Dreams that move you.

I have spent hundreds of hours with/doing dream interpretations. Always fun to talk with others about their dreams and try to understand the reasons behind them. Usually you find they are influenced by strong feelings or emotional issues that happened in the previous day(s) and then they are tied in with regular things from your life and the things you didn't really notice going on.
Like TV programs watched before bed that you "zone out" to relax. You can take underlying themes or plotlines and then dream yourself into similar circumstances that use familiar surroundings.

I like to sleep with a radio on sometimes and frequently incorporate the radio playing into my dreams. Sometimes I wake myself up enough to "listen" to a song without actually waking all the way up then allow myself to go back into deeper sleep when its over. (A couple of times just recently I ended up waking all the way up because they were on a roll of really appealling songs that I had to turn up a bit louder and reposition myself to enjoy them more. The benefit of sleeping on the couch in the basement.)
But I am also trained to wake up enough to make every movement during the night too from years of back injury related problems. Usually just enough to make sure that the next position won't result in crippling pain. Only have 5 possible positions that work now and they all require careful and purposeful positioning of the head and body parts to be used. So I don't know of a night that doesn't have me waking up about every 90 minutes.

When I dream I am always aware that I am dreaming. A sort of third person awareness in the back of my mind that allows me to experience things in a dream state that can't be done otherwise.
I have witnessed my own death in dreams on several occasions. At the moment of death I become disembodied and view my own situation from a nearby position. (See my body laying where it falls.) I always feel calm and usually relieved as the moment of stress that caused death was then over. A sort of way of getting out of the situation that I wasn't enjoying in my own dream. Then I sometimes begin the original dream again and control the events that originally lead to my demise and take the dream a completely different direction or I just gently wake up to ponder the dream for a bit before going back to sleep again. (The calm feeling persists for a while after the dream event. It is a strangely relaxing occurence.)
Of course there are also those times in dreams when I am trying to see something and can't open my eyes. If I do manage to open them I open them for real and immediately wake myself up. Staring widely in the dark at nothing but the soft glow from some electronic device of some sort (clock or LED indicators) when I was trying to see more of that hot young girl's "offerings" is one sleep experience I could do without. But I am starting to learn the signs after nearly 50 years so now when I can't open my eyes to see something I stop trying to. Usually I end up "seeing" something eventually in the dream. But not what I was trying to...self censorship shouldn't interfere with my lustful dream states.
And then there are always those times when you are trying to run in your dream and you find that you can't or are stuck in slow motion. Now I know that this is normal as your brain has shut off your motor controls (or else you sleepwalk) so again in my dreams I just stop trying so hard. Sometimes I am rewarded with a change to flying. No aircraft or other mechanical device needed. Just a strange mental state (think like a form of non-concentration) that allows me to start to float freely. After this many years I have some ability to control my "flights" but I don't allow myself to perform anything fantastic. Usually just a little more than what is essentially needed for the situation. And it always is just on the verge of failing to happen. An escape that is flitting and for the most part uncontrolled. Which makes it all the more enjoyable when it happens. And there have been many times when in my dream I become too aware of the events and then it just stops. I quickly find myself landing back on the ground and unable to resume the gentle floating and easy movement through the air. -My logical mind seems to only allow this denial of physics as long as I don't try to think about it. As long as the emotional side of my brain "feels" it's way through the dream I can enjoy the sensation of flight. But as soon as I start to think or plan on doing anything related to the flying then the logical mind shuts it down. And it turns out that I am much more logically minded as I age so I don't get to "fly" very often. Only sometimes when running a fever and delusional...but that's a whole other write up.
SO how about those sudden maddening jerks that you experience when just drifting off to sleep ? Sometimes accompanied by a sense of falling jsut prior to it. Frequently when planted firmly on a couch in front of a TV full of yet another night of boring nothing programs (on even more channels than ever now) with the remote in your hand and a sense that you should be doing just about anything else than what you are doing and have been doing for the last...has it really been 7 hours...that makes it past 3 AM...then >BAM !<
I've actually thrown the remote across the room with that "jerk" ! It makes me a jerk for throwing the remote. Then I have to get my ass up to find it under the entertainment centre. Stirring up the dust, triggering an allergy sneezing fit and causing a fully awake state again. Ugh !
Yep. Hate that one too.
:na:

Sigurthr said:

I've had a sleep paralysis episode once before, and let me tell you, it is the most frightening thing ever. You are awake, you can think, feel, hear what's going on around you, but you cannot open your eyes, you cannot move a muscle, and you cannot talk. I spent minutes laying there in the dark trying to scream at the top of my lungs for my wife to wake me, but no sounds came out. It wore off all of a sudden and hasn't happened again (thankfully).

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Make sure you mention this occurrence if you're ever going for surgery under general anesthesia.... it's not uncommon for people to experience these kinds of episodes when they are not properly anesthetized, and it can be extremely traumatic.

Oh you can bet I will, haha. Would be the first and last thing I say in that event. I do NOT want to go through that again, and I cant imagine it in a surgery environment where you can feel the pain of the surgery.... :barf:

I've woken up a few times while having needles pushed in my spine, and it was horrific. I cant imagine having major surgery and waking up.

Sigurthr said:

Oh you can bet I will, haha. Would be the first and last thing I say in that event. I do NOT want to go through that again, and I cant imagine it in a surgery environment where you can feel the pain of the surgery.... :barf:

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I really can't think of a worse torture, although IIRC you can still "pass out" from the pain.

InfinitusEquitas said:

I really can't think of a worse torture, although IIRC you can still "pass out" from the pain.

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Passing out from pain? It's anesthesia, essentially.

Nah but seriously, I've had a terrible experience with anesthesia. This past year I had a strabismus surgery on my eye. I woke up right after they finished, as in I woke up as soon as what needed to be done was done with about a minute's time in my favor. Probably one of the more prominent "dodged a bullet there" moments of my life.

Sigurthr said:

I've had a sleep paralysis episode once before, and let me tell you, it is the most frightening thing ever. You are awake, you can think, feel, hear what's going on around you, but you cannot open your eyes, you cannot move a muscle, and you cannot talk. I spent minutes laying there in the dark trying to scream at the top of my lungs for my wife to wake me, but no sounds came out. It wore off all of a sudden and hasn't happened again (thankfully).

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Grrr, I hate it when that happens. I've had it a few times. It never lasted minutes though and hasn't happened for a while.

i have had it happen a few times its fascinating but horrifying. screaming at the top of your lungs crying for help but no one can hear you. then finally you wake up drenched in sweat heart racing at 180+ bpm ....

also one of the coolest things i have ever had in a dream was i woke up almost 30 times in a dream. this was different though i discovered i was in a dream throughout each time i was awake. then randomly some where in my house i would black out and wake up in my bed. but i was not awake it was different every time. finally i woke up

this may have been discussed already but anyone ever sleep deprived themselves?

Tech_Junkie said:

My natural clock is 5AM -2PM. Nothing I do changes this. Its been that way for as long as I can remember.

My girlfriend too. No matter what time she has to be up, or goes to bed, she wakes up at 5AM.

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That's funny because my wife and I have the exact inversion; if left to our own devices we will go to sleep at 5am and wake up at 2pm. With that schedule we feel refreshed and energized. It is a constant uphill battle for me to maintain a "normal" circadian rhythm, and I always wind up losing at various points.

bennett326 said:

ithis may have been discussed already but anyone ever sleep deprived themselves?

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I've stayed up for 4 days once. No drugs involved. I was hallucinating by day 3. In the end I had to force myself to go to sleep. I've been into sleep deprivation since I was a kid. I still do it to sleep. I lay in the most uncomfortable positions as I can for as long as I can. Then I get into a comfortable position, and the endorphin rush tricks my body in sleep.

Tech_Junkie said:

I've stayed up for 4 days once. No drugs involved. I was hallucinating by day 3. In the end I had to force myself to go to sleep. I've been into sleep deprivation since I was a kid. I still do it to sleep. I lay in the most uncomfortable positions as I can for as long as I can. Then I get into a comfortable position, and the endorphin rush tricks my body in sleep.

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i have stayed up for 7 days. drugs involved :shhh:

around the third day voices. i started hearing voices that really corresponded with my thought for example if i thought about scary shit like people kill me the voices were mean and threatening etc. the 4th day i was hallucinating a ton. the ways i was able to stay awake are probably not appropriate in case young kids are reading.

hallucinating and conversating with voices at 4 in the morning walking along the street is well an experience :tinfoil:

and about having to make yourself go to sleep seems common. in my experience once you have gone 48-60 hours without sleep keeping yourself awake becomes easier. but it is also neat if you are able to get the falling in and out of sleep very quickly. i have been able to do this a few ways. but i could basically feel myself drifting and be in a cycle of less than 30 seconds awake then asleep and so on

I was drifting in and out while I was driving on day 4. I'd see the road signs, but they'd be in different places on the road, and it would snap me out of it because I'd realize something was not right. I'd also black out, and come to 4 or 5 miles later. I dont miss those days. I still do it, but its always when I have something important the nest day. Like moving, or court. I cant break the damn habit, I hate it.

This was an awesome read, wow! I must say that I've shared many experiences described from a lot of people here, especially those where dreams were based off something that just happened or some messed up movie I had just watched. That actually happens all the time to me these days, it never happened when I was a kid. Now any time I fall asleep with a full stomach or especially after having too much pasta for dinner, I'm in for a mental trip all night. I wish I could catch myself in a dream though, lucid dreaming would be awesome because I'd try grabbing so many boobs.

I've also blacked out from overfatigued driving, it used to scare the hell out of me when it happened while surprising me at the same time. I had often drifted off and then came to - several miles from when I had last remembered blinking my eyes which was a few minutes ago.

I must say too that I miss waking up from an intense nightmare in a cold sweat with a racing heartbeat just before being killed...... That feeling of cheating death to start off your day is just awesome! :beer:

Tech_Junkie said:

I was drifting in and out while I was driving on day 4. I'd see the road signs, but they'd be in different places on the road, and it would snap me out of it because I'd realize something was not right. I'd also black out, and come to 4 or 5 miles later. I dont miss those days. I still do it, but its always when I have something important the nest day. Like moving, or court. I cant break the damn habit, I hate it.

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when i first started hearing voices one time i was in English class

a friend was smart enough to say i had a bad fever and get me taken home. because i was being delusional due to the fever. he sure covered my ass

but yes drifting in and out is the closest i have gotten to a lucid dream the dream was almost reality but not. little differences and i recognized them etc

bennett326 said:

i have stayed up for 7 days. drugs involved :shhh:

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With medication, staying up for four days straight, and fully alert/functional is easily doable. I've done it a few times. Without medication, I wouldn't really trust myself past 3 days.

Longest I was ever awake straight was 150 hours. Past day four... I was getting paranoid, hyper logical, and at the same time experiencing insane mood swings.

I do experience rather severe bouts of insomnia, although not as bad past couple of years. As a result it wasn't uncommon for me to go without sleep for 3 days at a time.

Currently I limit my "medications" to booze, an occasional smoke, and 2-4 cups of coffee a day. I often don't consume any caffeine over weekends though.

May I ask what medication you were using ? You can pm me I'm curious