On Rivaling Tim Burton and Ted Dekker
Let's talk about dreams, shall we? For as long as I can remember I have had extremely intense and vivid dreams and nightmares that rival the works of Tim Burton and Ted Dekker. And unlike most people, I remember them, usually in great detail. I can still remember dreams I had as a child. Like the one where a giant put me in a frying pan and was cooking me and flipping me with a spatula. Or the one where I was in a black world with neon features (black sky, neon grass, rivers...you get the picture) and I had to rescue Batman. I dreamt those in grade school. I can even remember a horrifying nightmare I had when I was really little. (We were camping out at a lake in cabins with my extended family. I dreamt that terrible creatures emerged from under my bed and slowly pulled me off my bed and under it into the darkness. As I screamed at my mom for help, she grabbed my brother and ran out of the room, shutting the door and leaving me to the monsters.)
My reoccurring dreams consisted of dark places and back-lit aquariums. The further back I went into the aquarium or pet sore, the dimmer the lights got and the larger and scarier the fish got, until the only lights came from behind the aquariums and I could see massive silhouettes of terrifying fish all around me. Every so often, the glass would break, releasing all the shadow fish and water. I actually still have these dreams from time to time.
I've also had plenty of dreams that turned into reality. On more than one occasion during the day, I've stopped and said, "Wait. I dreamed this the other night. This will happen next." And it does.
Like I said. I'm a little different.
Unfortunately, most of my dreams are nightmares or night terrors. In fact, I don't remember the last time I had a good dream. I can't explain why, but I get shot a lot. I've also been stabbed to death and sliced up in my dreams. But getting shot seems to be the favorite. I'll spare you the details of my most recent nightmares (unless you just really want to know - but they're a bit much to post on a blog). I've tried to make sense of my dreams many times to no avail. Just this past week, Yahoo! posted some articles on dreaming. Here's what one had to say:
(You can read the full article here)
I don't really find that very helpful (although it is really interesting and something to think about), and I'm not sure it explains my dreams at all. It's not like I've actually ever suffered a gunshot wound or any other violent crime. The only tv show Matt and I watch right now is The Next Food Network Star, and I don't ever watch horror movies. Maybe I just need to think about it more in depth...?? One thing is fore sure, though - I don't know where I get it from, but I have always had a vivid imagination.
Often people have nightmares or stressful dreams if they are stressed out about something in real life, but it doesn't seem to work that way for me. I could be extremely happy with my situation and not be stressed out at all and still find myself waking up terrified in the middle of the night.
Some dreams don't have to fall into the nightmare category, but if they don't, they always fall into the "stressful" category. Take my dream from last night, for example: I was presented with the opportunity to perform a drama piece with Julie Andrews (love her!), but I couldn't get my script out of the envelope. So when my first line came, I couldn't say anything because I was too busy fumbling about with the papers. We tried again, and this time I couldn't find the correct scene and all the lines seemed jumbled. So again, I said nothing, and she just looked at me like I was an idiot. I was so embarrassed and so upset that I had ruined my opportunity to perform with Julie Andrews.
I'm usually tired during the day because I've woken multiple times in the night after stressful dreams or nightmares. I guess I felt like blogging about it because it's on my mind often, and it seemed like good timing with the articles and everything.
In a way, I feel like this is more like a rambling post in which I am trying to process things for myself. Sorry about that! It's not as well written as I would like, and it's definitely longer than I originally planned.
But what about you? Do you remember your dreams? Are they usually good or bad dreams? Do you know of anyone else that is like me in this?
My reoccurring dreams consisted of dark places and back-lit aquariums. The further back I went into the aquarium or pet sore, the dimmer the lights got and the larger and scarier the fish got, until the only lights came from behind the aquariums and I could see massive silhouettes of terrifying fish all around me. Every so often, the glass would break, releasing all the shadow fish and water. I actually still have these dreams from time to time.
I've also had plenty of dreams that turned into reality. On more than one occasion during the day, I've stopped and said, "Wait. I dreamed this the other night. This will happen next." And it does.
Like I said. I'm a little different.
Unfortunately, most of my dreams are nightmares or night terrors. In fact, I don't remember the last time I had a good dream. I can't explain why, but I get shot a lot. I've also been stabbed to death and sliced up in my dreams. But getting shot seems to be the favorite. I'll spare you the details of my most recent nightmares (unless you just really want to know - but they're a bit much to post on a blog). I've tried to make sense of my dreams many times to no avail. Just this past week, Yahoo! posted some articles on dreaming. Here's what one had to say:
"So exactly what happens in our brain when we dream? Sleep experts admit they’re not sure, but it appears that dreams are where memories meet emotion. On the one hand, your dreams can help you tap into the emotional issues in your waking life. On the other, they’re also a way for your brain to catalog the events of the day. “We know that memories are stored during sleep, and dreaming allows the brain to use certain circuits that improve long-term memory,” says Dr. Kohler. Simply put, you dream in order for a specific part of your mind to kick in and sort through memories, figuring out which ones to keep and which ones to let go.
If dreams are there to help file away memories for the long haul, why do they sometimes seem so surreal—not the literal way life happens to us? “When we’re sleeping, the controls of our conscious mind are turned off,” says Dr. Kohler. So as the brain sorts through our different experiences, trying to cross-reference memories (Is the day this happened the same day that happened?), it puts them together in strange and unusual ways (hence, our weird dreams) until it finds a connection that fits—and stores it in our memory bank."
(You can read the full article here)
I don't really find that very helpful (although it is really interesting and something to think about), and I'm not sure it explains my dreams at all. It's not like I've actually ever suffered a gunshot wound or any other violent crime. The only tv show Matt and I watch right now is The Next Food Network Star, and I don't ever watch horror movies. Maybe I just need to think about it more in depth...?? One thing is fore sure, though - I don't know where I get it from, but I have always had a vivid imagination.
Often people have nightmares or stressful dreams if they are stressed out about something in real life, but it doesn't seem to work that way for me. I could be extremely happy with my situation and not be stressed out at all and still find myself waking up terrified in the middle of the night.
Some dreams don't have to fall into the nightmare category, but if they don't, they always fall into the "stressful" category. Take my dream from last night, for example: I was presented with the opportunity to perform a drama piece with Julie Andrews (love her!), but I couldn't get my script out of the envelope. So when my first line came, I couldn't say anything because I was too busy fumbling about with the papers. We tried again, and this time I couldn't find the correct scene and all the lines seemed jumbled. So again, I said nothing, and she just looked at me like I was an idiot. I was so embarrassed and so upset that I had ruined my opportunity to perform with Julie Andrews.
I'm usually tired during the day because I've woken multiple times in the night after stressful dreams or nightmares. I guess I felt like blogging about it because it's on my mind often, and it seemed like good timing with the articles and everything.
In a way, I feel like this is more like a rambling post in which I am trying to process things for myself. Sorry about that! It's not as well written as I would like, and it's definitely longer than I originally planned.
But what about you? Do you remember your dreams? Are they usually good or bad dreams? Do you know of anyone else that is like me in this?
Comments
Sometimes I think there can be a spiritual component to dreams. Mine aren't usually scary or stressful but they sometimes are, and sometimes in spurts. I was taught how to recognize when Satan was trying to scare me and how to rebuke him, and that has helped, now my dreams are almost always the normal kind. However, I know that spiritual factors are not ALWAYS the case. Just can be one of many possibilities. Dreams are indeed tricky to try and figure out. I used to be preoccupied with mine, mostly in HS/college, because some of them would come true. But then someone pointed out how I was getting a little TOO caught up in worrying about that stuff and God didn't want me to focus on that, but on HIM. So I try not to read into things too much now (and being a tired parent now helps with that too, LOL)