, your ability to remember your last dream of the night will increase. This works exactly the way that reading a book improves your ability to read.

If you wake in the middle of the night, try to write down whatever you remember. If you can avoid it, do not turn on the lights. Visual images can also overwrite your memory of the dream.

As you become more aware of your dreams, you may find that you are more aware within the dreams themselves. If you reach this point, before you fall asleep, start thinking to yourself that you want to more aware in your dreams. People call this "lucid dreaming".

I actually got to a point where I could routinely realize inside a dream that I was dreaming. Unfortunately, everytime I tried to take full control of the dream, I would wake up. This was very frustrating to me, and eventually I gave up doing this sort of stuff.

About the only thing I could really control inside the dreams that was unique was my ability to fly. Not like a bird or anything, but I found I could leap long distances at will, and sort of float in mid-arc, then descend slowly along the same curve. The logic I used to do this came from Douglas Adams "The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy": flying is falling without hitting the ground. Semi-logical ideas like this work well because dreams themselves are semi-logical.

I haven't practiced the lucid dreaming techniques for a couple of years, but I still find that occassionally in my dreams I utilize this same flying method.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Thrawn05

BTW while we are on the topic of dreams, is it true that men generaly only see in B&W while women generaly see in Color? Because I think I break that rule.

I am a man (regardless of what my ex-girlfriends tell you ) and I see colors in my dreams. The color that really stands out in my dreams is green. This doesn't happen a lot, but occassionally objects in my dreams will have extremely vivid green coloring. I mean absolutely amazingly sharp greens, every shade of green squeezed into one. I've always found this peculiar because I don't particularly like green.

[Gatekeeper]

We're all in the Matrix.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
Put a pen and paper by your bed.

Yep

I´ve also made this some times in my past and those dreams I wrote down were also the dreams, I could remember best.


btw.

Reality (From Richard Sanderson [if anyone remembers "La Boum" ])

Met you by surprise, I didn't realize
That my life would change forever
Saw you standing there, I didn't know I cared
There was something special in the air
Dreams are my reality
The only real kind of real fantasy
Illusion are a common thing
I try to live in dreams
It seems as if it's meant to be

Dreams are my reality
A different kind of reality
I dream of loving in the night
And loving seems alright
Although it's only fantasy

If you do exist, honey don't resist
Show me a new way of loving
Tell me that it's true
Show me what to do
I feel something special about you

Dreams are my reality
The only kind of reality
Maybe my foolishness has past
And maybe now at last
I'll see how a real thing can be

Dreams are my reality
A wonderous world where I like to be
I dream of holding you all night
And holding you seems right
Perhaps that's my reality

Met you by surprise, I didn't realize
That my life would change forever
Tell me that's it true
Feelings that are cue
I feel something special about you

Dreams are my reality
A wonderous world where I like to be
Illusion are a common thing
I try to live in dream
Although it's only fantasy

Dreams are my reality
I like to dream of you close to me
I dream of loving in the night
And loving you seems right
Perhaps that's my reality

[statusperfect]

Originally posted by Thrawn05
I somtimes see the future in my dreams, usualy I'd dream of some meaningless converstation or just doing somthing and a day or two later... deja-vu!

It's scary.

I do that too.

[Eli]

I actually got to a point where I could routinely realize inside a dream that I was dreaming. Unfortunately, everytime I tried to take full control of the dream, I would wake up. This was very frustrating to me, and eventually I gave up doing this sort of stuff.

Me too. In almost all of my dreams I know that they're dreams almost immediately. Then they end.

[tinyp3nis]

Future?? I think you guys should see the next winning lottery numbers, that would be so cool.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Tassadar5000
So all I have to do is have a pen and paper beside my bed and i'll magically begin remembering things?

Well, kinda. You only remember any dream if you wake up while it's still going on. But any memory begins to fade unless you do something to remember it. Such as: (1) dwelling on it because if was friggin' scary incredibly erotic or unbelieveably bizarre or (2) writing it down.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Eli


Me too. In almost all of my dreams I know that they're dreams almost immediately. Then they end.

That's too bad. How do they end, though? Do you just "snap out of it" and wake up?

When this used to happen to me, I would be dreaming, realize it, and then I would say to myself, "I am going to close my eyes and when I open them, I will be in control of this dream." Then when I opened my eyes, I would be laying in bed, fully awake. Which is odd, because I sleep soundly and often have trouble waking up in the morning.

(I solved this problem when I was tracking my dreams by putting a super-annoying buzzer alarm clock on a desk across the room, forcing myself to get up in the twilight and cross the room to turn it off. I kept a notebook right next to it, so that even in my bewildered waking state I could right away start writing down what I remembered. The memory of your dreams can be improved just like any other memory.

The key for me was finding an alarm clock I really, really hated, which woke me up immediately. Just the sound of it forced me into action, even when I wasn't fully awake. They make these clocks now that try to annoy you just enough to wake you up. Find an older model at a year sale or something.)

For some reason, the only idea that ever occured to me was this "close eyes, open eyes" technique, which never worked right. My problem I guess was that I never really defined what "in control" meant.

Looking back, I was probably making a mistake trying to control the full dream and not making little changes which built on one another.

[Proteus_MST]

Happened one time, when I had a nightmare.

I was pursued by some Monsters and knew it was a dream.
I also remembered, that in other dreams I could fly,
so I flew away and escaped those monsters.

btw.
active flying in dreams is one of the greatest experiences you can have

[Nubclear]

Last night I awoke once, not remembering the dream. Then I awoke again, remembering a strange dream....

I remember my "other" father was there and he was telling me never to talk to DanQ again because he was a nemesis and if I talked to him, he would be killed. I refused to discontinue talking and dismissed my "other" father as being paranoid. Theres more to that, but nothing YOU really need to know

It was very interesting though, I can tell you that much......The level of detail was astonishing to me.

[Thrawn05]

I have this really old book called Zolar's Emcyclopedia and Dictionary of Dreams.

Here are some examples, most topics have lots of examples under each so I'll only list a couple:

Flying
Of flying: Congenial work and good news.
Flying at a high altitude: Ruin is ahead for you.
Flying at a loow altitude: Loss through investments.

Terror
Being in Terror: Secret enmity of some person for you.
Children causing terror: Good times are coming.

As a rule in this book, good things are bad, bad things are good.

Seeing a nude man is better then seeing a nude woman. Which figures 'cause nothing goes right for me anyway.

[Nubclear]

Hmm, I never believe those things that say they can interpret your dreams because truely the symbolisms are YOURS. Whenever I see the Soviet flag in my dreams it usually symbolizes glory, might, and warmth. But for someone like, say, Heresson it might symbolize evil, blood, and the opression of Poland.

Different for every person

[Lorizael]

That's true in a lot of cases, but there are certain symbols that can have a similar meaning for an entire culture or even all of humanity.

The more specific a symbol, the more likely it will have a unique meaning to each and every individual. The more general, the more broad, the more meaning it will have to the whole of us humans.

That's why dream dictionaries are gonna have things like flying or terror, and usually not something as specific as the Soviet flag.

If they're written well anyhow.

[Provost Harrison]

I very rarely remember dreams, only once every few months do I recall one...

[DaShi]

Good for you! Most dreams mean your gay.

[Zero]

Intersting how I started a somewhat similar thread on CFC and missed this thread on good ol' poly.. Tass if you're still interested check the dream control thread at CFC.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showth...=&pagenumber=1

Its mainly about how to manipulate contents in your dream but it also touches on dream recall.

[David Floyd]

Last night I dreamed that one of my best friends was throwing a party and charging $2000 each to get in - and I remember writing him a check, then vaguely regretting it when I woke up. Weird, huh?

[Nubclear]

I've heard that Lucid Dreaming is quite dangerous, and can leave you having many nightmares for many many years.

[David Floyd]

I love it when I lucid dream.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Tassadar5000
I've heard that Lucid Dreaming is quite dangerous, and can leave you having many nightmares for many many years.

Sorta funny you mentioned that, because lucid dreaming is a technique that is often used by people who frequently have nightmares to rid themselves of them.