I really really wonder what is affecting my dreams lately. They have become more and more vivid and emotionally involved. Last night I had a dream where a friend of mine and I were going to some club in the city to see some band. Afterwards, we went backstage to meet the band and they accidentally revealed a closet in the backstage which led to a whole other world/dimension. I guess kind of a modern Narnia, if you will. Except that this alternate world was similar in every fashion- it wasn't a fantasy world or anything. Everything was the same except each world was not aware of the other. Ok, this dream was like in epic film fashion where it spanned a number of years, with flashbacks and it jumped around in time. Among other things, I hid my knowledge of this alternate universe for like 10 years or so and I had all these elaborate schemes and close calls about people discovering. At some point I even had a husband and kids in the alternate universe and no one in this real world even knew about it. How I raised them I don't know. The thing that is weird is that I was a main player in this, but the dream was presented very cinematically. With a soundtrack and stylistic aspects to it. There were flashbacks and skipping around within time. There were also rewinds if you will. Meaning, I liked how things panned out at some point so I basically relived that part of the dream.
The thing that fascinates me is a sensation of time. Although the story spanned ten years or so, it certainly felt like the actual dream spanned at least 15-20 hours. However, this dream definately occurred between 5:30 and 8:30 this morning. How does that perception of time get distorted? And where the hell are these ideas and people coming from? How the hell can my brain generate such detail in the setting? While in the dream I specifically remember observing all the details of the people and the environment. And this also always happens to me- in that brief period of waking where I am half awake but not really up and conscious yet, I am still unaware if the events in the dream actually occurred. The point before I open my eyes, see my actual surroundings and fully realize it was a dream. As in, I actually remember thinking to myself, I need to check imdb.com and see if this was actually released as a movie. Wtf people, what is wrong with my brain?
I am seriously interested in learning more about dreaming, both the biological and the meanings of the smbols and how it reflects repressed thoughts. But not through those shitty books called dream dictionaries, where you look up the symbols in your dreams. Like if there were koala bears in my dream it means I am worried about getting a promotion at work. I need some more academic, informative stuff. If anyone has read anything, please let me know.
Um, can I have some of your meds? My dreams last night revolved around Health Policy papers and um, eating? maybe? they weren’t even exciting enough to remember.
robs, i read a book a few years ago where a chapter was devoted to the biological aspects of dreaming. I don’t rememebr the name though. It may be “the synaptic self” but I think that is another book. Well whatever it was it explained things in a really straight up scientific way but it is understandable. (if it is in synaptic self you might need to read more of the book to understand some of the jargon) Talks about how when we sleep our neurons randomly fire- its how we keep the connections in good working order to keep the brain from suffereing from distrophy, so pretty much the point of it is that at the point when we dream we have completely random memories or sensations or ideas being thrown into the cauldron where we process info and the dream is our brain trying to make the most realistic sense out of it. the dreams become important because they show how you react and rationalize crap. ok, sorry that was sorta long i didnt mean it to be and I dont know if that made sense, I got to try and get some sleep.