Have you ever woke from a dream and found that it’s content had you perplexed for minutes, hours, and maybe even days or weeks later?
I woke from a dream that was terrifying and gruesome, neither a genre that I watch for entertainment nor one that I generally dream in. I found my usual attempts of restarting the dream or manipulating it while I slept, only caused more carnage. The only relief from the dream came in the form of my waking.
It is no wonder some of my dreams inspire my writing, they are quite vivid and memorable experiences. However, I must say, I enjoy those genres much more than the horror experience of last night.
Perhaps a dream analysis would reveal information interesting and useful. Looking myself for deeper meaning into a hostage, murder, and torture dream I cannot help but see the obvious, I must have had some tension in my day yesterday. Who doesn’t have stressful days, so that hardly warrants a dream like this.
Did I have too much coffee? Did I have, not enough coffee? Am I getting ill? Sadly menses does usually wreck havoc on my dreams, yet they hardly take the shape of swords and angry yet calm war lords.
A person could easily ask what in my life is causing you to feel trapped? Or even, what is causing fear? All of those wonderful issues that need addressing, and while we cannot entirely control the content of our dreams, my biggest question is, why am I not at peace before I sleep? Like most all adults who carry a bit of day to day stress, it is a good practice to try to fall to sleep in a calm relaxed state. Not only for our dreams but for our bodies which during the day are loaded with stress hormones.
So, the question is … how do you deal with your dreams? Do you let them come as uncontrollable ocean waves? Do you try to understand what your subconscious is describing for you? Do you write long blog posts and hope your readers will forgive your ramblings?
I am still wondering if maybe I didn’t quite have enough coffee…