I have a recurring dream where instead of quitting smoking 25 years ago, I have been secretly smoking all along. I always wake up in a sweat and have to remind myself that it's a dream.
Do you have a dream that recurs like mine? Of course, we all have the one where we are sitting in a math class, about to take the final, and realize we haven't been to class all semester.
Phil has dreams where he is traveling to places he has never been-like a bordertown in Poland or South Africa and has an assignment. No doubt, too much Alan Furst.
23 comments:
My recurrent dream is a chase. Sometimes I'm in Europe, sometimes on a Space Station, sometimes in my old neighborhood. I don't know who's chasing me, but I really really don't want to be caught!
...and you're naked or in your underwear.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I have a lot of "transportation" dreams - subways, other trains, buses, etc. The weird part to me is, I get on a subway at a "real" stop like 14th Street-Union Square. But it isn't like the real stop is and when the train comes although it appears to be a real train the stops are not real sops, if you know what I mean. The route is always different.
Another recurring dream is, I am trying to remember where I parked my car (something that never happens, right?) and I walk around my old neighborhood, but again the streets are not the real streets.
Thank you, Dr. Freud.
Jackie is different as she has very literal dreams about school, real people she knew and wored with, etc.
Jeff M.
Oh yes. One is riding a train that keeps overshooting my stop, no matter how many times I go back and forth.
Twenty years after leaving the music business, I still have singer's anxiety dreams. I'm due on stage in thirty minutes, I'm twenty miles from the theater, and I have nothing but a bicycle to get me there.
Thanks, Patti. I'm sure I can count on one or another of these tonight.
Al reminded me of one.
We're leaving for Europe THAT NIGHT and I am just not ready. I'm not packed, or don't have everything ready, or need to go pick up the tickets or a passport and there is Just. No. Time.
I run around like a maniac for a while until I wake up.
Jeff M.
I've had the packing one many times, Jeff. I wonder if people who never travel have it.
My chase dream is always in apocalyptic streets.
I also have always had a dream where I lose my teeth--and guess what?
I've had the packing one many times, Jeff. I wonder if people who never travel have it.
My chase dream is always in apocalyptic streets.
I also have always had a dream where I lose my teeth--and guess what?
I haven't had a recurring dream since going up for tenure. I do have themes that repeat in various dreams.
I will occasionally dream that I'm back in the chemo wards with my Dad. That wasn't a pleasant time.
Oddly enough, I had the "taking a test you haven't studied for" dream just a couple of weeks ago; but more often--because I put myself through college waiting tables--I'll dream that I have a big table and am running around the restaurant kitchen trying to get the food orders together and I can never find everything--I'm always missing a dinner or a salad or a drink. Standard anxiety dream--I usually get them when I'm worried about something.
A frequent recurring dream is that I'm walking through my childhood home (which, in reality, was not very big) and it has lots of rooms and seems to go on forever. Sometimes, it's dilapidated and the yard is overgrown with weeds, sometimes it's the only house left on the block, sometimes I'm waiting for someone who never shows up.
What an interesting thread.
For as far back as I can remember I have had dreams about worrying about, saving or in some other way caring for both small children and small animals. Which is odd as I have neither. The other night I was worried about two mice. The bigger one helped the smaller one, but it somehow got into my backpack and got separated from the other. So I had to try and hold on to it till I could get them back together. Not easy.
When I used to work at the bookstore, I frequently had dreams that I had terrible difficulties at the cash register--it would change into a completely new machine or something like that. I am quite happy that those dreams appear to be over.
Ah, recurring dreams. As a child I dreamt a couple times a month that I was flying and then suddenly I would fall into a body of water (pool, lake, ocean) and, in spite of being a good swimmer, which I was, I would sink like a stone. I struggled harder and harder, but kept sinking, then woke up.
The last couple of decades I've had one, maybe four or five times a year, in which I'm on a street lined with a few car dealers. It's the mid to late 1970s, but I have knowledge from now. Each dealer has a used car lot packed with what are now highly desirable classics and muscle cars but in the dream just cheap used cars. But I only have so much money and can only buy a few cars.
That one isn't a nightmare by any means, and I enjoy it and usually remember when I wake which cars I picked or was about to pick.
I don't remember ever having a packing, unprepared for test, or being chased dream.
One more. Becaue we spent summers for over 30 years going around Britain buying secondhand books, this is one of my favorites: I'm in some British city and discover a new (to me) bookstore. Inside are rooms and rooms of books, including at least one entire bookcase of paperbacks from the '40s and '50s - old Penguins, Collins Crime Club, etc. No one else seems interested as I go through the shelves picking out piles of books.
I always wake up happy.
Jeff M.
I have one where I've committed some crime and I'm trying to piece together how it was done so I can get out of it. Remembering in flashbacks, and then questioning if I was really there.
One more comment: I have never had a dream where I am successfully driving a vehicle--despite having been a driver for over 40 years. If I'm driving in a dream, the vehicle will suffer some sort of mechanical failure or will transform into something else (a scooter, a skateboard) or the steering wheel falls off or I'm suddenly in the back seat unable to reach the steering wheel. I'm sure there's a deep psychological explanation, but at this point I've been unable to drive in dreams for so long that I'd be more puzzled if I suddenly started having dreams where I could drive!
I don't drive in real life and I don't drive in dreams. I do go to houses that are supposedly mine but look quite different. Always bigger with lots of hidden rooms.
Don't I wish I visited new bookstores. I have dreamed I have been unfairly accused of a crime many times.
The funniest thing about dreams is that you accept their premises fairly easily.
I don't drive in real life and I don't drive in dreams. I do go to houses that are supposedly mine but look quite different. Always bigger with lots of hidden rooms.
Don't I wish I visited new bookstores. I have dreamed I have been unfairly accused of a crime many times.
The funniest thing about dreams is that you accept their premises fairly easily.
I've never had a recurring dream in my life. I've always thought they were the invention of writers! Guess they really do exist. My dreams are far too detailed, surreal, and personal for me to talk about in a blog comment. Too many of them are sexual. Many of them have been turned into stories and plays when I used to write fiction and plays regularly. The white van story I wrote last year for the "Flash fiction challenge" was based on images and characters I dreamed about. I never have these chasing or flying dreams that most people talk about or missing trains or taking tests I've never studied for. My dreams are like bizarre fantasy movies. Joe dreams about being chased all the time.
When I fly in dreams, it's by flapping my arms folded under. Quite a slow way to move.
I'm always flunking a course I need for my degree because I never went to class. I'm also often trying to catch a flight to England, but something is keeping me from catching the plane. A couple nights ago, I was on the plane, about to land, and realized I had forgotten to bring along my passport.
I have quite a few recurring dreams, though the details often vary. Thankfully, most of them are rather pleasant, and once or twice I've been sorry to wake up and realise they never happened!
I'm either being menaced of have snapped and try to pull the trigger on a revolver. But as hard as I pull the hammer won't go all the way back and I can't shoot.
Another is I'm in a car, backing up, and the car keeps going faster. The brakes are useless.
Lastly, I've grabbed a young woman off the street and slashed her to ribbons. This one is very uncomfortable, especially when I wake up and find blood all over my clothes and arms.
I made one of these up.
We should all have your dreams, Martin. Most of mine are trivial in the extreme.
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