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Beyond the Lone Islands

http://dawntreader-island2.blogspot.com

Sunday 6 September 2009

Nightmare and Dayscare

I woke up this morning from a rather confused and bizarre dream. Since I had just recently been discussing such things with blogfriend GB, I decided to try and catch this one before it withered away. I might have done it anyway, dreams interest me and over the years I think I have become rather good at analyzing my own. (With those of others, one can only sometimes make a suggestion. But I believe each person holds the keys to his or her own dreamworld. It just may take some work to "learn the language", so to say.)
Here's mine:
First I was at some kind of school with a lot of different buildnings. I was searching the school library at night for an audio tape. I also started listening to it, but when the tape ran out, I could not find the next one. At some point, I was also having a discussion with some teacher or professor, or maybe more than one.
Then, suddenly, I was in a hospital instead, going around the corridors in a hospital bed on wheels, with raised back support. Somehow, I was supposed to manoeuvre this bed like a wheelchair on my own, without help. I tell you, getting in and out of lifts/elevators was not easy! People kept sending me round from one ward to another, and I had no idea what treatment I was there for.
Finally I arrived at a desk where they told me that I was 20 minutes late, but they would try to fit me in. Fit me in for what? I wondered, and found them very hesitant to answer. They seemed to be avoiding telling me.
I saw a sign with a strange word that I could read, but not understand, and I saw that they were giving people injections. I demanded to know what it was all about. So they told me. It was an injection that might relieve pain, although it had not been properly tested yet, so they really could not say what effect it might have. I was very sceptical, but I was in pain, so I decided I'd try it. While I waited though, I felt I really needed to find a toilet. I was directed down some stairs into the basement. Fortunately, I could now walk. I went down, found the ladies room - and woke up.

The last part of it was the easy one. I very often find myself in search of a bathroom at the end of my dreams. Thankfully, I still always wake up in time to go find my own...

So what's behind the rest?
Yesterday, I was thinking back on my days at school, long ago. This will show up in blogpost(s) to come.
Shortly before I went to bed, I was thinking about one of my English professors at university. Libraries and old audio tapes had also been on my mind - and as usual, I had been listening to an audio book just before I went to sleep. I think that pretty much covers the school part of the dream.

The previous night, my friend G's wheelchair had been parked in my hall. (For real. She and husband B were staying the night.) G has been in and out of hospitals all her life; she's a 'fighter' but becoming more and more dependent on her wheelchair(s) lately. I also have some experiences of hospital myself. And I have pain problems. Right now, every day the newspapers have big black headlines like "We will not have time to vaccinate everybody" (against swine flu). Last time I had flu was a very bad experience; since then I've had vaccinations every autumn, and I really don't want to catch swine flu if I can avoid it. On top of that, the last thing I watched on TV before I went to bed was the first part of a mini crime series, in which two little boys were kidnapped and kept sedated by injections in hospitallike environment. The only clue the police had, was that on the pictures that were sent to them of the sleeping boys, there was a mysterious word printed on the sheets...

That's it.
No more nighttime scary crime series on TV for me!!!
And certainly no TV news...

4 comments:

Graham Edwards said...

Firstly you seem to recall your dreams in more detail than I do and secondly the causes you suggest sound very likely. Rarely can I recall that much. In any case dreams such as I had the other night are rare.

When I was last in New Zealand my Doc asked if I ever had nightmares and I said that I had just had a spate of them which I put down to the implant I have as a regular part of the cancer treatment combined with a heavy booster dose I'd been given. He, on the other hand, thought it was one of my other pills. He changed it and I didn't have a nightmare for ages afterwards. So perhaps what we dream is explainable more easily than why we dream. But then as I know so little about the subject that is only somewhere between conjecture and a suggestion.

DawnTreader said...

I take the liberty of moving a comment here that happened to land on another post where it did not really fit into the context, I think it was intended to land here.

Rose-Anne said...

I have some weird dreams at times. I should try and analyse them but some I don't want to go there. LOL.
Sunday, September 06, 2009

DawnTreader said...

I have read lots of books and articles about sleep and dreams. According to the experts, everybody dreams. Every night. During a night, we have some periods of dreamless sleep, and some periods of dreaming. And it seems the brain needs both kinds.

It is what and how much we remember that differs. If we remember partly depends on from what stage of sleep we wake up. But the awareness of dreams and the ability to remember and understand can be trained, if one wants to. As you give example of, medication can also affect the quality of sleep and thus also how much we dream. Some substances also tend to cause nightmares.

I've had periods of intense dreaming in my life that were very helpful. Once I learned to interpret my dreams I also understood myself better. But too much of it can be very tiring. Being able to sleep deep and "dreamlessly" and wake up feeling refreshed is a blessing. But for those who do dream a lot, and find themselves disturbed by it, I do recommend trying to learn to understand the "messages" of their dreams.

rae said...

I agree with GB, you really seem to have a lock on the wheres and whys in your dreams.

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