Since there is not much going on other than football and feasting, this being New Year’s Day, let me share some really weird dreams I have. Dinner is pork and sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, brussell sprouts, and baked apples. I’m pissed at Shawn because I went out to check on everything and he told me “I already ate” and all he ate was pork and sauerkraut which wasn’t really ready and he ate none ofthe sides I could and had ginger snaps for dessert. I wanted to punch him in the neck, the fucker. At least the fraternity boys will eat the whole meal when they get here in a little bit.
One set of them always involves the military. Today’s iteration was I was PCSing, but had been out in the field, came back to clean up and catch my flight, and someone had been moved into my room and all of my left boots were missing. I only had my right boot out of each set and the muddy beat down set I was wearing. Also, I couldn’t blouse my BDU’s because all of them were gone except for the cheapo braided ones with hooks that cut off your circulation. And then, every time I got one done and started to work on the other came undone, all while everyone was yelling that the 1SG was waiting on me.
Another military one I have all the damned time is that I go back to the military and am stationed at Fulda again, but it is current day, and everyone I was there with is there, but I am out of shape and everything is the same but has changed and I don’t remember any of the skill sets I had, and it always seems like I am holding everyone back, and I can’t get my A and B bags packed because I am missing all sorts of gear and have to keep going to supply. I also only have summer BDU bottoms and winter tops. Meanwhile, they are yelling at me to get to the motor pool so we can get to railhead.
Another dream I have all the time is it is about three weeks before I am supposed to graduate from grad school, and the registrar’s office calls me and say they can not let me march because they did a records check, and it turns out I never graduated from high school, so they will hold my degree for a year but I have to go back to HS to get my diploma. So I have to go to high school every day for a year at my old high school and I am 40+ years old but all my friends from high school are the same age they were back then.
Another frequently recurring dream involves me driving the car, and I go to brake, but the brakes slow me down but don’t really stop me. I can feel myself pushing on the brake, but it just goes soft all the way to the floor, so I am involved in slow motion accidents and near misses. The latest one the other day had me driving a UPS truck, and I was sliding down a hill and tried to brake and couldn’t, so I tried to downshift and ended up hitting reverse and shooting the transmission out the ass of the truck.
All of them leave me waking up frustrated and feeling all weird in the head. I’m not even going to get into the nightmares. Oh, and I dream in color, and I know I also have good dreams, because I have been told I giggle in my sleep, but I never remember those dreams.
Any of you have the same kind of dreams?
Snarki, child of Loki
Weird dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree?
Suzanne
Definitely have the didn’t-graduate-from-high-school dreams on occasion. That seems to be a common one. For a while, I was having epileptic seizures while dreaming. That sucked.
At the airport in NW Arkansas, ready to go home to Phoenix, where it snowed while we were gone. My MIL wants us to move here so bad. Oh hell no. The landscape is lovely. The built environment is dreadful. Sign-on-a-stick is such a wretched aesthetic.
raven
Dude’s off the fucking rails.
Southern Beale
I had a dream the other night that I was on a roller coaster with drag queens.
Karen in GA
I used to have frequent recurring dreams of tornadoes in the distance. Then I got laid off and was unemployed for six months. After I got a job offer, I had a dream where a tornado actually hit, and I survived. I rarely have tornado dreams anymore.
Another theme was trying to get home and being unable to. It started with a dream where I was on the porch at my parents’ house (when I still lived there), looked in through the screen door, and didn’t recognize any of the people at the dining room table and as a result felt that I couldn’t go in the house. Those stopped when I moved 800 miles away from most of my family.
Now I occasionally dream that I’m driving at night and either I can’t see the road or I’m so tired I can’t keep my eyes open. Those started after I was driving on the interstate through Atlanta on a particularly foggy night and couldn’t see three feet in front of the car.
Schlemazel
I guess I’m lucky, the very very few dreams I am aware of are mundane, just everyday life sorts of things .
raven
I dreamed I saw St Augustine, alive as you and me. . .
22over7
Everyone I know has the “needs to take another class/final” dream. Usually I can’t find the classroom and the school becomes a maze. As for the others, maybe you feel like you need to go forward, but something is holding you back. Or not. Who the hell knows.
Sometimes I want to slap my subconscious upside the head and yell, “Just TELL me, for Christ sake!”
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
My dreams usually involve either being lost or looking for something. I’m sure there’s some deep spiritual significance to that, or something.
One time, though, I had a really vivid, euphoric dream about flying in a helicopter that was just big enough for me and my labrador, Sterling. We were flying really fast, just above the treetops, and it was awesome.
In the morning, my wife mentioned she’d dreamed about kayaking with the border collie, Rhea, and wondered where Sterling wasn’t there. “Duh, because he was in MY dream!”
ruemara
Is it odd to just not dream? I hardly ever dream at all.
raven
While riding on a train goin west
I fell to sleep for to take my rest
I dreamed a dream that made me sad
About my life and the first few friends I had.
Don’t get no better.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
I seem to mostly dream about stuff on NPR in the morning these days, if I let it run when I should be waking up and getting out of bed.
As a kid I had a recurring dream about a huge bear chasing me up a big hill in a forest.
Freud would probably say your dreams are about not being able to find that jar of mustard…
Take time to laugh when you can. As Bill Murray said in his interview with Charlie Rose – (roughly) “This isn’t a rehearsal.” :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Olivia
My driving dreams are always that I can’t get any speed. I start out ok; going somewhere important, got to get there in a hurry and then I just can’t make the machine move like I need it to.
My school dreams are always that I can’t find a really important class and I end up going through the term never having made it to the class. I really hate that one. It usually wakes me up because I get so frustrated.
SiubhanDuinne
I’ve never had military dreams, but I’ve had plenty of “I am totally unprepared and totally fucked” dreams. I used to have a lot of driving dreams but oddly, once I learned to drive IRL (at age 30) I stopped having those. My most common theme is what I call “architectural” dreams, where there are endless corridors, rooms, closed doors, escalators going nowhere à la Escher, staircases, oddly situated elevator banks, huge open warehouse spaces, etc. There is one final category of dream I have frequently, but it would be TMI so I won’t.
shelley
Well John, now you’ve opened up the Pandora’s box; everybody’s gonna relate their weird dreams
***********
To keep it short, my most recurring ones are frustration dreams. Usually trying to find a page in a book I just saw or looking up a phone number I really need.
When I was a kid I can remember dreaming I could fly. Would love to have one of those again.
celticdragonchick
@Karen in GA:
I get the tornado dreams periodically. Usually multiple tornados in the distance but also kinda menacing. I am usually looking for shelter of some sort.
I get the occasional military dream like our host. 19 years out of the army and it still messes with me, heh.
Buddy H
I’ve had the brake dream. I want to stop the car, but when I step on the brake, it feels hard and disconnected. The car slows down somewhat, but won’t stop. The opposite car dream I’ve had is I’m going up a hill, and flooring the gas, but the engine can’t generate enough power. The car won’t climb the hill, and I worry about rolling backwards. Freud would have a field day, as they say.
Years ago I used to have the high school dream; not knowing my class schedule. Haven’t had one in many years.
Every night, I dream I am in the small home I grew up in. Very vivid. I can see all the rooms. Everything looks like it did in 1970. I explore room to room, the back yard.
I have anxiety work dreams. I’m at a job that is a weird combination of several jobs I’ve had. I can’t figure out how to use the computer programs. I’ve been absent for a long time, and everything has been updated. Or there is nothing to do, and I sit there worrying about being laid off for lack of work.
Lately, I’ve had to begin wearing a night guard. Everytime I drift off to sleep, my jaw snaps suddenly. If my tongue is in the way, I’ll bite the side of it and wake myself up. It’s a terrible thing, really. I’d leave black blood blisters on the side of my tongue. Fortunately, the mouth guard protects my tongue. Most of the time, I not conscious when I bite, but the pain will wake me up. Sometimes I’m semiconscious, and I’m aware of the jaw twitch, the sudden bite.
Betty Cracker
When I quit smoking a few years ago, I took Chantix and had the weirdest dreams. In one, I was riding in the car with my chickens, and the chickens were driving! Some were perched on the steering wheel and shifting their weight to turn the wheel, and some were on the floorboard working the pedals. In the dream, this was totally normal. I had other bizarre Chantix dreams, but the chicken chauffeurs was the weirdest and most memorable.
srv
I normally charge for this service, but I’ll do a reading for you for free.
Basically, you are fucked up. You can’t go forward without your boots, bdus or diploma. Authorities/life events that can move you forward are waiting on you. Someone or something in your life is holding you back, or at least you subconsciously percieve it that way.
My vote, blame fuckhead
? Martin
@ruemara: You dream, you just don’t remember them. I rarely remember my dreams (a few times a year at most) and I never have any of the common ones – flying/falling, anxiety, etc.
wonkie
@Karen in GA: I read that as “tomatoes” the first time through,
Tree With Water
Those dreams of yours put me in mind of a Gary Larson cartoon, Cole. The reader’s perspective is as if standing behind a seated psychiatrist who is patiently listening to a client on the couch. Written in bold lettering on the shrink’s notepad with an explanation point is seen one word, “Nuts!”.
shelley
Looking at the top ofthe post again, I assume the pork and sauerkraut wasn’t a dream?
raven
@? Martin: Sounds like my colonoscopy!
Buddy H
@SiubhanDuinne:
Architectural dreams! I had forgotten about this one. I only had it a few times, but it was vivid. I’m in my childhood home. I discover a door or a closet I’d never noticed before. When I go in, it’s a huge attic-like closet filled with antiques and toys/items from my childhood I thought were lost. Very magical dream. A feeling of well-being, of rediscovering something lost and special.
stinger
I have architectural dreams, and they are almost always happy dreams. I do think a lot about residential architecture in my waking hours. In my dreams, the house often is old, dusty, and in need of simple repairs that perhaps I could do myself — at least a slap of paint — and then the house would be gorgeous. My other happy dreams involve my father, dead for 26 years, and grandfather, dead for 29 years. I just dream that I see them again. Otherwise, my dreams are clearly working out the stresses and fears of daily life, but they seem to be getting less nightmarish as I get older.
I’ve also been having that jaw-snap as I drift off, usually biting either my tongue or the inside of a cheek. If I can remember to stretch and relax my jaw/tongue/lips before falling asleep, that seems to prevent it.
mdblanche
@srv: What’s your normal rate? Five cents?
M. Bouffant
J.C., did you have these dreams when you were drinking?
Used to have the flying ones, but it was as if I were swimming in the air rather than real flight, couldn’t get any serious speed, just treading air above everyone else.
Violet
@ruemara: I think we dream but don’t remember our dreams. I hardly ever remember dreams. It’s a rare occurrence if I do.
Before my last trip to the UK I did have a dream where either I or another family member (who was flying at a different time) was on a plane that was hijacked by ISIS or somehow they got the plane and passengers. We were all herded off into jail cells and we all knew we’d be beheaded. It was like a fact we all knew, not a maybe. It was terrible. The chaos of that happening and the terror of the passengers was right was when I woke up. That one stayed with me since I was going on an international flight very soon after as was the other family member.
That’s the last dream I remember. I don’t like dreams because they usually suck like that.
Tim F.
Weird. I get the same shit, different context with the motor pool story, and you described my mushy brakes dreams pretty much verbatim.
Re school I usually need one last test to finish college, or I have to go back for my fifth summer in a row because each time I blow my chance to earn that last required credit. Plus I’m not wearing pants.
wonkie
I dreamt I was on a weird vacation to a wild west town. The people were all down trodden and intimidated by the thugs that ruled the community. I saw a boy leading a pitbull off ot a dog fight. I decided to leave town as I could tell I was becoming prey. I walked out of town to a wide flat prairie. Night fell. As I stood in the dark, I heard trucks approaching and I knew in the way that you can know stuff in dreams that the trucks were full of short runty nasty men who were going to rape me. There was no point in running. I thought that all I would be able to do was try not to beg or cry too much. The men got out of their trucks and started circling me. Then I heard a snorting noise. A hed of long horn cattle. Inmy mind I asked the cows for help. They lowered their heads and intimidated the men back into their trucks and scaredthem off. The cows and I wandered off to a lake and slept in the grass. The next morning the cows were gone. I walked back through the silent streets of early morning. I sw the boy with the pitbull, who was all torn up. In my mind I said to the dog. “Why do you fight for him when you could fight him?” The dog turned to the boy and bit him on the leg. The dog, while the boy lay screaming on the ground” presented me with his leash. I said, “You don’t belong to anyone but yur self” The dog and I walked side by side to the little airport and waited for th eplane. It was one of those little two seater planes. A guy who looked like a coyote was the pilot. He flew us home. As I got out of the plane the pilot said, “Now that you have been there, we can always come here and get you.” Then I felt a spider run across my face so I erupted out of the dream and woke up. I sat there thinking about the dream and wondering if the spider was part of the dream, or real. I lay back down and the spider ran across my face again and scared the shit of me for the second time. It was such an intense dream that I tried to write it as a short story twice but both time s the story dis appeared from my word processor.
ThresherK
Saw a steampunk fashion and *burlesque show at Boston First Night. Had a predawn dream about a Cirwue de soleil-style death-defying show (think ‘flaming hoops’ etc) with steampunk burlesque.
*My attendance was wife-sanctioned. We went together, actually.
Steve
Who are the frat boys you always refer to?
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
@Violet:
A lot of times, if you don’t remember your dreams the answer is that you’re a heavy sleeper, so you don’t wake up between sleep phases in time to remember them. I’m a pretty light sleeper, so I remember a lot, but fewer now that I wear a sleep mask at night and don’t wake up as often.
I fall into dream states easily and have them even when I only take a 10 or 20-minute nap. I can also be a lucid dreamer if I concentrate and either change the course of a dream or wake myself up if it’s getting too gruesome or stressful. It’s a handy ability to have since I rarely get caught up in a nightmare anymore. Hard to fall asleep again afterwards, though.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@raven:
I had too much to dream last night.
Violet
I had that happen in real life. Didn’t realize the brake fluid was low. Scary.
heckblazer
I still sometimes get the dream where they revoked my high school diploma so I have to go back to high school to get it. On the bright side I’ve started remembering that I still have a college degree, so I just ditch class.
Last night I had a dream where I was part of an underground resistant movement in neo-Tokyo. Which for some reason was located on the rear of a ginormous Yellow Submarine made out of Nerf foam, with orcs living in the torpedo tubes..
NotMax
Don’t remember dreams. Nearly never have throughout the many decades of being on this planet.
The exceptions are two and only two occasions: once when in my thirties and once when a child, and even those were only partial memories.
max
Dinner is pork and sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, brussell sprouts, and baked apples.
I was go nna make sour cream & chicken enchiladas, but the timing was off and rather than listen to the whining about late dinner, I just make pasta with cheese, because screw it.
And then, every time I got one done and started to work on the other came undone, all while everyone was yelling that the 1SG was waiting on me.
Well, let’s see – you sobered up, so now your subconscious is going to do a number on you. That one’s an anxiety dream and no one is ‘on your side’.
Meanwhile, they are yelling at me to get to the motor pool so we can get to railhead.
OK, some people in your life are yelling at you a lot and you’re really anxious about it.
So I have to go to high school every day for a year at my old high school and I am 40+ years old but all my friends from high school are the same age they were back then.
You got old, but all your friends seem to be having better lives than you. So, feeling behind and anxious.
The latest one the other day had me driving a UPS truck, and I was sliding down a hill and tried to brake and couldn’t, so I tried to downshift and ended up hitting reverse and shooting the transmission out the ass of the truck.
Wouldn’t happen – if you tried to reverse while under speed in a modern vehicle, the worst that would happen would be the engine would die. Anyways, Cole: you’re really really anxious.
Any of you have the same kind of dreams?
Most of mine are worse than that and of a different variety, but I’m not remembering them lately because they’re too unpleasant, I think. Since I’ve got PTSD and have had it forever, I’m not weirded out by it – I’m just used to it. (Note: the thing with PTSD is you can minimize and mitigate it, but it’s never cured exactly – it just shifts back and forth latent and active.)
Anyways, Cole, I’m going to guess that sobering up has allowed all kinds of repressed anxieties to surface and OH, LOOK!, here they are. Generally, it’s best to take that as your cue to figure out what the problem in real life is and work on it. Given that you live in the same small town and obviously it bothers you and given the dream about high school, I’m guessing you’re feeling stuck as an adolescent emotionally and this is really bothering you. There is also the stuff about getting older, and not being young anymore and oh, no, what have you done with your life?
(If you’re going to ask why you take me as anywhere near the truth – I’ll tell you. I spent five years in group therapy listening to people relate shit just like this, including the dreams, so I got to learn how to figure this stuff out. I pass it on to you. You’re welcome.)
max
[‘HTH.’]
Violet
@Mnemosyne: OT, but posted a few recipe suggestions to you re: prosecco in that thread.
John Cole +0
Yes, I had these dreams when I was a drinker.
PeorgieTirebiter
@raven: concerning myself and the first few friends I had… I grew up in Long Beach CA and back in the day, every 6th grader spent a week at one of the three mountain camps the school district owned. My cabin’s counsellor was an N.Y.U. student named Lou Stein. Naturally, Lou played guitar and harmonica and introduced us to some guy named Bob Dylan. The last day of camp, he gave a hand written copy of the lryics to b. d.’s dream because it was my favorite. That was 1964 and I still have and it will always be one of my favorites.
Nicole
OT but the NY Daily News has a headline up that Mario Cuomo has died.
HRA
I had some dreams as a child that scared me. One was after I had seen a horror movie. I stopped watching them. The one where I am walking in a strange hallway with someone telling me don’t go into the light or you’ll never come back just as the light appeared in the distance is memorable. Though the one I want to believe was a dream has me waking up first seeing a candle being held by a an old woman in the black clothes and scarf as was done in my parent’s native land by widows. I watch as she comes closer up to me, strokes my head and disappears when I open my eyes after I have shut them. Since those days I dismiss even thinking of any dreams I do remember.
srv
@Tim F.:
Steering wheels or brakes represent control over a situation. If they don’t work, you don’t feel in control.
mai naem mobile
I had two weird dreams a couple of weeks ago. The first was I was working at my old job(from years ago) in the office. Somebody had convinced me to go to work there again but i don’t know who it was but they were talking in the background. Anyway, I’m at this desk with glass dividers and can see my old boss who i hated still there and i tell the person in the background “why did you have me come back here when she’s still here?” and the person replies to me “i told you she was still gonna be here but shes gonna retire next month” and i was still mad before I woke up. My second one was me on a craggy lonely mountain with a lot of green moss/grass. It starts out light but now its the evening and its very foggy with a damp cold, low visibility and I’m alone and lost and I’m worried I’m going to fall off the mountain with the low visibility. It was kind of a scary dream and I’m glad I woke up.
mai naem mobile
@Nicole: Wow, didn’t know he was ill. RIP Mario.
phein39
I have the re-up nightmare all the time:
I’ve re-enlisted, and even though I’m now in my late 50’s, married, 4 kids, etc, they take me and put me back in an airborne outfit. I know I’ve done it to myself, and I must have had good reasons, but if I could get out of it, I would.
They process me in with a bunch of other prior service, and I get to my barracks in Alaska. I don’t have to do any of the drudge stuff, and PT and the daily routine seems to be easy, but I’m back in an infantry platoon, and there’s no way out. I’m doomed.
Kyle
A friend of mine is a Vietnam combat infantry veteran. He says he has nightmares about Vietnam but they are never about combat, they are always about the army screwing him over, such as not letting him leave when his tour is up.
Buddy H
@Betty Cracker:
Why did the chicken cross the road? She couldn’t operate the brakes.
Mike in NC
RIP Mario Cuomo
PurpleGirl
@ruemara: I think you just don’t remember the dreams. Dreaming is needed physiologically by the brain but I think you don’t always remember them. I know if I wake up while dreaming I’ll remember something. Not always the whole dream but some part of it.
JPL
@Mike in NC: It’s not on the Times yet, but rip. He was an amazing speaker.
PurpleGirl
I’ve sometimes dreamt I was falling and that feeling wakes me up with a start.
The other night I had a location I was walking through in the dream. It wasn’t a dream I’ve had before but the location was one that I’ve experienced in a dream before.
I don’t often remember my dreams.
Trinity
Oddly, my dreams are always populated by the opposite sex. Always. Men I am friends with, or ex-boyfriends, or my husband, or men I work with, my father, my brothers…always the men in my life. I realize there is obviously something that I need to work out but I guess I haven’t yet. Issues? You bet.
Betsy
I’m back in grad/professional school again but I have forgotten to attend a class section that I was enrolled for all semester and now it’s too late to drop the classes, make up the work, or learn the material … and the exam is coming up. Somehow I managed to never show up for class all semester and just forgot to drop the class.
Or I arrive for school a few days late for the start of the semester and I am late finding the classroom, and on top of that I don’t have pens and paper so I have to try take notes using a stubby golf pencil that I find and a scrap of envelope or old business card.
I’m with Max on the interpretations for the most part. And yeah I know what it’s like to feel like you’re behind all your peers in accomplishments and milestones. Blech.
SiubhanDuinne
@Nicole:
I always liked him. RIP, Governor.
SiubhanDuinne
@Buddy H:
@stinger:
Yes, I should have said my architectural dreams are never bad dreams, let alone nightmares. They are either happy dreams or emotionally neutral, but they are always extremely complex. That’s really their distinguishing feature, for me.
Buddy H
When I was a child (many years ago) I could fall asleep on my back and sleep through the night peacefully, and wake up on my back. When I got into the 6th grade, I made an unfortunate trip to the orthodontist. (actually, because my parents were poor, the orthodontist school, where I was treated like a practice dummy). I had four molars extracted, and my teeth pushed in to correct an overbite. I suspect this contributed to obstructive apnea.
After that, I’d wake up several times a night. Nowadays (or nights) if I fall asleep on my back, my throat closes up and I wake up with a snort and a gasp. I have trained myself to sleep mostly on my stomach, if I roll over onto my back then sleep time is over.
The apnea also resulted in weird sleep paralysis episodes.
I tried CPAP. No way, Jose.
grandpa john
talking of dreams and nightmares, FSU probably hopes this nightmare is soon over;
4th quarter, behind 52-20, make that 58-20.
Tim F.
@srv: Thanks, Sigmund.
mike in dc
Requiesat in pace, Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Pogonip
I have the occasional nightmare about the door lock being broken and nobody can fix or replace it till next week so all kinds of people wander through because, as they patiently explain like I was a doofus, “The door was open!”
I think I have won the John Cole award for First Dumb Accident of 2015. The toilet wouldn’t flush so I closed the bathroom door, intending to go back in about 10 minutes after it filled back up. The 10 minutes turned into an hour fooling around on the Internet. I walked down the dark hall–you see this coming, right?–and walked right into the bathroom door I forgot I closed, bruising my nose and my toes.
Beat that, Cole!
Violet
RIP Mario.
Karen in GA
@wonkie: You say “tomato,” I say “tornado,” something about calling everything off, etc.
Pogonip
P.S. I don’t think it’s fair to blame Shawn for refusing to eat Brussels sprouts. I bet even the young eating machines will pass on those.
danielx
Wasn’t a dream for me, happened just like that in a ’72 Pinto. On snow/ice road, and I did a 360 and came to a halt after yanking the emergency brake. The son of a bitch who had stopped his car on the road in front of me for no apparent reason and was the cause for me hitting the brakes in the first place just drove away.
John Weiss
@raven: Phhh’t. I never dream about Bob D. I occasionally dream about the other Bod D.
Corner Stone
I’m sorry…but, wait, what?!
schrodinger's cat
Recurrent nightmare, taking a math test and not knowing how to answer a single problem, oh and I am back in school wearing my school uniform.
Violet
John Cole @ top:
How do you cook your Brussels sprouts?
Violet
@efgoldman: I adore Brussels sprouts. Yum!
Elmo
@Buddy H: I thought I was the only one! My wife calls that my pit bull jaws, and if I fall asleep on her shoulder she claims it’s very unnerving. Snap! Snap!
Sometimes a sharp pain in my tongue will wake me up. Sometimes the pain doesn’t wake me, and it’s just waiting for me in the morning.
Hungry Joe
Dreams about not having studied for the final, or not having attended class all semester, or still needing X number of classes to graduate: These are known as Good Student Dreams because the people who have them were good students — i.e., school was very important to them at a formative age.
After more than thirty years of not having driven a bus I still have an occasional Bus Driver dream: For some reason I don’t know my route, and in desperation I’ve spread one of those route maps for passengers on my lap and am trying to drive while following it.
Also have very bad elevator dreams — elevator is rocketing to the top way too fast to possibly stop, or (of course) plunging downward, out of control. In waking life, though, riding in elevators doesn’t bother me at all. Weird.
ruemara
Hmm, I used to dream, a lot. Now I don’t. It’s just black, then I wake up.
Also, RIP, Mario. Wish your son was a better man.
schrodinger's cat
BTW does anyone know what happened to the commenter who was trying to corral the feral kitteh in his bedroom and take him to the vet?
schrodinger's cat
@Hungry Joe: Being in a gravitational field is like being in an elevator, so we are all in an elevator, in a manner of speaking.
Buddy H
@Elmo:
I was told I’d destroy my teeth if I kept biting like that. The mouth guard protects my tongue and teeth. I hate wearing it, but I hated dozing off then waking up in pain. And I hated finding black blisters on my tongue. Jesus, what a horrible thing. I’m glad I’m not the only one, though. I thought I was.
I suspect it is the result of jaw tension, and the tension is the result of my anxiety over the apnea. Jesus, I sound like one sick bastard on this thread. Maybe I should go back to cat anecdotes.
eric nny
I used to have those dreams until they gave me those magical anxiety/depression pills. Life is better. Much, much better.
Buddy H
@schrodinger’s cat:
You are all reminding me of dreams I haven’t thought of in years.
A recurring dream… the sideways elevator. I push the button, but instead of going up or down, the elevator very quickly goes sideways through a building, all twists and turns.
Usually an older elevator.
Hungry Joe
@schrodinger’s cat: Right — I hadn’t thought of that. But that also means we’re all falling, all the time. And it’s not a dream. Or is it?
Olivia
@Buddy H: You need to see someone about a dental appliance for sleep apnea. I have similar issues with my throat closing. A sleep study showed that I wake up 17 times an hour. I have used the dental appliance for 5 years and I now get wonderful sleep.
Pogonip
@efgoldman: Smart kid.
Bob In Portland
Last day of the semester dreams. Post office dreams. Apparently, my time in the military wasn’t traumatic enough.
Also, car with no brakes dream.
p.a.
When I was a kid I had the recurrent naked in public dream. I was walking to elementary school naked and stopped at houses along the way to ask for clothes. The catch was I always got the clothes in reverse order; the first stop would give me shoes, the next pants etc. so I had to carry everything, still naked, until the last house before school gave me underwear. In the dream I never thought to put the other clothes on anyway. Had to get the underwear. I seldom remember my dreams now.
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah, that’s why people tend to remember nightmares but not their happy dreams — the nightmares wake them up, at least long enough to ‘store’ the particulars.
danielx
@efgoldman:
Your granddaughter’s instincts are 100% correct; Brussels sprouts literally make me gag. My parents kept me sitting at the table one evening when I was eight or so because I refused to eat them; it turned into a battle of wills and after an hour and a half they finally tired of it and let me go. It actually led to a positive development – everybody in the family got to designate one item they didn’t have to eat even if everybody else liked it. For me, Brussels sprouts, my sister, mixed vegetables, my mom, bananas…we always thought it unfair because we liked bananas and mom wouldn’t buy them because she detested them. Pop didn’t care, he was into all this weird shit like braunschweiger, anchovies, sardines….just about anything except liver, which was cool because none of the rest of us could stand it either.
Citizen_X
When I was in grad school, I had a series of unnerving nightmares. I could never remember what happened in the dreams, just that their setting was some place of paralyzing dread and horror. As soon as found myself in that setting again, I would think, “No, no! Not here, not again!”
Pretty Lovecraftian, right? Anyway, once I finished, the nightmares stopped. “Huh,” I figured, “grad school stress.”
I will point out that in most Lovecraft stories, horrible things happen to undergrads, grad students, or faculty. Don’t go to Miskatonic, people! It’s not worth it!
Guest
I call that a “dream hangover.” A dream hangover can leave me upset or just plain weirded out for an entire day. One of my recurring dreams was getting to class and finding out that it’s the final exam and I haven’t attended any prior classes. Usually math class. I have screaming math anxiety.
Buddy H
@Olivia:
You need to see someone about a dental appliance for sleep apnea.
I tried. Several years ago I visited a sleep specialist. I told him I’d had a sleep study, was diagnosed with apnea, but couldn’t tolerate CPAP. I asked him if I could wear an appliance instead. He opened his desk drawer and threw an appliance on the desk. He said they were useless. He insisted I have another sleep study and go back on CPAP. I walked out, angry and frustrated, and then kind of gave up.
Do the dental appliances cause TMJ? Is it painful to push your lower jaw out? I’d love to sleep on my back through the night.
mellowjohn
@Betty Cracker:
for a while after i quit smoking, i’d have dreams about smoking and wake up feeling very guilty.
now that i have two replaced knees, i have dreams about being able to run and play rubgy. i never had dreams about either back when i was running marathons and playing in the pack.
EVERYBODY has the dreams about finals.
Anne Laurie
@Hungry Joe:
So the recurrent dreams where I’m about to end up in deep trouble (homelessness, public execution, having to repeat a grade) because I haven’t attended a single class all term are Bad Student Dreams?
Yeah, seems about right.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Buddy H: What was it about the CPAP that you couldn’t tolerate?
What kind of mask did they have you try?
Buddy H
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I couldn’t tolerate having air pressing against me. And I found myself worrying that if I didn’t clean it, I’d inhale bacteria. I tried a full face mask and a nose mask. I just found it claustrophobic and uncomfortable.
I was hoping a simple mouth appliance would correct it, but I was so discouraged after the experience with the doc.
Violet
@Buddy H: Years ago Andrew Sullivan did a series on sleep apnea. I think he’s got it and decided to “go public” with it in hopes of helping other people. A whole bunch of people wrote in with their various experiences and what worked for them and he posted their stories over a week or two. I remember one guy had taken up yoga. He sent some side view pictures of himself before and after and said that yoga had completely changed his body alignment and he no longer had sleep apnea. I’ve always remembered that because for those who can’t seem to use the CPAP it might be an option that could work. Might not, but might be worth a try.
Edit: Not sure my memory of the pictures was right but I did find this post about it: http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2010/10/26/the-view-from-your-cpap-2/
mainmati
I was in the Peace Corps not the Marine Corps so I didn’t get the various acronyms for what I assume were gear or other military stuff. But the post was pretty funny in the dreams-as-nightmares sense.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Buddy H: Then nose pillows would be a bad idea for you, too. (I asked because I’ve known people who couldn’t tolerate the nasal and face masks but did great with nose pillows.)
Have you seen an Ear-Nose-Throat specialist to look for something structural?
Olivia
@Buddy H: I have heard of people getting TMJ and worse from the crappy dental appliances they sell on TV. I go to a dentist who does nothing but sleep apnea relief and he uses several different kinds, depending on what is causing the problem. I see him twice a year and he checks for TMJ and makes any adjustment needed. I have used 2 different types of appliances and they both worked well. I have no pain moving my jaw. The appliance actually helped change my bite so now I can move my jaw out further than I was able to.
wasabi gasp
A few times in my life, when I was up to my ears in some activity, I regularly dreamt about doing that activity. Depending upon the activity, those were either very good or very bad nights. Other than those episodes, though, I rarely remember my dreams…which is kind of sad. But I do very clearly remember one particular dream that had me blubbering like a baby for days after…so that’s good.
schrodinger's cat
@Hungry Joe: Yes, the elevator we are in, is freely falling.
Olivia
@Buddy H: Check this out and if you contact him, he may be able to recommend someone in your area that can help you. http://www.jparkerdds.com/
rea
Recurring dream involving Queen Victoria. King Leopold II of Belgium, and Calvin Coolidge (wearing a Sioux war bonnet) staring at me . . .
PurpleGirl
@JPL: There is now a story about Mario Cuomo passing.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Buddy H:
I think Olivia may be right that it would be worth it to seek out a dentist who specializes in sleep disorders, especially since it sounds like bad dentistry/orthodontia may be the root cause. A custom appliance would always be better than something you buy over the counter.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
@Violet:
I’ve been floating in and out, but I saw them — thanks! The sorbet looked really good but we don’t have an ice cream maker and the process to make sorbet or ice cream without one is kind of a pain in the ass.
Melissa
I also made pork loin & sauerkraut for dinner. We don’t eat enough sauerkraut; it’s so good.
I also have the architectural dream. Wandering about an unknown house, rooms and stairs all askew. After my mother died, I had this dream and was trying to escape from her. I believed she was a ghost trying to get me.
My favourite dream had the Marx Brothers and me running up a steep San Francisco hill, trying to catch up with a cable car while holding 50 or 60 pairs of shoes. I woke up laughing.
p.a.
@Buddy H: I have a cpap, but I had the dental appliance done for ease of travel, camping etc. But I apparently have a hairtrigger gag reflex. Barely got through the mold process without puking, and never could deal with the mouthpiece, top piece esepecially. And the top and bottom are supposed to lock together! (In front). No way.
Olivia
@p.a.: My first appliance (TAP) was the kind that locked in front and the connection was metal which drives me crazy. But I overcame the issue with the metal and used that appliance for 3 years. Just getting good sleep made it worth it. Now I have a Somnodent and it is 2 separate pieces that can be connected at the back with bands if you need them to be. The mold process is a bit gaggy but I am very happy with that appliance.
p.a.
I’ll check it out. Thanks.
Keith G
@Corner Stone: It takes 72 entries for someone to ask the essential question.
Interrobang
I also have those dreams that someone has cancelled both my undergraduate and graduate degrees and I have to go back to high school. Nobody I know is there, though.
Usually the dreams involve being registered for courses I can’t pass, or losing my schedule, or finding out halfway through the term that I was registered to attend a certain class that I’ve never shown up to, and sometimes I’m even living with my parents again and having trouble making the bus to school. Those are definitely the worst of my recurring nightmares.
It’s interesting to hear that they’re possibly related to feeling behind relative to one’s peers, because I certainly am, for reasons mostly beyond my control.
Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)
Also, too, Cole, something that just occurred to me — given your anxiety issues, you’re probably an emotional eater and/or someone who eats to self-soothe. Weight Watchers is great for helping people identify and find ways to deal with their food issues, but your therapist may also have some suggestions or resources if you don’t want to pay to join WW.
(It’s usually best to do in-person WW meetings so you can trade ideas and tips with the other members, but if you think you’ll get stuck with an incompatible group since you’re in a small town, there’s also an online-only program. I don’t work for WW anymore, but I still think it’s the best and most comprehensive weight loss program out there and the only one that really prepares you for how to keep it off.)
Omnes Omnibus
When my job involved time in a TC hatch, I wore heavy. warm clothes above the waist and light stuff below where a heater blew directly on my legs.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
What is “TC”?
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Track commander.
phein39
@Mnemosyne (iPad Mini):
WW incorporates the two great truths of military life:
1. You can only manage what you can measure.
2. People only do what you check on.
We used the WW principles to institute energy use reduction measures at a series of AF bases. Once we explained it as Weight Watchers for electricity consumption, it took off.
Ruckus
Never knew there were standard dreams. No one has described any of my dreams other than nightmares when a kid. All of my dreams for the last few years are like stories, novels if you will. All kinds of subjects and themes. Usually can’t remember anything after I’m fully awake but sometimes a bit sticks around for a short time. It’s fun to try and weave a story around that, play with it and see if it goes anywhere or brings back the memories of the dream. Don’t think it does as I can very, very rarely tell the next day what I was dreaming about.
Matt McIrvin
Those aren’t even weird dreams; they’re completely ordinary ones given your life story. I get the “still back in school” variety all the time, for values of “school” ranging from graduate school all the way back to elementary school, and “forgot to ever attend the class and the final exam is coming up” is a major one.
Another variant that comes up a lot is that I’ve just stayed in graduate school for over 20 years, the university administration is for some reason only now getting around to pestering me to finish my thesis, and I realize that my research just hasn’t gone anywhere or I never really got started on it, and I’ve just been hanging out all this time.
I think being in school must be far more nerve-wracking than most people even acknowledge after the fact.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
@Tim F.: What a coincidence. I’m not wearing pants either.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Last night I dreamed I was having a migraine. Woke up, and dammit, I WAS having a migraine.
I blame Cole.