Sunday, February 8, 2009

SWEET DREAMS!


Dreams have always fascinated me. I dream a lot and my dreams are so vivid that sometimes when I wake up I don't know where I am.

The definition of a dream is a story revealed through images that your brain creates while you're asleep. Supposedly, everyone dreams every night. A lot of us can't remember our dreams or don't remember them vividly.

Scientists and researchers still cannot explain why we dream.

Freud believed that a dream was the unconscious mind expressing itself.

Some people have the same dreams over and over again.

There is a myth that if you dream you are falling and hit the ground before you wake up, you will die. I have heard this all my life.

I have also heard if you have trouble sleeping, you are in someone else's dream!

I sometimes wake up crying or screaming from a dream. My dreams are so real to me that I feel like I might pass into another dimension and communicate with people that are deceased.

In my dreams they are always young even if they were old when they passed away. My mother-in-law was very ill and in her nineties. She came to me in a dream and told me she was leaving to go be with her husband and son. In my dream, I was standing in the front yard of the farm we lived on when my girls were young. Johnny, my husband and her husband, John, Sr. were standing about 50 yards away from me. They are both deceased. She was standing between them and she walked over to me and told me she was leaving to be with them. She turned and walked back to where they were standing and they all walked away waving to me. They were all young in my dream. I woke myself up I was crying so loud. She died about three days later.

Another instance involved a person I thought was my friend and she stabbed me in the back and said some horrible things about me that were not true. This ended our friendship. Several years later this person became ill with cancer and died. One night I had a dream she was standing beside my bed asking me for forgiveness for what she had done. I had not thought about this person in years. In the dream I forgave her. I woke up trembling and actually thought she was in the room with me.
Here are some facts about dreams:
1. Everybody dreams.
2. A lack of dream activity can mean a personality disorder
3. Men usually dream more about men, while women dream about men and women equally.
4. People who are giving up smoking have longer and more intense dreams.
5. Toddlers do not dream about themselves. They don't appear in their own dreams until age 3 or 4.
6. If you are snoring, you cannot be dreaming.
7. Blind people dream and whether visual images appear in their dream depends on whether they were blind at birth or became blind later in life.
Do you have vivid dreams or do you dream the same dream over and over? Do you remember what your dreams were about? Do you have a dream that really bothered you?

28 comments:

Sylvia K said...

Really interesting post! I was instant messaging with Rain today about dreams, she's really into that, too. I must be totally screwed up because although I am aware that I dream, it is rare that I remember them once I wake up, sometimes, rarely. I don't have nightmares, did when I was young,but none that I could remember for the most part once I woke up way back then even. So, it's interesting reading what you and Rain have to say. Hope you're staying warm!

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Judy, Yes, I dream--but most of the time, I won't remember them UNLESS I either write them down when I wake up, or talk about them immediately. Otherwise, they'll disappear from my memory.

George says that he never dreams--but I'm sure he does. I agree that we all dream.. AND--I've heard that dreams mean 'something.'

I dreamed recently that someone stole my laptop (I don't even have a laptop). BUT --when I woke up, I was so relieved that it was JUST a dream!

Interesting...
Hugs,
Betsy

Arti said...

Hi Judy

It was an interesting thought that you came up with.Everyone has different views on why we dream what we dream.I also dream a lot and sometimes if I wake up just after and if I go through it again, I would remember it for quite sometime...But I never experienced situations that you have mentioned, like seeing someone before they died, although I have heard it from other people. In fact I see a lot of people who have already gone,like my dad who died when I was 12, or my aunt who died about 10 years ago, but when I see them in my dreams,they are young, healthy and happy,not like they actually died!
What I believe, is that dreams are just the extensions of our everyday thoughts,like if we are having issues with someone close , it translates into a dream..If we are missing someone, we are with them in our dreams .....but apart from that, I still have to experience something that can be termed as extra-ordinary!

Nancy said...

That was an interesting post! I do dream, some pleasant and some not. I don't always remember a bad dream, but sometimes I wake up knowing that I have dreamed something that made me uneasy. I do have a few houses and neighborhoods that recur in dreams occasionally. I had a really bad dream the other night in which a truck in our front yard rolled over on my daughter, catching her unawares and pinning her underneath it. At that point I woke up, not knowing how badly she was hurt. It was so real that it scared me. I know she has been having some problems that have upset her a lot, but I don't know how this dream relates to that. Frightening, though, for sure...

Anonymous said...

I have some very strange dreams and nightmares. I to have woken crying, screaming and laughing. Once I woke and hubby told me my Language had been like navvies, (very bad).

Beth said...

What an interesting post, Judy! You are fortunate to remember your dreams so well. I think probably it is likely you ARE passing into another dimension when you dream of those in the spirit world. I don't often remember my dreams except when they are so vivid, they wake me up. Recently, I dreamed that I was selling moonshine that I called "Doctor P's Elixir"! It was selling very well, too. :-) I also dreamed a very frightening dream the other night where two Mafia hit men broke into my house and told me they had come to "off" me. I woke up before they shot me, but I remember one of them saying to me, "You're going down, Fatso!" Gee whiz...talk about adding insult to injury! Anyway, I'm not sure what all this reveals about my sub-conscious mind. I've never considered selling moonshine and, as an Irish-American, I definitely don't have any Mafia connections!

Margie's Musings said...

I seldom dream or if I do, I don't remember the dreams.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Very interesting post Judy, I have really vivid dreams , sometimes I awaken then go back and dream the same dream again. Until the next time take care.


Yvonne.

Barry said...

I know I dream but my dreams are always forgotten by the time I wake up. The most I recall is of some fleeting sense of having dreamed.

I feel deprived.

Jeannie said...

Nice to see you all thawed out and back to blogging. :D

I actually do both- have vivid dreams about the same thing over and over again. One dream I have had many times, even since childhood, and unfortunately it is not a pleasant one. But I believe that although the mind stays awake while we sleep, our "rational" part of our mind goes to la la land, which is why my dreams sometimes do not make much sense.

Jamie Dawn said...

How neat and scary that you dream so vividly.
I don't remember my dreams very often. I sometimes have frustrating dreams in which I'm moving very slowly but need to be in a hurry to get somewhere or do something.
I don't usually have vivid dreams that seem like it's real life.
I've even said to myself while dreaming, "This is a dream."

It's good to know you are back in the swing of things again after that terrible ice storm.
:-)

Clara....in TN said...

Judy, I dream a lot and they are frightening dreams. One day I hope to dream something pleasant! LOL Most of the time, I dream about being in a storm. I'm always inside of a house and the roof is blowing off or the windows are breaking a glass is flying everywhere. I have had the whole house to turn upside down and I'm in it.
Another thing I dream, I am leaving work...as in retiring. I am gathering up things that I need to take home with me that belong to me. I can NEVER find all of my belongings. I wonder how long our dreams last? Sometimes I think I dream all night long, but it might be only a few seconds, I don't know. I used to have a dream book. I wrote my dreams down as soon as I woke up. Don't do that now.

Sweetie said...

You have really given me a lot to think about. I sometimes dream in color and sometimes in black and white. Come to think of it, I'm always younger in my dreams. Great post!
Hugs,
Sweetie

Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

I used to have very detailed and vivid dreams and could recount them to you easily. However for a number of years now I have had difficulty recounting my dreams. Sometimes I can remember them ok, and other times it is very difficult to remember or I remember very little. Other times I can't remember them at all, but I know I've had a dream.

clairz said...

Fascinating post, especially your own dreams. I was interested to read about toddlers not appearing in their own dreams. I wonder how researchers worked that out.

I will still, 40 years after going to college (for the first time), have that awful dream about being almost at the end of a semester, then remembering that there was one class I forgot to go to since the first class meeting months before.

When I first had a baby I used to dream about forgetting him somewhere.

Lately I have very complex dreams with amazing plot twists and funny characters, all accompanied by original theme music! I understand that most dreaming is done in a very brief time span and I am amazed that so many details can be packed into so few moments. Alas--all is forgotten when I wake up, although I am sometimes still laughing and humming the tune.

Grammyof13 said...

Judy, this is great information. My husband wakes me up from dreams that are unpleasant after I get to screaming or think I'm screaming anyway. I'm usually trying to get away from someone or something. Otherwise I rest very well, and usually have pleasant dreams. I believe the Lord helps me solve problems during sleep via dreams.

Great Post. Glad you are back.

Lilly said...

Judy that was fascinating. Fancy men dreaming about men? Well I used to have this dream about taking my baby sister in a pram across a narrow bridge. There was only enough room for a person at a time to cross. We were approached by a large man and he just threw us off the bridge because he wanted to get across. My sister was wearing a fur lined hooded coat and she drowned because I couldnt get her loose from her pram. I was a child. I stopped dreaming about this maybe five years ago. She is now 35. Who knows what it was about but I dreamt this from childhood on for at least 25 years. No I have never seen a pscychologist. LOL

Silver said...

Thanks Judy for dropping by. I feel so welcomed here..

I will be checking out your other blogs soon..

Smiles..

luv2gosup said...

Judy, Enjoyed the dream posting. I dream often but the most recent dream that was so vivid was last week. It was time for me to get up and my deceased husband was nudging me ever so gently saying "time to get up". After the third nudge, I awakened. It was the exact time that I had planned to awaken.

Amber Star said...

I think when we do dream our brain is working on problems in our lives that we are aware of or maybe not aware on a concious level. I hadn't thought about people who are snoring can't be dreaming. I wonder why.

Stay safe tonight from the storms. We are supposed to get it and ya'll , too.

Leigh said...

Mom,

I love this blog entry. I have very vivid dreams as well. I wonder if you passed that on to me? hehehe I love it when I have really vivid dreams, especially about Dad or Grandmother. It makes me feel closer to them.

Love you!

Leigh

Leigh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ann said...

How do they know this:
"Toddlers do not dream about themselves. They don't appear in their own dreams until age 3 or 4"??? Makes you wonder.
Neat article.

Balisha said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Grammy said...

Dear Judy,
Yes, I dream every night- for me a night without dreams is like a day without sunshine. I enjoy dreamning, and always dream in technicolor. No black and white for me! I sometimes wake up and then go back to sleep and finish the dream, picking it up just where I left it. I often dream of those who have passed on. My brothers who recently passed on have already been in my dreams.
Very interesting post!
Love,
Ruby

Balisha said...

Your deams post was very interesting. Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. Have a Happy Valentine's Day.

Margaret Cloud said...

I have the tendency to dream the same dream, sometimes I remember a little of what I dream, my husband is the dreamer, he has the weirdest ones and a lot of them are dreams about the place he retired from and he remembers his dreams. I have several dreams where I actually levitate, from the ground yo a tree once and a house roof the other time, I think someone was after me. Judy I wish you a Happy Valentine's day and a good weekend.

Sunny said...

Hi Judy! LOL, that cat in the cage with the birdie on top is absolutely a *giggle!* Cute. :)

Wishing you a wonderful Happy Valentine's Day Weekend.

~Judy