Reoccuring dream elements?

[Olaf the Stout]

Common dreams for me include:

Flying - As in I have somehow gained the fly. Sometimes I need to flap my arms, other times I just jump and don't come back down, sometimes I just lift off of the ground. These dreams are normally pretty good.

Assignment/Exam/Class I haven't done and/or prepared for - I still get these from time to time, despite having finished studying about 3-4 years ago. Normally it is some big assignment that I now have a day to finish or an exam that I realise is in about 5 minutes I haven't even taken any of the classes for it. These are incredibly frustrating when I wake up and realise that I finished all that stuff years ago.

Not being able to run/I can only run really slowly - Normally it is when I am trying to get away from something. My legs either won't work and I have to pull my body along with my arms or I am running at about a quarter the speed of everyone else. Frustrating and sometimes scary.

Olaf the Stout

 

[megamania]

I've only had a flying dream once.

It was the first week of my factory job and I remember flying through a series of canyons made of silvery rock with various familiar looking openings and square cave openings. I woke up and immediately recognized the setting- the metal chassis that I would attach / thread wires, speakers and plastic pieces to.

Neat in an odd way.

 

[Simplicity]

When I was a little kid, I had crazy nightmare problems. So, I learned lucid dreaming. Pretty fun to have complete control over my dreams. Gave it up though because... omnipotence and omniscience get boring.

Recurring elements:
- Flying. Always. I can almost always fly. Acrobatic, loops, high-G turns.
- Locations. I tend to revisit the same places in my dreams. But they're all places I've never been. Crazy ones. There's a restaurant at the bottom of a cliff-surrounded path that turns in on itself. There's a boat disembarking off a pier, with a white neoclassical building nearby, and giant white pillars by the water. A city square at the top of a plateau. There's a nice hotel on the corner (I stay there a lot).
- Pale-faced people. Changelings. The other reason I quit lucid dreaming. When you have no control over a dream, a nightmare is a nightmare. You have them, you don't. You usually don't remember too much. When you lucid dream and you think you have full control, and then something comes along and shows you that you don't... It's a little nerve-wracking. I once had a dream of a pale-faced man, approaching me as I lay in my bed. Lucid, as I was, I decided I didn't like where the dream was going. Time to end it. Wake up, roll over (almost aways immediately ends a particular dream). So I woke up. And he was still there. And I couldn't move. I was awake, but the dream kept going. Eventually I got enough control of myself to bash my head into the wall and snap out of it. I believe I had an episode of sleep paralysis. I don't recommend it. Anyways, these guys became a symbol of the former free will of my dreams. Showed up a lot.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

When I was a little kid, I had crazy nightmare problems. So, I learned lucid dreaming. Pretty fun to have complete control over my dreams. Gave it up though because... omnipotence and omniscience get boring.

Recurring elements:
- Flying. Always. I can almost always fly. Acrobatic, loops, high-G turns.
- Locations. I tend to revisit the same places in my dreams. But they're all places I've never been. Crazy ones. There's a restaurant at the bottom of a cliff-surrounded path that turns in on itself. There's a boat disembarking off a pier, with a white neoclassical building nearby, and giant white pillars by the water. A city square at the top of a plateau. There's a nice hotel on the corner (I stay there a lot).
- Pale-faced people. Changelings. The other reason I quit lucid dreaming. When you have no control over a dream, a nightmare is a nightmare. You have them, you don't. You usually don't remember too much. When you lucid dream and you think you have full control, and then something comes along and shows you that you don't... It's a little nerve-wracking. I once had a dream of a pale-faced man, approaching me as I lay in my bed. Lucid, as I was, I decided I didn't like where the dream was going. Time to end it. Wake up, roll over (almost aways immediately ends a particular dream). So I woke up. And he was still there. And I couldn't move. I was awake, but the dream kept going. Eventually I got enough control of myself to bash my head into the wall and snap out of it. I believe I had an episode of sleep paralysis. I don't recommend it. Anyways, these guys became a symbol of the former free will of my dreams. Showed up a lot.

I have lucid dreams from time to time and I have loved them. Knowing your dreaming and being able to control what happens in the dream is a very weird but nice feeling.

Until now I didn't even know that they were called lucid dreams. I just thought of them as dreams where you can control what happens.

Olaf the Stout

 

[ssampier]

The few dreams I do remember:

1. I feel trapped or bound. A boulder is about to fall on me. I try to run and get-away, but I can't move.
2. A surreal universe, such as partial warped chessboard and freaky psychedelic colors.
3. Plus a few I'd rather not talk about.

Sometimes I'll wake up with a sudden urgency, like I missed or forgot something. I'll be confused for a few minutes, then go back to sleep.

I want one of those flying dreams.

 

[Merkuri]

Sometimes I'll wake up with a sudden urgency, like I missed or forgot something. I'll be confused for a few minutes, then go back to sleep.

I get that, too. I got it more often in college than I do now. You wake up and feel like there's something you MUST do, but you can't remember what it is.

Do you wake up with a loud, annoying alarm clock? Come to think of it, I don't think I've had that anxious feeling upon waking since I switched to an alarm clock that starts off slow and quiet and gradually gets fast and loud. Perhaps loud alarm clocks that startle you out of sleep, as opposed to waking you gently, help cause that "I have to do something now, but I don't know what" feeling.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Every month or so, I'll have a dream in the morning not long before I get up (usually between 5 and 7), about...getting ready and going to work. It's terribly annoying, really, though the new apartments in each dream are nice.

I don't tend to have too many recurring elements in my dreams. I have recently noticed that, like Stormborn, that my childhood home always equals the concept of "home".

I did, but insurance would not cover, and money is tight. I have dealt with much of it my whole life, so I know how to deal with it. Sleep as little as possible (4-6 hours a night), sleep only when I have to (could days a month I stay up 24-36 hours). Its exhausting, but it keeps me sane (mostly).

Hrm. My senior-year English teacher had that same deal. Apparently, she was told to tell herself that she would not remember her dreams every night before going to bed, and that actually worked.

Brad

 

[Stormborn]

I was reminded of another one last night that I had forgotten - a problem with my contacts.

In dreams I go to put them on and they are either
a) the size of saucers
b) crusted over with dirt and grime
c) torn or otherwise ragged.

In spite of these problems I always try to put them on in the dream.

 

[ssampier]

I get that, too. I got it more often in college than I do now. You wake up and feel like there's something you MUST do, but you can't remember what it is.

Do you wake up with a loud, annoying alarm clock? Come to think of it, I don't think I've had that anxious feeling upon waking since I switched to an alarm clock that starts off slow and quiet and gradually gets fast and loud. Perhaps loud alarm clocks that startle you out of sleep, as opposed to waking you gently, help cause that "I have to do something now, but I don't know what" feeling.

I do! I have been looking for a good, gradual alarm clock. I couldn't find one.

Yes, I got it often in college, too, but then there were things I had forgotten (paper, test, presentation).

 

[Merkuri]

I use this alarm clock and I love it. Not only does it wake me up gradually, but it projects the time on the ceiling large enough that I can see it without having to grope around for my glasses in the dark.

I was given it for my birthday so I don't know where you would get it (besides the store I linked to that I found on a quick Google search).