I used to act out shouting “no, no, no” so that my wife had to wake me up. In the dream I would usually be in a situation of powerlesness.
My vampire dreams -- see above -- were infrequent. My wife would wake me up when things got to the huffing and puffing and occasionally whimpering stage. "Vampires again?" she would ask.
I’ve always known that most people can remember at least some of their dreams. But I’ve never done that.
I can remember the last dream immediately upon awakening, but have to review it a couple of times to get it into somewhat more permanent storage. I did that this morning. The dream setting was a hilly suburban neighborhood. The guy down the street was a sword smith who produced "good" magical swords. The guy across the street made "bad" magical swords. The wife of the guy across the street was a serial killer using one of the bad swords. They were framing the guy who made good swords for the killings. When I figured out what was going on, the good smith gave me a sword so I could take on the bad smith. Swashbuckling across streets and yards ensued. One of the backyards was filled with rabbits, we literally had to wade through them. Each rabbit had been dyed a bright color: red, blue, green, yellow.
Sometimes I wake up from the weird ones because, in the dream, I get to the point of "I'd like to speak with the screenwriter, please."
I've always known that most people can remember at least some of their dreams. But I've never done that. The closest I've come is the handful of times I've awakened full of adrenaline, apparently over something I dreamed. But with no clue what it might have been.
or a time after my father died I regularly had dreams where I would see him at a distance, sometimes across a large room full of people or on the street driving by. As I would get closer to him, his appearance would change and I’d realize it wasn’t him."
I have dreams like this only about cats. In the dream I see one of my long ago deceased cats and I am overwhelmed with guilt, thinking that I just forgot about the cat and have been ignoring it. Then I get into a fuss about whether or not it's my cat or just one that looks like my cat. I never raised a cat from a kitten. All of my cats were old when I got them and died within five or six years, so I have a lot of dead cats to remember--but I do remember all of them.
I have dreams where I am lost in a conference hotel and wandering through all manner of industrial, dystopian tunnels trying to find my way back to the lobby. And like many of you, I still have student dreams (damn you, grad school trauma), or very similar retail work dreams, where I have failed to check a schedule and am trying hard not to fail or be fired for having ghosted something important.
Never any teaching anxiety dreams, though. I save all of my teaching anxiety for my waking hours. Thank the botanical gods for CBD.
I still have the occasional "forgot to go to class the whole semester and can't find my final-exam location" dream.
Every once in a while I have a dream where some law was changed and I have to go back to high school for a class or two for my graduation to remain valid. The dreams start off without anything seeming silly, but as the dream goes on, I begin to realize how stupid of a situation it is and the dream kind of trails off.
I don't remember ever having a nightmare. But I've had anxiety dreams. First, about school, then the military, and work. In recent years, I've had very few of any of them.
I was looking at results, which is what counts for managers. And while Brown was clumsy, at least he didn't cause any major disasters like the other ones.
for me anyway, pot makes it more likely i'll act out a dream. it's a reason i limit my partaking.
>The other teaching dream involves being in the building on the first day, but I don’t know what subjects I will be teaching or where my room is and I have no teaching materials.
hilarious. i and my wife both have recurring dreams about being in school on exam day when we realize we are signed up for a class that we have never attended. and then we frantically search the campus trying to find the classroom where the exam will be held.
I could easily draw you up a list of prime ministers in my living memory, i.e. Thatcher onwards, that proves how each one of them was incompetent, with the exception of Gordon Brown maybe...
That's unexpected. I'd say that from Thatcher to Cameron inclusive, Brown was clearly the worst prime minister in terms of managerial competence.
What lj said. I could easily draw you up a list of prime ministers in my living memory, i.e. Thatcher onwards, that proves how each one of them was incompetent, with the exception of Gordon Brown maybe, but he was not very successful either.
So that leaves us with the fear of actual policy change. Policies that a majority of people supported.
There’s a test, originating in the Labour party in the late 19th century – is he competent to run a whelk stall?
Though the bulk of the attacks iirc were that he was a far left looney. Similar to the way that they went after Mamdani. Which makes me wonder if the problem is that politically, you can't get much traction by complaining how shitty someone might be as a manager, you have to pound them on ideological grounds.
For a time after my father died I regularly had dreams where I would see him at a distance, sometimes across a large room full of people or on the street driving by. As I would get closer to him, his appearance would change and I'd realize it wasn't him. I wouldn't exactly remember in the dream that he had died, but it would make me feel extremely sad that it wasn't my father that I had seen.
I agree with Russel in that I think dreams are often more than just random. I think they often are a way of working out or working on issues that concern the dreamer.
That said, sometimes dreams are just fun.
As a kid, I was able to set my mind to dream of flying. I loved to fly! My dreams were very realistic, right to feeling chilly. Ot scary at all. I wish I could still make myself dream that way.
There's a test, originating in the Labour party in the late 19th century - is he competent to run a whelk stall?
Anyone who's worked with Corbyn knows that he isn't.
He shares this disability with BoJo, Dubya, Trump, and sundry other politicians. I don't hate him for it; I just don't want him to be in charge of anything I care about.
I had a friend, father of another friend of mine and my wife's. He was a tank guy in WWII. Killed a number of people. Had a cool and complicated shotgun he took off a guy - a German civilian - who tried to shoot him, and who missed. But he - my friend - did not miss.
In his late 80's and into his 90's, he had really bad dreams where he relived his time in Europe. Unsettling, violent dreams, which would cause him to thrash and kick and punch in his sleep.
He went back to Europe in much later life to see if he could lay his ghosts to rest. He could not.
This was not the advent of mental or neurological decline, he was sharp as a tack right up until the end.
It was the legacy of what he was required to do as a young man.
Some folks think that sleep, and dreaming, is another bardo. Another form of consciousness, distinct from waking awareness. I don't really know, one way of the other.
But my own thought is that sleep and dreaming is the time when your mind and consciousness tries to repair itself. Tries to come to terms with and resolve all the crap you don't have the time or attention or capacity to resolve in your waking life.
It's kind of a gift. Not always welcome, but essential nonetheless.
I try to remember and pay attention to dreams. I don't think of them as some kind of messages from the great beyond. They just seem like messages from myself, to myself. Or maybe not even messages, just ruminations.
But helpful, and occasionally useful. Sometimes amusing, sometimes disturbing. More or less your own mind, without the filters. But speaking in images, not prose.
I used to get frantically worried in the dream but one night I thought, “Fuck it. This isn’t my fault. I’m not going to feel bad. I am going to get mad instead.” So now that dream has a different story arc.
I quit teaching over twenty years ago, but I still have dreams related to my job. A recurrent dream concerns IEPs--the required paperwork for each student, typically about 20 pages. I did 30 to 40 a year and never was late.
My dream is that it's May and I haven't started. I make futile attempts to find the necessary records and forms but can't. I seriously consider blowing the IEPs off and dumping the mess on other teachers. I've never done that in the dream because I always wake up first.
The other teaching dream involves being in the building on the first day, but I don't know what subjects I will be teaching or where my room is and I have no teaching materials. I used to get frantically worried in the dream but one night I thought, "Fuck it. This isn't my fault. I'm not going to feel bad. I am going to get mad instead."
So now that dream has a different story arc.
I have been trapped asleep but unable to awake multiple times, starting at elementary school age. I have taught myself to wake myself up by moving one of my arms. It can be very difficult, frustrating, and frightening.
I sometimes sleep with my eyes open and can see if there's enough light, but don't always know what I'm looking at until I wake up. I once dreamt of being chased by a helicopter during an afternoon nap and woke up to realize I was looking at the spinning ceiling fan.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “How are you sleeping?”
I used to act out shouting “no, no, no” so that my wife had to wake me up. In the dream I would usually be in a situation of powerlesness.
My vampire dreams -- see above -- were infrequent. My wife would wake me up when things got to the huffing and puffing and occasionally whimpering stage. "Vampires again?" she would ask.
"
I’ve always known that most people can remember at least some of their dreams. But I’ve never done that.
I can remember the last dream immediately upon awakening, but have to review it a couple of times to get it into somewhat more permanent storage. I did that this morning. The dream setting was a hilly suburban neighborhood. The guy down the street was a sword smith who produced "good" magical swords. The guy across the street made "bad" magical swords. The wife of the guy across the street was a serial killer using one of the bad swords. They were framing the guy who made good swords for the killings. When I figured out what was going on, the good smith gave me a sword so I could take on the bad smith. Swashbuckling across streets and yards ensued. One of the backyards was filled with rabbits, we literally had to wade through them. Each rabbit had been dyed a bright color: red, blue, green, yellow.
Sometimes I wake up from the weird ones because, in the dream, I get to the point of "I'd like to speak with the screenwriter, please."
"
I've always known that most people can remember at least some of their dreams. But I've never done that. The closest I've come is the handful of times I've awakened full of adrenaline, apparently over something I dreamed. But with no clue what it might have been.
"
Lol, same here.
"
I used to act out shouting "no, no, no" so that my wife had to wake me up. In the dream I would usually be in a situation of powerlesness.
Then, when my daughter was younger, I had these dreams where she suddenly was gone and I couldn't find her anymore. Scary stuff.
I'm glad things are calmer now.
"
or a time after my father died I regularly had dreams where I would see him at a distance, sometimes across a large room full of people or on the street driving by. As I would get closer to him, his appearance would change and I’d realize it wasn’t him."
I have dreams like this only about cats. In the dream I see one of my long ago deceased cats and I am overwhelmed with guilt, thinking that I just forgot about the cat and have been ignoring it. Then I get into a fuss about whether or not it's my cat or just one that looks like my cat. I never raised a cat from a kitten. All of my cats were old when I got them and died within five or six years, so I have a lot of dead cats to remember--but I do remember all of them.
"
I have dreams where I am lost in a conference hotel and wandering through all manner of industrial, dystopian tunnels trying to find my way back to the lobby. And like many of you, I still have student dreams (damn you, grad school trauma), or very similar retail work dreams, where I have failed to check a schedule and am trying hard not to fail or be fired for having ghosted something important.
Never any teaching anxiety dreams, though. I save all of my teaching anxiety for my waking hours. Thank the botanical gods for CBD.
"
I still have the occasional "forgot to go to class the whole semester and can't find my final-exam location" dream.
Every once in a while I have a dream where some law was changed and I have to go back to high school for a class or two for my graduation to remain valid. The dreams start off without anything seeming silly, but as the dream goes on, I begin to realize how stupid of a situation it is and the dream kind of trails off.
"
I don't remember ever having a nightmare. But I've had anxiety dreams. First, about school, then the military, and work. In recent years, I've had very few of any of them.
On “It’s Your Party, you can cry if…”
I was looking at results, which is what counts for managers. And while Brown was clumsy, at least he didn't cause any major disasters like the other ones.
On “How are you sleeping?”
>5 mg of indica MJ at bedtime.
for me anyway, pot makes it more likely i'll act out a dream. it's a reason i limit my partaking.
>The other teaching dream involves being in the building on the first day, but I don’t know what subjects I will be teaching or where my room is and I have no teaching materials.
hilarious. i and my wife both have recurring dreams about being in school on exam day when we realize we are signed up for a class that we have never attended. and then we frantically search the campus trying to find the classroom where the exam will be held.
On “It’s Your Party, you can cry if…”
I could easily draw you up a list of prime ministers in my living memory, i.e. Thatcher onwards, that proves how each one of them was incompetent, with the exception of Gordon Brown maybe...
That's unexpected. I'd say that from Thatcher to Cameron inclusive, Brown was clearly the worst prime minister in terms of managerial competence.
"
What lj said. I could easily draw you up a list of prime ministers in my living memory, i.e. Thatcher onwards, that proves how each one of them was incompetent, with the exception of Gordon Brown maybe, but he was not very successful either.
So that leaves us with the fear of actual policy change. Policies that a majority of people supported.
"
There’s a test, originating in the Labour party in the late 19th century – is he competent to run a whelk stall?
Though the bulk of the attacks iirc were that he was a far left looney. Similar to the way that they went after Mamdani. Which makes me wonder if the problem is that politically, you can't get much traction by complaining how shitty someone might be as a manager, you have to pound them on ideological grounds.
On “How are you sleeping?”
For a time after my father died I regularly had dreams where I would see him at a distance, sometimes across a large room full of people or on the street driving by. As I would get closer to him, his appearance would change and I'd realize it wasn't him. I wouldn't exactly remember in the dream that he had died, but it would make me feel extremely sad that it wasn't my father that I had seen.
On “It’s Your Party, you can cry if…”
I think Dubya might have managed it. Certainly he would have been far happier trying to run a whelk stand than he was being President.
Of course, the job he actually wanted was Commissioner of Baseball. Pity he didn't manage to get it instead.
On “How are you sleeping?”
I agree with Russel in that I think dreams are often more than just random. I think they often are a way of working out or working on issues that concern the dreamer.
That said, sometimes dreams are just fun.
As a kid, I was able to set my mind to dream of flying. I loved to fly! My dreams were very realistic, right to feeling chilly. Ot scary at all. I wish I could still make myself dream that way.
On “It’s Your Party, you can cry if…”
What Pro Bono said, on every count.
"
I don’t get the Corbyn hate/dismissiveness
There's a test, originating in the Labour party in the late 19th century - is he competent to run a whelk stall?
Anyone who's worked with Corbyn knows that he isn't.
He shares this disability with BoJo, Dubya, Trump, and sundry other politicians. I don't hate him for it; I just don't want him to be in charge of anything I care about.
On “How are you sleeping?”
that said...
I had a friend, father of another friend of mine and my wife's. He was a tank guy in WWII. Killed a number of people. Had a cool and complicated shotgun he took off a guy - a German civilian - who tried to shoot him, and who missed. But he - my friend - did not miss.
In his late 80's and into his 90's, he had really bad dreams where he relived his time in Europe. Unsettling, violent dreams, which would cause him to thrash and kick and punch in his sleep.
He went back to Europe in much later life to see if he could lay his ghosts to rest. He could not.
This was not the advent of mental or neurological decline, he was sharp as a tack right up until the end.
It was the legacy of what he was required to do as a young man.
Some folks think that sleep, and dreaming, is another bardo. Another form of consciousness, distinct from waking awareness. I don't really know, one way of the other.
But my own thought is that sleep and dreaming is the time when your mind and consciousness tries to repair itself. Tries to come to terms with and resolve all the crap you don't have the time or attention or capacity to resolve in your waking life.
It's kind of a gift. Not always welcome, but essential nonetheless.
I try to remember and pay attention to dreams. I don't think of them as some kind of messages from the great beyond. They just seem like messages from myself, to myself. Or maybe not even messages, just ruminations.
But helpful, and occasionally useful. Sometimes amusing, sometimes disturbing. More or less your own mind, without the filters. But speaking in images, not prose.
"
5 mg of indica MJ at bedtime. sleep like a baby. or better than a baby, maybe.
even before they made MJ legal in MA, I slept pretty well. I enjoy my dreams, they're often funny. And I'm often the butt of the joke.
I take it as a sign of sanity.
"
I used to get frantically worried in the dream but one night I thought, “Fuck it. This isn’t my fault. I’m not going to feel bad. I am going to get mad instead.”
So now that dream has a different story arc.
I'm delighted by this!
"
I quit teaching over twenty years ago, but I still have dreams related to my job. A recurrent dream concerns IEPs--the required paperwork for each student, typically about 20 pages. I did 30 to 40 a year and never was late.
My dream is that it's May and I haven't started. I make futile attempts to find the necessary records and forms but can't. I seriously consider blowing the IEPs off and dumping the mess on other teachers. I've never done that in the dream because I always wake up first.
The other teaching dream involves being in the building on the first day, but I don't know what subjects I will be teaching or where my room is and I have no teaching materials. I used to get frantically worried in the dream but one night I thought, "Fuck it. This isn't my fault. I'm not going to feel bad. I am going to get mad instead."
So now that dream has a different story arc.
"
I have been trapped asleep but unable to awake multiple times, starting at elementary school age. I have taught myself to wake myself up by moving one of my arms. It can be very difficult, frustrating, and frightening.
"
I sometimes sleep with my eyes open and can see if there's enough light, but don't always know what I'm looking at until I wake up. I once dreamt of being chased by a helicopter during an afternoon nap and woke up to realize I was looking at the spinning ceiling fan.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.