For reasons I can not explain, this has been running through my head for TWO days now:
Also, I have been having very vivid tactile dreams lately. I had a dream about me petting a horse, dreams about me having rings and twisting them on my finger, husking corn, a dog’s muzzle in my palm, etc. All extremely detailed and vivid. Weird.
JPL
In my opinion, the dream about rings on your finger, means a secret love of Jimmy Fallon. I might add that at least you didn’t dream about pigs.
muddy
I was telling someone recently about how when you jump over things, you can hang at the top of the jump for a brief moment before you come down, and how weird and excellent that feeling was. But as I said it, in the back of my head I was thinking, When in recent memory have you jumped over something, or indeed jumped at all? Knees would not tolerate this.
I realized then the sensation must have been from a dream, but I can still feel how it was, and it seems as real as anything. Even now that I know it’s not real, it still feels like a real muscle memory. So weird.
ETA: You could well have actually had a muzzle in your palm. I often wake to find some animal has put their head inside my sleeping hand in case some pats might come out of it.
WereBear
Brain coming back!
It takes a while for all the neurotransmitters to get back to their norm after the distortions of alcohol were their previous normal. It’s a good thing. Vivid dreams are a sign of a well-functioning system, provided they are not nightmares, of course.
Tim C.
From the song, I’d guess you were rolling a tank class in an MMO.
JPL
Sometimes I change the ending of shows or books in my dream. It becomes embarrassing when I mention to someone the ending that I dreamed rather than the actual ending.
ruemara
Lately I’m in emergencies, betrayal situations or disasters. Last night I dreamed I had a tire blowout, but I was riding a Vespa. I can’t even ride a tenspeed.
Between Fear the Walking Dead and doing this film, I think my sleep is disturbed.
p.a.
I only remember 2-3 dreams a year, and they’re always disturbing ones. Maybe because I’m on a cpap and always sleep straight through the night the dreams don’t ‘stick’.
gratuitous
The song is probably because Scott “Unintimidated” Walker had to suspend his presidential bid. We all mourn this news in different ways. I’ve taken to laughing maniacally at random moments.
Bwahahaha!
jeffreyw
I dreamed I was flying! I woke up, though, and fell back to the bed.
Paul in KY
@gratuitous: It’s contagious!!! Buwahahahahaha!!!!
elmo
Does anybody else have dreams in which you tell yourself, with great clarity and firmness, “This is not a dream?”
I have those a lot. They’re usually (but not always) awful, and terribly vivid and real. And in the middle of them I am often saying to myself, “This is real. Don’t think this is a dream, because it isn’t. It’s real, and you have to deal with it.”
I had one a couple of weeks ago in which my beloved Dad (who died in 2012, on my birthday) came crawling up out of the tub while I was sitting on the toilet, just like a horror movie. In the dream, he had just died, and I had just been looking at the scattered medicines on his night table and thinking he wouldn’t need them anymore. When he came up out of the tub, he started talking nonsense, and I remember taking him by the upper arms – they were cold, I remember distinctly, and wet – and shaking him, telling him that I needed him to listen to me because we didn’t have much time to talk. Then I hugged him, and I remember feeling his cold, wet chest against me and thinking that I was getting my clothes wet but didn’t care. And all the while the conviction was very firm that this was real, this was not a dream, and when I wondered – as part of the dream – “Am I dreaming” the very clear and unquestioned answer was “No.”
I ask myself that question in my dreams pretty often, and the answer is always No.
Keith G
@elmo: I dream a lot. Most are very theatrical. Sometimes when a dream has become upsetting, I will do as you described and end the dream. It’s quite startling.
Paul in KY
@elmo: You might have the beginnings of a good horror film there.
maya
Is that the real Pat Benatar or just one of those Fast Times At Ridgemont High look-a-likes?
lamh36
I used to have dreams where I would change the situation in the dream like you used to change the dials on an old tv set.
Brachiator
@elmo:
And you may ask yourself, “Well how did I get here?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoqLCFd8oNs
Same as it ever was.
WaterGirl
@elmo: I was moved by your description of your dream. I’m sorry about horror movie part, but at least you got to hug your dad. I’m sorry you lost him, especially on your birthday.
elmo
@WaterGirl: Thanks, that’s very kind.
I had similarly vivid dreams for years after my Mom died as well (although generally without the horror movie aspect). She would be “back” from either a long illness that we mistakenly thought was death, or from death itself. And I would wonder in the dream, “Is this a dream?” And the answer would always be No. She’s really back. Incredibly vivid dreams, always with the same internal conversation, always with the same answer. Usually when I woke up I’d start to cry.
My wife says my subconscious has a vicious streak.
WaterGirl
@elmo: I had vivid dreams with my dad for a few years after he died, but that was 20 years ago so the dreams are long gone. What I wouldn’t give to have one again! To get to be with them again is a gift, even in a dream. (except for the horror movie part!)
Paul in KY
@elmo: I’m going to go home & make it a point to kiss my mom & dad. They are both very elderly.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@lamh36:
I can usually do that — I think it’s called lucid dreaming. I rarely have nasty nightmares because I can almost always either change the dream or wake myself up.
maurinsky
My daughter, who is a freshman in college and 600 miles from home, texted me this afternoon to tell me she is having a recurring stress dream where I am yelling at her to get out of bed, it’s 1:00 in the afternoon!
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@ruemara:
It’s almost like you’re stressed out about making a movie or something. ;-)
WaterGirl
@maurinsky: I’m sure that doesn’t tug at your heartstrings!
Paul in KY
@ruemara: What film are you working on?
Linnaeus
@maya:
That is definitely the real Pat Benatar, as she was 30 years ago. You can see what she and her husband are up to now here.
NotMax
There have been a grand total of two occasions when I have remembered a dream (actually more a portion of a dream) over the entire course of mumble-mumble years of living. One was quasi-creepy, the other quasi-ludicrous.
Linnaeus
@elmo:
Yes. And since I’ve been taking this new medication, the number of vivid and/or lucid dreams I’ve had has gone up.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@elmo:
Here’s my uninformed and pulled out of my tuchis theory — with those dreams, your subconscious/unconscious may be trying to tell you something it thinks is important, which is why your brain tells you it’s not (just) a dream. It’s a feeling or emotion that your brain wants you to pay attention to, but since that part of your brain operates on a symbolic basis, you then have to try and puzzle out what the issue is.
elmo
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Interesting. Especially since nearly all of the dreams in which that happens deal with loss, and in the dream I’m getting back something I miss terribly.
Villago Delenda Est
I’ve got a theory about vivid dreams…it’s our minds bringing up memories that are not accessible in the waking world…tactile memories, memories of how things felt or tasted.
ranchandsyrup
I have Pretty Pimpin by Kurt Vile stuck in my head for past couple of days.
Shirt
Chewing gum cures earworms unless you dream you’re chewing gum.
moderateindy
I suggest everyone should look into Lucid Dreaming. It can be a lot of fun to be able to recognize that you are dreaming and then act accordingly. You have some control like you can fly and such when you like. It also is a good way to work through current difficulties you may be experiencing. Something about accessing your subconscious really helps clarify things for you. Also, it helps you remember your dreams, though I’m not certain if that’s a component of lucid dreaming, or the process involved in learning how to have lucid dreams.
It does take practice, but it’s worth it.
One tip, if you ever wonder if you are dreaming or not, look for something that would stay constant in reality, a clock, or a sign for instance. Then turn away, and quickly look back. In a dream the result almost always changes. If it changes in real life you might have bigger problems than worrying about dreams.
HeartlandLiberal
My wife has been reading quite a bit on latest research on dreaming.
Most current researchers seem to believe that sleep and dreaming is a tool for the brain to clean its act up, scavenge the bad bits, flush them away, and clear your head for the next wake cycle.
It also seems pretty clear that during dreams the brain is trying to grapple with anxieties and issues.
Which left me feeling sort of surprised when I woke up a couple days ago from a dream in which a big pot of stewed tomatoes had been dumped prematurely on a cutting board or something over the sink, instead of being drained properly, and while I scrambled to find a something to put them back in to, I accidentally tipped the board, and the tomatoes all tumbled into the sink and down the drain, going to waste. It triggered tears of frustration in the dream.
Did I mention that when we got back late Spring from Europe trip, I managed to plant a late garden, and the only real successes were the tomatoes, the habanero peppers, the collards, and the kale, and a little yellow squash? Late butternuts do not fare well. I got three tiny babies, of descending size, the longest curved, so I propped them up like a little family unit on the kitchen counter. Too cute for words.
But here it is September 23rd, and I am still in the middle of harvesting more tomatoes than we can eat fresh, and it is time for another round of cooking them down and making spaghetti.