Weird dreams?

[Yuki]

Hey guys. So I had a weird dream the other day and then thought it could make a fun thread. Have you guys had some weird/unexplainable dreams that you remember? Also, anyone willing to try to explain our weird dreams?

So here's mine:

I was back in high school and was on my way to gym. When I got there I needed to change my clothes, as you do. So here's where the first weird bit happens, I go to the dressing room and it's the dressing room of my college gym, probably because I've never been in the high school dressing room before, I did gym in 9th grade. So I start changing and as my shirt comes off I realized that I'm wearing a bra so I stopped. then I leave the room and think about going into the girl's changing room because and I quote "that's probably where I'm suppose to be" But then I think "that's not right" and go back to the boy's room and change, hiding my bra and some panties. then I look up and a girl is just standing there watching me and casually says hi and asks what I'm doing before walking away.

So yeah. That's the strange dream I had. Anyone else?

[Gregg1100]

A good few years ago, I was driving an artic through Lechlade, Gloucester. I knew I hadn't ever been to this town before, but everything seemed to be so familiar, as if I had lived there. Wierd.

[pelmut]

About 25 years ago I woke up in the middle of the night after a particularly vivid dream; there seemed to be some sort of hidden message in it and I particularly remembered the layout of the building where it took place. I wrote down as much as I could remember, including a floor plan of the building, and then went back to sleep. Several times during the following day I picked up my notes and puzzled over them; although the building seemed vaguely familiar, I could not recognise it as anywhere I knew.

Much later that day I suddenly had an inspiration and held the drawing up to the light; there was the layout of a friend's flat which I had unwittingly drawn in mirror-image. I realised that a) I had been subconsciously worrying about this friend and b) I had been dreaming in mirror-image. The next time I remembered a dream where 'handidness' was a factor, I confirmed that I do, indeed, dream mirror-image (possibly because I am left-handed?).

Just after 'interpreting' the dream about my friend, another friend rang me to say that she too had been worrying about this person and had even had a dream about her...

[moonshadow]

I have this strange repeating dream where I'm working my way through an old Victorian era house, exploring all the rooms as I go. Often times the only way to pass through the house is through odd corridors and narrow passageways and holes. Sometimes I crawl though holes in the ceiling and floors. Normally there is a type of "tower" that I'm climbing, and with each level, the passageways, ladders, etc get smaller and smaller to the point where I eventually get stuck and wake up.

I can never make it to the top floor of the house. Sometimes I think that the top floor marks my death (my real life death), and that that top floor of my dream is the portal into the next realm of existence.

One time I crawled through a hole in the wall and found myself in an ENORMOUS building that almost looked like the inside of a tobacco barn, only it was full of old relics to dig through.

Very cool dreams!

[Ralph]

Yuki, there's nothing really mysterious about your dream. Most dreams are so full of hidden symbolism it's next to impossible to figure out what our subconscious is trying to tell us, but yours was explicitly clear: Even if you're comfortable and confident in how you choose to dress, there's a part of you that feels guilt/shame/fear. If you keep it hidden, there's the fear of being discovered; if you're open about it, there's the fear that friends and family are disappointed in you or laughing behind your back.

My clothing-related dreams are a more or less equal balance of that same anxiety dream or "wish-fulfillment" type dreams. In those, I'm in a situation where I not only have a chance to wear a dress, but everyone involved is supportive and encouraging. And of course all the dresses are exactly the style I like and exactly my size. But the anxiety dreams are almost identical to yours: I find myself in a public place and suddenly realize I forgot to put on my "man clothes" before venturing outside, and here I am in a dress or a nightgown trying to find a discreet place to hide. Or (more terrifying) I am safely in the privacy of my own room at home wearing whatever I like, and somebody tries to enter. I desperately push back against the door trying to get it shut and locked, but I can't quite manage to keep my privacy and at any moment my secret will be discovered. I usually wake up (heart racing in terror!) before the invaders actually break past my barrier.

In my case, the wish fulfillment dream is only a fantasy; the anxiety of being discovered is uncomfortably close to reality.

[dillon]

I seldom have weird dreams any more, not for the last few years, having been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and issued a CPAP machine. Now I usually sleep like an baby and don't remember my dreams at all. But when I did have weird dreams, it was usually this scenario: I was again a college student, and made the mistake of cutting my early morning class a few times, then just forgot I was even registered in it. When I remembered, it was mid-term exams, and I went into the class, and was handed an exam for which I knew precisely nothing...

The other weird dreams usually consisted of wearing something totally inappropriate (often nothing at all) and suddenly finding myself in an important social situation, and having to explain why I was naked, or wearing something that made no sense.

When I was in the worst throes of sleep apnea, prior to diagnosis and treatment, I often had dreams of drowning or being unable to take a breath...because I had, in fact, stopped breathing. I consider myself fortunate not to have had a MI in my sleep and died. That was a decade ago, and my health has markedly improved since getting the breathing machine to sleep at night. I encourage anyone who snores, or has had those sorts of dreams, to please get a sleep study done. During my sleep study, the tech actually woke me up, because he was concerned by the durations of my breathing cessations.

[crfriend]

But when I did have weird dreams, it was usually this scenario: I was again a college student, and made the mistake of cutting my early morning class a few times, then just forgot I was even registered in it. When I remembered, it was mid-term exams, and I went into the class, and was handed an exam for which I knew precisely nothing...

It turns out that's a bog-common scenario for college students. Every last member of my family reported the phenomenon, and this includes folks with doctoral level degrees ranging from my grandparents to my father and aunts. (Oddly, I never suffered from them, but then again I never attended college; I passed through a trade-school which I was well prepared for and was likely able to teach the curriculum they offered.) Every once in a while i conversation they'd "compare notes" on how bad they were when they were "in school".

When I was in the worst throes of sleep apnea, prior to diagnosis and treatment, I often had dreams of drowning or being unable to take a breath...because I had, in fact, stopped breathing.

That's bad. Good on you for getting a diagnosis and a coping mechanism.

The strangest dreams I have -- and those which are the most fun -- are the ones that I can actually manipulate semi-consciously and "steer". Those are sometimes amazing.

When I was young, my most common nightmare scenario was falling from a high place. Mercifully, those seem to have passed.

Back on-topic, though, for a moment, I do recall a dream I had when I was perhaps 10 or 12 where I was musing about how unfair the attire allowed for men/women or boys/girls was so out of kilter and tried to figure it out. So, perhaps I was contemplating this path almost a half-century ago.

[dillon]

I've had those "steerable" dreams, though rarely, and when I did, I had the sense that I was not fully asleep.

[Kirbstone]

Fortunately for me, all my dreams are very pleasant and not a few of them have been about going to places kilted or skirted. Invariably MOH is along, too and that is for me highly agreeable, but when I return to the hard light of waking Dawn and the permanent anti attitude of MOH is omnipresent it automatically attaches the term 'wierd' to those dreams.

Tom