What do you dream?

[sdalek]

I've been thinking about my dreams lately and am wondering if others share the same experiences that I do.

One of my most vivid dreams that I had as a child, and which still is fresh with me today as back when I dreamed it in my early teens, I was standing naked on the fence of the backyard of the house we were living in at the time. I leaped off the fence and found myself floating inches above the ground, flying across the back yard and swooping up to land onto the fence on the other side. I then proceeded to fly around the yard, then the house, and then the whole neighborhood. Obviously this dream was first person.

In most of my dreams, I dream in first person. I am the primary subject of them; I see my dreams through myself and act according to the situation. I'm the hero/villain.

Some of my dreams, I dream in second person, a, observer, merely a bystander, capable of interacting but otherwise watching events unfold and happen to someone else. I am the sidekick.

In few of my dreams, I dream third person; I view the dream from a distance, like a camera following the events, having no ability to interact with the subjects of my dream at all.

My question to all is, what do you primarily dream? Why do we dream the way we do? How should it be interpreted?

[disregard]

for years i dream of the ocean.

[Rajah]

The dreams I recall are primarily first-person. Typically, though, I don't remember my dreams.

Prolly requires sleeping for more than eight minutes at a time...

[ptgatsby]

Originally Posted by sdalek

My question to all is, what do you primarily dream? Why do we dream the way we do? How should it be interpreted?

I dream about destroying things... about my actions leading to destruction. In some cases, it is something tangible, often taken from a movie or a game (Heroes and NY was recent on my mind, and I dreamt that. Others have included BSG and the like).

The most vivid one was a long while back, but I remember going on a school trip to somewhere, something in space or another dimension... and I remember having a room, opening a window... and having all of existence ripped through this whole in the wall, leaving me alone. I can't really explain the horror that it left in me, however. And guilt for feeling good that I was alone, yet being responsible for what had happened.

Oh, another good one - I dreamt that my computer had gained will (not life, I dunno what the difference is, but it stuck with me...) and I actually got up, crawled to my computer and shut it down. I vaguely remember doing this... but thought it was part of the dream. Except my computer was shut down in the middle of rending something.

[sdalek]

Originally Posted by Rajah

The dreams I recall are primarily first-person. Typically, though, I don't remember my dreams.

Prolly requires sleeping for more than eight minutes at a time...

Eek! How do you get a decent night's sleep if you don't sleep more that eight minutes at a a time?

[Kyrielle]

I usually dream in third person...as if the camera is just over one of my shoulders.

[sdalek]

Originally Posted by Kyrielle

I usually dream in third person...as if the camera is just over one of my shoulders.

Oh, cool! I've never dreamt that way myself. Does it seem like it limits what you see in your dreams?

[cafe]

I usually dream in first person, but I remember a dream where I was running around naked and I could see myself. I don't remember my dreams very often, but when I do, they are usually about fairly mundane worries.

In my last dream, for instance, I dreamed I was at my brother's house babysitting and I had cooked a meal on his stove. A little while later, someone told me that I had ruined my brother's stove and it surprised me because I hadn't remembered damaging it while I was cooking. I went in and looked and sure enough, the glass top was all bubbled. I was horrified. My brother is practically anal retentive about being neat, clean, and taking care of his things. Then I looked the stove over a little more closely and saw that the stove was not ruined. My brother had left the plastic film on the stovetop and that was what had bubbled. It simply needed removing and it would be good as new.

[Kyrielle]

Sometimes, but only in the way a camera in a movie limits what you see. My dreams are very cinematic except the camera tends to bob over a shoulder, but can and will swing out and show a whole situation as it is happening. For example, I had a dream I ran into a chamber with an evil spirit that was rising from a wooden sarcophagus. When I spun around to look at it (I was on the opposite side of the chamber as the spirit), the camera was flung away to the doorway I was about to run through so I could see both myself and the spirit for just a moment.

[Varelse]

I rarely dream, but when I do it's in a first-person perspective. And it's not me.