Dreams

Recently, I saw a news segment about dreaming, and how the mind uses sleep time to reaarange, connect, and basically "defrag" the memories stored in the mind. Without sleep, IQ levels decrease and memory problems increase.

Anyway, that isn't the point of today's post.

I have always had very vivid dreams. My dreams are quite entertaining, even the scary ones, I enjoy them all. The best dreams are the ones where I know I'm dreaming and can take control. These lucid dreams result in my ability to fly anywhere at will and to make anything I wish happen, the flying is such a great feeling. I have learned to take that feeling of falling when you first fall asleep and recognize that I'm dreaming, and take control of the dream. I also learned to recognize when the dream is about to end and make it last a bit longer by taking and spinning myself in the dream. I don't know why this works, but it does.

These lucid dreams don't happen very often, but when it does, I always wake up in such a good mood, a natural high that seems to last for days. Is it the dream doing this, or is there something else in my mind causing the elated mood and lucidity.

The reason I started writing today's post, was to document one of my vivid dreams, one of those entertaining dreams, that I had last night. It was not a lucid dream, but I still woke up left me in a good mood.

Last night I dreamed I died, but my consciousness was still aware.

The details of the dream are starting to fade, as they always do, but I still remember some vivid parts. I was leaving someplace in my car, and as I often do, fumbling to attach the seat belt after I have started driving. But no matter how much I fumbled with the belt I couldn't get it attached. It was slipping from my hand, or the car was running off the road so I had to steer it back into position. I was on a busy highway. Then a cement truck was directly in front of me, and I remember thinking that if I don't attach the belt, I'm going to die when I hit the truck. There is no violent crash, or blood, or anything scary. I just remember the truck in front of me, then a moment of blurriness, then walking up to my apartment. Several things happen with me trying to get in, but most are very fuzzy now, but I remember my family from my past, my ex-wife, son and daughter in a state of mourning. I remember thinking that I'm dead, but it was alright. My daughter who is grown now, and has her own family, was there, but she was only around 10 years old. I remember going to her to tell her I was here, and embracing her. She told her mother "daddy is here" with us. As they go out the door, we are in another house, a house from the past we had out west. They are leaving. (Here I remember that I didn't recognize the car and thinking why she would buy that car). As they are leaving, I try to catch up to them, but I'm unable to leave the yard, something is holding me back. This brings tears to my eyes, because it from a memory from the lowest point in my life, a significant emotional event that has had a great influence on my current mental state. I woke up very sad, but my mood turned around quickly. I don't know why.

Is it the function of the dreams to revive memories and put them in perspective? To connect past memories to current ones? To give a you a fresh outlook on your current life. Whenever I have these vivid dreams, no matter if they are scary, sad, happy, or naughty, I'm always in a good mood for the rest of the day, which is unusual for me, to go through a whole day a not get that melancholy feeling when I start feeling tired.