When your dreams have plots and subplots

[RachelBigby]

I can’t tell people my dreams because it takes too long to tell the story. They go forever. Highly sophisticated in detail and dialogue. Then I wake up for 30-60 minutes with my brain feeling refreshed. This happens most nights.

 

[arfie]

ditto here. i don't believe my dreams are atypically complex. i believe my dream recall is more vivid than most. i grew up sharing a bed with two sisters and sharing our dreams was part of our morning ritual. add in years of keeping a dream journal to therapute my epic nightmares and, bingo, you have well-tuned dream recall. culturally, it is far more typical to be trained to disregard your dreams.

that morning ritual of dream sharing is one of the few things i actually miss about my childhood. i have yet to find a replacement.

 

[Friday]

I was part of a reeeeally long sleep study (1 night turned into 1 week turned into 1 month) …that found that whilst a lot of the time I don’t hit REM until my alarm goes off in the morning? Some nights, I can and do, stay in REM all night long.

So If I think I’ve been dreaming all night long? I probably have been.

An all night dream? Written out is roughly 200-500p.

 

[DharmaGirl]

I also have complex, vivid dreams that could be novels. I think I will start a dream journal and write a novel. Right, in my spare time.

 

[Aprilshowers]

For many years, if my chronic insomnia allows me to doze off, I will have horrific nightmares and night terrors. I've actually knocked over lamps and destroyed several lamp shades during my terrible dreams. My husband, who knows how badly I need the sleep and knows the risk of rousing my cptsd-psyche out of such a state, often takes on the challenge because I'm screaming so loudly. Either I don't recall anything about them or if I do, will absolutely not retell them to anyone. Recently, my dreams have taken an odd turn. Some of them have actually been...funny. My husband and kids actually enjoy hearing about them because they are so ridiculous. We can pick out the events or simple stuff in my day that help explain why the wild series of events have occurred in my sleeping brain. And they are in vivid color! Now if I could just rid of the icky ones!

 

[RachelBigby]

@Aprilshowers I beat the nightmares in 2017. I'd usually wake up just as the person/being was grabbing me. But one night the dream didn't end. The guy came up and grabbed me as usual, but then it continued.... and he didn't have an actual plan. So I punched him, and he folded. After that I still had several dreams where they came for me, but I grew bolder in chasing them off. Then those dreams fizzled out. I was in counseling back then. I don't remember what all we did about the dreams. All of that to say, they can be beaten.

 

[Aprilshowers]

That is fascinating! I wouldn't know how to do it, but it gives me hope they won't last forever!