What Dreams May Come

I come up with the most interesting ideas for blog posts around 4:30 in the morning.

The past two mornings, just before sunrise, I have been awakened from a deep sleep. Both times I've noticed something about my thought patterns. I can still feel my mind constructing dreams. I don't think what I'm experiencing is a new phenomenon, it's likely a sign of aging or thanks to random bouts of insomnia that I've been having over the past couple years, but this is a new sensation for me.


It's hard to explain really and I'm certain I'm not doing any kind of lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is the belief and practice that we can hack our minds to tell us we are dreaming and allow us some more control. I've had stuff like this happen, but it's usually in a response to my body attempting to wake me up.

For some background, I don't give any gravity to dreams themselves. I have always believed they are simply a stimuli for laying on an arm, being stressed, or having to use the restroom. It's often humorous to hear people interpret dreams. I don't believe it's complete vanity though, there is always important information to gather from our subconscious mind. I do feel that some people should keep a dream journal for that reason.

I do feel calling a psychic to discuss those dreams is mildly goofy.

I also believe that too many suffer from some sort of sleep apnea. In deep sleep, we're not going to remember many dreams, but for those who snore a lot or there's an issue where breathing stops during sleep, that individual is jolted and can remember many many dreams. Again, like a lot of things, I'm no expert, but I do recommend that people take any necessary precautions against something like this.


Back to my subject at hand. Nova has a great special on dreams, I would recommend people watch it and form their own opinions based on their own experiences.

I don't want to turn this into some inception like post, but I could hear myself designing the dreams. The feeling is similar to brainstorming ideas. My brain was seeking to attach itself to a thought stream. Just as I was about to be awakened, my mind found a stream of thought and I was in a dream. No sooner than I was in this dream (3 seconds), I was awake.

Think of it like an artist, with a blank palette, with paintbrush in hand, but with no sure concept of what to paint. He has a paintbrush in hand and he's about to draw......something, but what?

I will continue to focus my mind and see if it happens again. I don't think I need to keep a dream journal. I really never remember my dreams. The ones that I do recall are based in complete absurdity. That's what it's like in my head though. Nothing concrete, just molds of floating jello.

Now that I have a soft collar for Dexter (see my post on 2/1), I don't think I'll be jarred from a deep sleep again or at least considerably less. He has managed to find creative ways to make loud noises every 75 minutes, completely screwing up our sleep.

Or, we're all about to wake up and this was one crazy, elaborate dream.