Stupid REM Moments

Kitsune · 12-15-2003, 11:05 AM

Why do we have irritating dreams, sometimes? You know, the ones where you have to dial a phone to make an important call but all the numbers are hard to read and you keep slipping up and have to re-dial over and over again?

Last night: an endless, blank stairwell. Nothing but repeating flights of concrete stairs and buzzing flourescent lights. No exits no matter how far up or down I travelled and I swear that all that sleep I had during this dream was completely useless, judging by the number of cups of coffee it has taken to get going today.

Damn you, sleep demons! Why can't I return to the grand old days of dreaming about that peaceful island where stress did not exist? Or all those women? Or that peaceful island with all those women?

Beestie · 12-15-2003, 11:31 AM

You have the phone call dream too??

Mine is where I have to make a really important phone call but the number isn't expressed as a number but as a word number like "BAKER-6-9000" and I can't translate it! I haven't had that one in a while (thank god - its a wake-up-in-a-cold-sweat dream).

The other one I had wasn't so much stressful as frustrating - I have to run somewhere but my legs won't move.

But the dreams I have when I'm sick and have a really high fever are just awful - like I'm in a sauna with a full sweatsuit on and I can't find the door.

Kitsune · 12-15-2003, 11:38 AM

Someone once noted to me, and I'm not sure if I believe it, that the part of your brain that allows you to understand text shuts down while you are sleeping. Hence, the numbers and letters are hard to read.

One night, before going to bed, I read a massive amount of Calvin and Hobbes. My dream, of course, was that I was reading more of these comics, but I could only see blurred text with sharp graphics. I kind of had to figure out what was going on just by the pictures and, of course, it made no sense at all in a dream.

The worst thing about these dreams is that I feel incredibly tired on waking from them in the morning.

You have the phone call dream too??

Other common dreams people have, I think: tornados, many of them, all converging on your house. Well, it was common to other people I knew who grew up in the midwest and lived with fun weather come April followed by sirens that made everyone a little nervous. And, of course, running from something and slipping and falling a lot.

Happy Monkey · 12-15-2003, 11:52 AM

I know several people who have dreamed about their teeth crumbling in their mouths. I've had it a couple of times. That's one unpleasant dream.

SteveDallas · 12-15-2003, 11:54 AM

I have one that recurs relatively frequently. I'm in school taking classes. The problem is, it's getting close to the end of the semester and there's this one class that I've never even been to and done no studying for. This is obviously a problem with exams pending (leaving aside the question of whether the prof would award a passing grade to a student who had been awol the whole term even if they did blow away the final).

This is, I think, a pretty typical scenario for an anxiety kind of dream. But there are a couple things about it that always make it seem even more odd and surreal, especially when I've just woke up from it at 2 AM.

First, it mixes different elements from my past. For example, this course I'm in trouble over might be happening on a campus where I used to work, and be taught by a physics teacher from my high school as part of the math department where I went to college.

Second, the course in question is always a math course. Math was my best subject and I could soak it up instantly. (Note the past tense; after 15-odd years of disuse I'm lucky to balance my checkbook properly. I might as well never have taken real analysis or abstract algebra for all that I can recall now.) So why does it show up like this? It would be more apropos for me to have a nightmare about biology or American lit or some other subject where I was indifferent at best.

SteveDallas · 12-15-2003, 11:56 AM

Oh ick Happy Monkey, I'm so bad at dental hygeine. Who knows why? It's just something I'm very slack about. Now I'm probably going to have that dream!

Kitsune · 12-15-2003, 12:07 PM

Ugh! The teeth rotting dream is also common, then! Nasty! I've had that one a number of times.

One of the most unpleasant experiences ever was to wake from a dream and experience sleep paralysis. All the instructions for your muscles to move for actions in your dream are actually sent from your brain down your spinal cord. When you dream, neurons in your spinal cord send a convient "don't do this" signal which defeats the action. The result: you don't move around much when you dream. If you wake up and the signal is still being sent, you try to move and can't. It lasts less than a minute, but it is truly horrifying to try to move or yell and you cannot.

The other possibility: REM without atonia, where the "don't do this" signal is not sent and you act out all of your physical actions that take place in your dreams. The result: you can murder your wife and successfully use the condition as your defense.

FileNotFound · 12-15-2003, 12:35 PM

I think my scariest and most often reocuring dream involves me realizing that I'm taking MORE classes than I thought.

Like realizing that instead of 6 classes I'm taking 7 and have missed the 7th class the whole term and now will certainly fail. This forces me to start thinking about what classes I am taking, when the mystery class was supposed to be etc.

I have it at least once every term before the finals. It drives me insane because I can never figure out which class it is that I've not gone to, if I'm really failing etc. Maybe I should go to my classes...in RL I go to maybe 1/3rd of all my classes.

Scariest dream ever: I woke up, it was about 9 am, I walked into the living room, turned on the TV, went into the bathroom, washed my face, brushed my teeth..decieded to take a leak. So as I was standing there taking a piss I suddently started to feel warm all over. - Thats when I realized that it was all a dream except for the part that I was in fact taking a piss while still in bed. I was about 5 years old at the time. This was an 'odd' thing for me because I never wetted my bed before or after(excluding the diaper age).
Ever since that dream, any thought or mention of body functions in a dream causes me to wake up spontaneously.

Edit:

Scariest way to wake up was face on the pillow, one hand under the pillow and one hand under my chest. Both had gone numb, I could feel the slight tingling but I didn't know where my arms were..I tried to get up but couldn't controll my hands...I managed to roll over and just lay there till I regained sensation..

insoluble · 12-15-2003, 01:38 PM

how about the one where you know you need to wake up or you will die from sleep apnea, but you can't wake yourself up because your dream self can't get in touch with your real self.

Kitsune · 12-15-2003, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by insoluble
how about the one where you know you need to wake up or you will die from sleep apnea, but you can't wake yourself up because your dream self can't get in touch with your real self.

Yikes.

I hope you aren't refering to a personal experience. Sleep apnea is no fun.

kerosene · 12-15-2003, 02:18 PM

When I was working a graveyard shift my dreams became extremely weird, because I was sleeping during the day, instead of at night. I attribute it to my body trying to adjust to a wacky schedule.

During that period I got alot of those dreams in which I cannot tell if I am in a dream. I would lay down on the couch to rest before work and then (presumably) wake up and start going about my normal activities. Gradually things would warp and unusual things would start to happen and I would suddenly realize, I never woke up at all and so I would wake myself up from the dream...and it would happen all over again. This could happen 5 or 6 times in a row. That is the scariest kind of dream for me, because it blurs my sense of reality, even when I really do wake up.

lumberjim · 12-15-2003, 02:30 PM

the crumbling teeth dream typically expresses a fear of growing up or maturing.....facing realities that you've been avoiding.

FnF......you shouldn't have shared the bed wetter thing.....I fear it may haunt you in the future.

oh, and case......you never DID wake up...this IS a dream.....you've been in a coma for over 13 years......I think it's time to wake up.......the good news is, your not really married to Perth, and are again free to date.

so what are you doing tomorrow night?

-just kidding, jinx!...oh, and you too , perth

Kitsune · 12-15-2003, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lumberjim
the crumbling teeth dream typically expresses a fear of growing up or maturing.....facing realities that you've been avoiding.

Really? Aging? The Freudian analysis I got on that one was "that means you're gay".

Happy Monkey · 12-15-2003, 02:43 PM

Dream analysys is the new astrology. Or the old astrology. Anyway, it's just as accurate.

kerosene · 12-15-2003, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lumberjim
oh, and case......you never DID wake up...this IS a dream.....you've been in a coma for over 13 years......

Yikes...13 years of sleep make for nasty pillow drool.

12-15-2003, 11:05 AM	#1
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	Stupid REM Moments Why do we have irritating dreams, sometimes? You know, the ones where you have to dial a phone to make an important call but all the numbers are hard to read and you keep slipping up and have to re-dial over and over again? Last night: an endless, blank stairwell. Nothing but repeating flights of concrete stairs and buzzing flourescent lights. No exits no matter how far up or down I travelled and I swear that all that sleep I had during this dream was completely useless, judging by the number of cups of coffee it has taken to get going today. Damn you, sleep demons! Why can't I return to the grand old days of dreaming about that peaceful island where stress did not exist? Or all those women? Or that peaceful island with all those women?

12-15-2003, 11:31 AM	#2
Beestie -◊\|≡·∙■·∙≡\|◊- Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Parts unknown. Posts: 4,081	You have the phone call dream too?? Mine is where I have to make a really important phone call but the number isn't expressed as a number but as a word number like "BAKER-6-9000" and I can't translate it! I haven't had that one in a while (thank god - its a wake-up-in-a-cold-sweat dream). The other one I had wasn't so much stressful as frustrating - I have to run somewhere but my legs won't move. But the dreams I have when I'm sick and have a really high fever are just awful - like I'm in a sauna with a full sweatsuit on and I can't find the door. __________________ ♠ ♥ ♣ ♦

12-15-2003, 11:52 AM	#4
Happy Monkey I think this line's mostly filler. Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: DC Posts: 13,575	I know several people who have dreamed about their teeth crumbling in their mouths. I've had it a couple of times. That's one unpleasant dream. __________________ _________________ \|...............\| We live in the nick of times. \| Len 17, Wid 3 \| \|_______________\| [pics]

12-15-2003, 12:35 PM	#8
FileNotFound Intouch with his inner sheep rider. Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 603	I think my scariest and most often reocuring dream involves me realizing that I'm taking MORE classes than I thought. Like realizing that instead of 6 classes I'm taking 7 and have missed the 7th class the whole term and now will certainly fail. This forces me to start thinking about what classes I am taking, when the mystery class was supposed to be etc. I have it at least once every term before the finals. It drives me insane because I can never figure out which class it is that I've not gone to, if I'm really failing etc. Maybe I should go to my classes...in RL I go to maybe 1/3rd of all my classes. Scariest dream ever: I woke up, it was about 9 am, I walked into the living room, turned on the TV, went into the bathroom, washed my face, brushed my teeth..decieded to take a leak. So as I was standing there taking a piss I suddently started to feel warm all over. - Thats when I realized that it was all a dream except for the part that I was in fact taking a piss while still in bed. I was about 5 years old at the time. This was an 'odd' thing for me because I never wetted my bed before or after(excluding the diaper age). Ever since that dream, any thought or mention of body functions in a dream causes me to wake up spontaneously. Edit: Scariest way to wake up was face on the pillow, one hand under the pillow and one hand under my chest. Both had gone numb, I could feel the slight tingling but I didn't know where my arms were..I tried to get up but couldn't controll my hands...I managed to roll over and just lay there till I regained sensation.. __________________ This is a rat. \|This is a hamster.\| This is a chipmunk.\| This is a Sheep Rider. Last edited by FileNotFound; 12-15-2003 at 12:37 PM.

12-15-2003, 02:30 PM	#12
lumberjim I can hear my ears Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 25,571	the crumbling teeth dream typically expresses a fear of growing up or maturing.....facing realities that you've been avoiding. FnF......you shouldn't have shared the bed wetter thing.....I fear it may haunt you in the future. oh, and case......you never DID wake up...this IS a dream.....you've been in a coma for over 13 years......I think it's time to wake up.......the good news is, your not really married to Perth, and are again free to date. so what are you doing tomorrow night? -just kidding, jinx!...oh, and you too , perth __________________ This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality Embrace this moment, remember We are eternal, all this pain is an illusion ~MJKeenan

12-15-2003, 11:38 AM	#3
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	Someone once noted to me, and I'm not sure if I believe it, that the part of your brain that allows you to understand text shuts down while you are sleeping. Hence, the numbers and letters are hard to read. One night, before going to bed, I read a massive amount of Calvin and Hobbes. My dream, of course, was that I was reading more of these comics, but I could only see blurred text with sharp graphics. I kind of had to figure out what was going on just by the pictures and, of course, it made no sense at all in a dream. The worst thing about these dreams is that I feel incredibly tired on waking from them in the morning. You have the phone call dream too?? Other common dreams people have, I think: tornados, many of them, all converging on your house. Well, it was common to other people I knew who grew up in the midwest and lived with fun weather come April followed by sirens that made everyone a little nervous. And, of course, running from something and slipping and falling a lot.

12-15-2003, 11:54 AM	#5
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	I have one that recurs relatively frequently. I'm in school taking classes. The problem is, it's getting close to the end of the semester and there's this one class that I've never even been to and done no studying for. This is obviously a problem with exams pending (leaving aside the question of whether the prof would award a passing grade to a student who had been awol the whole term even if they did blow away the final). This is, I think, a pretty typical scenario for an anxiety kind of dream. But there are a couple things about it that always make it seem even more odd and surreal, especially when I've just woke up from it at 2 AM. First, it mixes different elements from my past. For example, this course I'm in trouble over might be happening on a campus where I used to work, and be taught by a physics teacher from my high school as part of the math department where I went to college. Second, the course in question is always a math course. Math was my best subject and I could soak it up instantly. (Note the past tense; after 15-odd years of disuse I'm lucky to balance my checkbook properly. I might as well never have taken real analysis or abstract algebra for all that I can recall now.) So why does it show up like this? It would be more apropos for me to have a nightmare about biology or American lit or some other subject where I was indifferent at best.

12-15-2003, 11:56 AM	#6
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	Oh ick Happy Monkey, I'm so bad at dental hygeine. Who knows why? It's just something I'm very slack about. Now I'm probably going to have that dream!

12-15-2003, 12:07 PM	#7
Kitsune still eats dirt Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 3,031	Ugh! The teeth rotting dream is also common, then! Nasty! I've had that one a number of times. One of the most unpleasant experiences ever was to wake from a dream and experience sleep paralysis. All the instructions for your muscles to move for actions in your dream are actually sent from your brain down your spinal cord. When you dream, neurons in your spinal cord send a convient "don't do this" signal which defeats the action. The result: you don't move around much when you dream. If you wake up and the signal is still being sent, you try to move and can't. It lasts less than a minute, but it is truly horrifying to try to move or yell and you cannot. The other possibility: REM without atonia, where the "don't do this" signal is not sent and you act out all of your physical actions that take place in your dreams. The result: you can murder your wife and successfully use the condition as your defense.

12-15-2003, 01:38 PM	#9
insoluble developmentally disabled rear end headwear Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: syracuse, ny Posts: 207	how about the one where you know you need to wake up or you will die from sleep apnea, but you can't wake yourself up because your dream self can't get in touch with your real self.

12-15-2003, 02:18 PM	#11
kerosene Touring the facilities Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: The plains of Colorado Posts: 3,476	When I was working a graveyard shift my dreams became extremely weird, because I was sleeping during the day, instead of at night. I attribute it to my body trying to adjust to a wacky schedule. During that period I got alot of those dreams in which I cannot tell if I am in a dream. I would lay down on the couch to rest before work and then (presumably) wake up and start going about my normal activities. Gradually things would warp and unusual things would start to happen and I would suddenly realize, I never woke up at all and so I would wake myself up from the dream...and it would happen all over again. This could happen 5 or 6 times in a row. That is the scariest kind of dream for me, because it blurs my sense of reality, even when I really do wake up.

12-15-2003, 02:43 PM	#14
Happy Monkey I think this line's mostly filler. Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: DC Posts: 13,575	Dream analysys is the new astrology. Or the old astrology. Anyway, it's just as accurate. __________________ _________________ \|...............\| We live in the nick of times. \| Len 17, Wid 3 \| \|_______________\| [pics]

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