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Clusters of upsetting dreams

Hugo Stiglitz

Does anyone else find that they have clusters of upsetting dreams? I find I can often have two bad dreams a night, two or three nights in a row. Common themes are rejection and humiliation. I can't identify any triggers.

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Hugo Stiglitz

Black Swan wrote: »

Weird dream. Traveled to a very small town in the American Deep South. Was being constantly observed by cam like a Big Brother contestant, day and night, at the place I was staying. Was told by the locale sheriff an endless list of do's and don'ts which didn't make any sense, like not eating vitamins. I ate one, and all of a sudden he came through my door and accosted me, in a very threatening manner. Woke up. After awhile drifted back to sleep, and this ridiculous dream continued, with the sheriff shaking his finger at me, telling me how bad I was, and that I could do nothing on his forbidden list without him catching me. Woke up 2nd time grumpy. Later laughed at this inexplicable dream.

That sounds very unnerving.

[Deleted User]

Hugo Stiglitz wrote: »

That sounds very unnerving.

B-film dream.

Hugo Stiglitz

Black Swan wrote: »

B-film dream.

Oh my!

[Deleted User]

Hugo Stiglitz wrote: »

Oh my!

It's your B-film Hugo? Did you direct or produce it? Back on track, dream interpretation is so anecdotal and subjective that it's really problematic from a scientific method standpoint.

Fathom

Black Swan wrote: »

It's your B-film Hugo? Did you direct or produce it? Back on track, dream interpretation is so anecdotal and subjective that it's really problematic from a scientific method standpoint.

Scientific method approach? Neurocognitive model of dreaming? Neural networks, cognitive development, and content analysis. Ref: Domhoff, G. (2003). The scientific study of dreams: Neural networks, cognitive development, and content analysis , (pp. 9-38). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.

[Deleted User]

Fathom wrote: »

Scientific method approach? Neurocognitive model of dreaming? Neural networks, cognitive development, and content analysis.

At 1st blush this appears to be triangulation between quantitative (neural networks) and qualitative methods (content analysis) in an attempt to interpret dreams. Clusters of dreams would provide more data; and, although the clusters may have face validity, they still may have small sample sizes and be somewhat convenience selection. Added to this, subjects may or may not be influencing all or parts of the content of their dreams, potentially confounding the interpretation.

An example of nightmare research talk?

Hugo Stiglitz

I had this weird dream last night. Myself and two older ladies from work were in Brazil (I saw nothing to suggest that it was Brazil apart from people speaking Portuguese, but I just knew it in the dream). We were on a beach paddling in the shallow blue water. There was a club next to the beach which we then went into. In there I saw a lot of people that I used to know during my teenage years, including a guy I knew casually who is sadly know longer with us anymore. I went up to him and was like "Dude, I thought you died!" etc. It was rather unsettling to see him alive in the dream itself. We all went outside then to go home. For some reason, we split up and two groups walked to taxis on opposite sides of the street. Their taxies were all normal looking ones, whereas the ones on my side were all funky: one was one of those little East German cars, one was a tiny tank with huge tracks. I was calling them over. They all decided to come over. Just as they did, the taxi drivers on their side got out of their cars and began to argue amongst themselves. They got very heated. Suddenly, a guy behind the counter of what looked like a candy floss kiosk behind them came up to them with a suppressed pistol and shot the drivers in the head which caused the people I know to flee. The taxi men on my side of the street came up to me which holding revolvers and advised me to get out of the area. That was the end of that dream.

[Deleted User]

Hugo Stiglitz wrote: »

That was the end of that dream.

More like nightmare methinks Hugo.

Fathom

Edgar Allen Poe Hugo, the dreamer.

Hugo Stiglitz

Black Swan wrote: »

More like nightmare methinks Hugo.

I didn't startle awake drenched in sweat though.

Fathom wrote: »

Edgar Allen Poe Hugo, the dreamer.

You flatter me, ma'am.

[Deleted User]

University classroom space is always in short supply. Mine is scheduled and locked-in for Spring. Last night's nightmare had me walking into my class to find another prof teaching his class in my room during my allotted hour. My students started arriving with no seats available, while the poacher prof attempted to ignore us and lecture as if the room was rightfully his. A confrontation occurred, and he had the gall to get in my face and threaten me. I woke up sweating, twisted in my sheet and covers. Sleeping a bit too warm seems to increase my dreaming, both nightmares and lovely-mares.

Widdershins

Black Swan wrote: »

University classroom space is always in short supply. Mine is scheduled and locked-in for Spring. Last night's nightmare had me walking into my class to find another prof teaching his class in my room during my allotted hour. My students started arriving with no seats available, while the poacher prof attempted to ignore us and lecture as if the room was rightfully his. A confrontation occurred, and he had the gall to get in my face and threaten me. I woke up sweating, twisted in my sheet and covers. Sleeping a bit too warm seems to increase my dreaming, both nightmares and lovely-mares.

Lovely Mares

Anyone ever notice aany effect from eating cheese before bed?

My recent memorable dream involved me winning something significant and weird and valuable, and being chased by people who wanted to stop me from claiming it, and a long haired blonde male corrupt journalist trying to catch me for a scoop but possibly to steal the winnings too. So I was racing through these passageways and up through trapdoors in cafe floors, a bit like the real world crossed with an indoor activity centre for children, with my hair and dress streaming behind me. It was not a stressful dream, it was exhilarating. when eventually he caught up with me, he had had a change of heart and offered to help me escape the others who were in pursuit. I hid somewhere with him and he was showing me something on his phone, some ingenious idea he'd had to get me out of there. I became eh, romantically entangled with him, before I woke up.

Hugo Stiglitz

Widdershins wrote: »

Anyone ever notice aany effect from eating cheese before bed?

I eat pizza a lot. On the nights that I don't, I usually have cheese in some form of a sandwich.

Widdershins

I haven't eaten any cheese for some time. I'm not dreaming as strangely or vividly most nights. I think I did notice an increase in unusual dreaming that coincided with having consumed cheese during the day, in the past. It also happens when I have had to take a type of paracetamol. Perhaps a coincidence or a side effect, I don't know.

flutered

Black Swan wrote: »

Naaaaaa, any "contents" that may be of interest to others, be they fun, or hot and spicy, or of intellectual property are not saved on my little netbook, rather on a massive external drive that's never connected online. I have to do this, because unlike my main rig at home, or work lab rig, both of which have layers upon layers of protection, my nettie is too often used at unsecured wifi hotspots, and to save things on it would be asking for trouble. Of course I do surf on my nettie like anyone else, but risque things not saved, only boring things that would make you YAWN.

i have a couple of old lappie hardrives which i add stuff to if i enjoy what i am viering, or facts i may need for online debate

Hugo Stiglitz

Had a strange one last night which definitely was scary but non-scary bits occurred towards the end of the dream.

My neighbourhood is on top of a series of hills. My dream took place at the bottom of the last hill which is rather steep.

The dream began with everyone up to their knees in slowly moving water, which is rather unusual to say the least. It was also raining rather heavily. We were hosting an event in the middle of the main road. Everyone was gathered wearing tuxedos. We welcomed these three Latino American gentlemen. They engaged my immediate group in small talk, telling us about their time as political prisoners in a military prison. Suddenly, these old fashioned air-raid sirens went off. People commented that they were newly installed. I walked slightly up the hill to the nearest siren. I looked up at some threes higher up on the hill which were violently moving and snapping. Suddenly, a huge chunk of the hill gave way and a lot of water rushed down towards us. The walls of the various properties down towards us started to explode. We were falling in the water and getting washed along. There is a huge limestock building at the base of the hill which I made my way towards. Myself and some others were able to climb up to safety on this oddly shaped and easily accessible bit of the building. Suddenly the water was all gone, and the building was suddenly right in the middle of an inner-city. There was this guy on the street shouting up at us to "get off of his spot". He resembled the typical 1980s street punk. He was waving an ice hockey stick at us. We were terrified of him so we promptly climbed down. He started to walk after us, so he went into a sort of subway station place. He then grabbed me in a corner, and we discussed robbing the people I was originally with. I was no longer afraid of him, and I was salivating at the thought of mugging my friends. Suddenly, the scene changed and I was on this huge boat that was driving around the streets of my hometown. I'm not sure if this was a separate dream or not though.

[Deleted User]

Widdershins wrote: »

So I was racing through these passageways and up through trapdoors in cafe floors, a bit like the real world crossed with an indoor activity centre for children, with my hair and dress streaming behind me. It was not a stressful dream, it was exhilarating. when eventually he caught up with me, he had had a change of heart and offered to help me escape the others who were in pursuit.

Great chase dreams are grand!

[Deleted User]

Hugo Stiglitz wrote: »

Had a strange one last night which definitely was scary but non-scary bits occurred towards the end of the dream.
my hometown. I'm not sure if this was a separate dream or not though.

Scattered, sometimes random segments in one dream?

Fathom

Black Swan wrote: »

Scattered, sometimes random segments in one dream?

Typical dream.

Hugo Stiglitz

Black Swan wrote: »

Scattered, sometimes random segments in one dream?

Yeah. A lot of my dreams never have clear beginnings and ends.

Fathom wrote: »

Typical dream.

Well said.

[Deleted User]

Talking about recurrent clusters of upsetting dreams. Haunted once again by my laptop theft dream. I was in our locale javahouse, looked away to stir in a bit of cream in coffee, and when looking back at the table I was sitting at, my laptop was gone! Woke up shortly after that.

Widdershins

Black Swan wrote: »

Great chase dreams are grand!

There's a recurrent theme: men. I'm either feeling awkward because there's a couple in the dream and I'm in their way, or I'm romantically involved with a male character (always fictional, never one I know).

I find it weird. I'm not single.

Hugo Stiglitz

Ever have a dream which contains memories of the past in the setting of the dream itself?

Last night, I dreamt that it was the first day back in college, presumably second or third year. I spotted a girl I know sitting cross legged at this Japanese style wooden platform. I "remembered" first meeting her in this exact spot last year when I sat down next to her and struck up a conversation. I think we subsequently dated or something. Anyway, back in the dream present, I once again sat down next to her. She turned to face me with a look of utter disgust and promptly stormed off. Everyone else in the immediate area stared at me. It was hugely embarrassing but it really saddened me that I had unknowingly upset her. It was hard to shift that feeling today.

[Deleted User]

Widdershins wrote: »

There's a recurrent theme: men. I'm either feeling awkward because there's a couple in the dream and I'm in their way, or I'm romantically involved with a male character (always fictional, never one I know).

I find it weird. I'm not single.

Methinks this is not unusual Widdershins, especially the dream romantic themes. When we watch a film that has romance, all too often we suspend our disbelief long enough to identify with one of the fictional characters in the romantic situation.

Hugo Stiglitz wrote: »

Ever have a dream which contains memories of the past in the setting of the dream itself?

Sometimes I relive situations from the past in my dreams, although they can be altered somewhat.

Lorelli!

Hugo Stiglitz wrote: »

Ever have a dream which contains memories of the past in the setting of the dream itself?

I have had a some in the last few years sporadically, where someone from my past who I would not have seen for many years is questioning me in the present.

Sometimes it's someone giving me their blessing and encouraging and other times it's someone who is disappointed with me.

aaronjumper

Hugo Stiglitz wrote: »

Ever have a dream which contains memories of the past in the setting of the dream itself?

Only when it's to do with my fathers last days.

Sometimes the details are accurate (to my memory at least) other times I swap places with him in the bed and get sick while he gets healthy and wanders off to live his life.
Some things just get burned into your memory I guess, whether you want them there or not.

[Deleted User]

aaronjumper wrote: »

...other times I swap places with him in the bed and get sick while he gets healthy and wanders off to live his life.

Makes me wonder if there is some kind of psychological transfer that may occur in dreams?

Hugo Stiglitz

Dreams certainly can remind us all of sad times. The mind is a very powerful thing.

Fathom

Hugo Stiglitz wrote: »

Dreams certainly can remind us all of sad times. The mind is a very powerful thing.

Good times too.

Hugo Stiglitz

Fathom wrote: »

Good times too.

Thankfully that is also true.

Anyone find that sometimes the happiest of dreams can make you sad upon waking up?