Dreams are just the brain sorting out memories, and they often get jumbled which is why they are generally surreal. I have had friends who were lucid dreamers, they just had more intentional purpose to their memory sorting.
I generally don’t remember dreams, like maybe a few a year. As in waking up occasionally means knowing what I was just dreaming about, and rarely having that stick more than a few minutes.
My most recent memorable dreams were a few weeks ago and involved zombies and the people around me doing the absolute most ridiculous stuff to get themselves bitten. Not scary really, just frustrating. Warched a few zombie movies a few days prior and then had some people around me make boneheaded decisions so I am guessing my brain was sorting those two unrelated things. Don’t remember the details of what the people were doing in the dream, just that it was stupid and resulted in getting bit.
I’ve always thought of it as the brain defragging. That said, I have had a couple where I really felt like the deceased family member was dropping by to say hello. These feel different from the ones where they may appear as a character in my dream, like an extra in a movie. I’m not lucid for those.
Last week it was my mom’s birthday. I hadn’t dreamed of her in a while, but I do think of her daily so I don’t ascribe dreaming of her just because she was on my mind during the day. The night of her birthday she was in my dream.
When I get a family visit, it does tend to end up being a semi lucid dream. I know in the dream that this person is no longer living and this is a visit. But I can’t control the direction of the dream.
So in the dream, I’m aware I haven’t seen her in some time and am very happy to see her. She was also saying how much she has missed me, and was uncharacteristically clingy. Just wanting to cuddle. She knocked me down even to cuddle. She was a tiny woman and I am not.
Then on my other side, my cat that passed 2 years ago decided she wanted to come cuddle too. I didn’t dream of my mom’s calico (whom I also fostered for some years while mom went through a rough spot). This was my calico. Mom never met her. But there they both were visiting at the same time.
Dreams are just the brain sorting out memories, and they often get jumbled which is why they are generally surreal. I have had friends who were lucid dreamers, they just had more intentional purpose to their memory sorting.
I generally don’t remember dreams, like maybe a few a year. As in waking up occasionally means knowing what I was just dreaming about, and rarely having that stick more than a few minutes.
My most recent memorable dreams were a few weeks ago and involved zombies and the people around me doing the absolute most ridiculous stuff to get themselves bitten. Not scary really, just frustrating. Warched a few zombie movies a few days prior and then had some people around me make boneheaded decisions so I am guessing my brain was sorting those two unrelated things. Don’t remember the details of what the people were doing in the dream, just that it was stupid and resulted in getting bit.
I also think dreams are snippets of our minds running in the background that sometimes get patched together in odd ways :D
They can be influenced by recent events or things you think about often.
Lucid dreaming is like a real-life superpower. I wish I was able to do it.
There’s a trade-off, though. Apparently lucid dreaming does nothing for you in terms of resting.
I’ve always thought of it as the brain defragging. That said, I have had a couple where I really felt like the deceased family member was dropping by to say hello. These feel different from the ones where they may appear as a character in my dream, like an extra in a movie. I’m not lucid for those.
Last week it was my mom’s birthday. I hadn’t dreamed of her in a while, but I do think of her daily so I don’t ascribe dreaming of her just because she was on my mind during the day. The night of her birthday she was in my dream.
When I get a family visit, it does tend to end up being a semi lucid dream. I know in the dream that this person is no longer living and this is a visit. But I can’t control the direction of the dream.
So in the dream, I’m aware I haven’t seen her in some time and am very happy to see her. She was also saying how much she has missed me, and was uncharacteristically clingy. Just wanting to cuddle. She knocked me down even to cuddle. She was a tiny woman and I am not.
Then on my other side, my cat that passed 2 years ago decided she wanted to come cuddle too. I didn’t dream of my mom’s calico (whom I also fostered for some years while mom went through a rough spot). This was my calico. Mom never met her. But there they both were visiting at the same time.
It. Felt. So. Good.
I was sad to wake up.