I've been half-heartedly trying to lucid dream for a while now, and one of the things that can help you lucid dream is to identify recurring things in your dreams and learn to recognize them, so that the next time you see or experience one of these "dream signs" you will realize you're dreaming. I've made mental notes before of things the recur in my dreams.
awayfarer said:
My S/O, Merkuri, seems to always dream that she's back in high school.
School: True. Maybe a full third of the dreams I remember feature me going back to high school or college and seeing people I haven't seen since then. Sometimes I'm very bored in the dreams (usually when I'm forced for one reason or another to take high school classes, with are incredibly easy when one has already graduated college) and other times very stressed (usually because the school has been switched around and I end up being lost when the bell rings, no clue which room or what class I'm supposed to be in).
The really frustrating thing about this particular dream sign is that I can remember several occasions when I've actually said to myself in a dream, "Isn't it funny that I always dream I'm going back to school, but now I really am!" Never never never have I made the connection and considered that I might be in a dream NOW.
Strange bathrooms: Obviously, these dreams usually happen when I have to pee. In my dreams, I'm often forced to go in public or on very strangely-shaped toilets. The one time I remember dreaming I was in a normal bathroom stall I noticed a peeping tom on the other side of the stall door and I rushed up from the toilet to bang the door open and start beating him up, my pants still around my ankles.
Out of control or hard to control cars: These dreams started long before I actually learned how to drive a car. They usually involve me being in a car with no driver (yet the car does not veer off the road or crash - it's just taking me god knows where) or me driving a car that I have little or no control over. Often the break pedal doesn't work well or at all.
Tripping over a log: Sometimes just as I'm about to drift off into deep sleep I see myself running through a forest and tripping over a moss-covered log. I always jerk forward in bed to catch myself just as I wake up. It's always the same exact moss-covered log I trip over. I usually do this once every three months or so. No clue at all where this comes from. The "dream" usually lasts half a second, just long enough for me to see the log and jerk myself awake as I think I've tripped.
Flying like I'm on strings: When I fly in my dreams it's usually as if I'm on strings. I walk along like normal, then just pull up my feet and continue moving forward at the same speed and height. Changing direction takes a lot of willpower and concentration, but moving forward is effortless. It's a "bodies in motion stay in motion" sort of thing, and the end result is that I sort of feel like I'm sliding through the air.
