Dreams

[Katzenjammer]

Funny things aren't they. I dream every night and they do say it is necessary to dream.

I was chatting to my Dad about it and a few other guys. A common dream older people seem to have is about toilets, looking for them, not finding them, finding them unusable etc. Clearly bladder signals impinging on subconscious?

I used to write them down if I woke from one suddenly. This was one from the time before I discovered I had kidney cancer and was a recurring one well recurring in the sense that each time I dreamt it I went a little further..

"I dreamt I entered an old house with many doors in the hallway. Behind one dirty white panelled door there appeared to be a nameless horror lurking and for many occurrences of the dream I feared to open the door. But at last I plucked up the courage to do so or was compelled to do so and was faced with a spiral staircase that wound up to the right. As I mounted up the stairs, proceeding only so far with each dream occurrence, the sense of dread arose and even now as I write this that memory makes my skin crawl and the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

The stairs were of ancient foot-hollowed stone as if many had passed that way before and the walls were white plastered. Many people do not like spiral stairs as you feel enclosed and claustrophobic and you can hear others approaching but cannot “see round the corner” to judge how far away they are. Every step held a dread and I was often hard pressed to raise my feet to place them on the next step. A smooth hand polished brass rail ran up the left hand wall to which I clung for security.

I finally reached the top and this event was just prior to my cancer operation. The fear and horror were very intense by this stage. Again I was faced with a panelled door and when I finally plucked up the courage to open the door I knew there would be some nameless horror within as its tangible force oozed through the door almost dragging me in.

But actually what this horror was in dream form I never found out but I can describe the room for when the door finally swung open there was only really a smoky blackness and the feeling of dread seemed to seep away from me. The room was in a turret such as found on mock Gothic Victorian houses and was rectangular in shape with windows at my chin height all round. The exterior was half-timbered with timber frames and mullions, the roof curved to a peak, the top was tiled (or leaded) in small lozenge shape tiles and the whole was topped with a sharp spike. This turret appeared to be far above the normal roof level of the house but the impression I got was that it “floated” in the air above an indefinable building and landscape far below.

In the centre of the room was a large oak table with giant bulbous carved legs. The carvings were of no earthly animal – real or mythical. It was not revealed what was on the tabletop. (perhaps this was the operating table). There was no other furniture in the room but the inner walls were panelled in dark wood on which there was prominent graining and the internal ceiling composed of fancy plasterwork made up of strange flora and fauna.

When last I visited this room in dreams some months after the operation it was dilapidated and broken. Cobwebs and moss hung from the window frames, the panelling was chipped and cracked. Rafters lay across the table and the fear and horror had gone. I observed this and felt this as I walked around the room and “flew” round the exterior."

[eboswan]

Jesus thats deep

[Blackbaronfish]

Boy thats dark. I used to dream of falling into a mass of black gunge. The feeling was of death that made me cry in my sleep. I never did find out what it was all about
I hope you find some peace.
BBF

[Geordie]

My worst one at the moment is being pinned to the bed by an invisible entity. I cry out in my sleep but I cant make a sound! I do wake up in absolute agony most nights and have to lift the affected limb for relief.

I do believe that a lot of dreams are health related. Most of mine would take words I dont have to explain via text. The more disrupted my sleep, the more vivid the dream and I remember more of it.

I know when I've slept well as I cant recall my dreams. I take a shit load of medicine, both soporific and analgesic but some nights nothing works. I hate going to bed, I even get up at daft oclock to go downstairs and have a brew, then snooze in my late dads chair.

[Brooksy]

Steve, that is a stunning bit of writing, what a talent you have, you should put that into a book. It's the corridor to the operating theatre and then later it isn't needed, surely your subconscious knows you're going to be okay?
I love it, write some more please. I know you haven't had the best of times but hopefully it will help to get your mojo back on track.

[Katzenjammer]

It was the reoccurrence of the dream and the progressive advancement that really frightened me. I have had reoccurring dreams before and since but none as often as that one. I described it to my named nurse in hospital as I had it there one night and woke up. She said this was not the first time she had been told of recurring dreams of dread particularly from what turned out to be cancer sufferers. I have never dreamt it since. Perhaps your body knows what it has even though it has not revealed itself?

Geordie The ones of feeling pinned to the bed are common, they used to call it incubus or succubus dreams way back. Again you have a tangible symptom of a limb being "dead" or in pain so your body is communicating something to make you wake up? Your medication will be playing havoc with normal brain patterns when asleep I guess.

BBF The falling ones are common and into something that you can't get out of eg gunge. I've dreamt of death too and like you felt incredibly sad - perhaps the fear of going too soon?

I've also experienced this kind a few times - dreaming of someone you know then going into work and them saying "I had a dream about you last night!" I would then say I dreamt about you but it was never the same dream we had when we compared them.
And no they weren't sexual before anyone asks
Dreams are definitely weird!

[Katzenjammer]

Steve, that is a stunning bit of writing, what a talent you have, you should put that into a book. It's the corridor to the operating theatre and then later it isn't needed, surely your subconscious knows you're going to be okay?
I love it, write some more please. I know you haven't had the best of times but hopefully it will help to get your mojo back on track.

These were way back in 2001 and prior to that and then the final one months later - it was the reoccurrence and advancements that made me record it and the sheer vividness and detail.

[Geordie]

Do you ever get any where you are profoundly in love with someone (a lass in my case ) only to wake up and then realize it was all just a dream? Its amazing the amount of endorphin's a few deep thoughts release.

I've woke many a time virtually heartbroken! I'd rather not have had the bloody dream in the first place thank you very much!

[Katzenjammer]

Yes I know what you mean, I've dreamt about one lass I worked with and felt that way. I loved her but she didn't return it. I did actually ask her out in real life prior to the dream but she didn't take me up on my offer. Yet we got on well and had had similar experiences of partner abandonment and being left to bring up a child. She told me later she was afraid of rejection again.

So here I was clearly feeling my disappointment in my dream of being turned down in real life?

I often have a dream where I feel something is trying to get in the house and I shout or make snarling noises to frighten off whatever it is. Once it happened when Amy was home and she said I had been shouting "get out" and snarling like a dog!

I used to be a werewolf but I'm alright NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW

[Brooksy]

BBF The falling ones are common and into something that you can't get out of eg gunge. I've dreamt of death too and like you felt incredibly sad - perhaps the fear of going too soon?

I've also experienced this kind a few times - dreaming of someone you know then going into work and them saying "I had a dream about you last night!" I would then say I dreamt about you but it was never the same dream we had when we compared them.
And no they weren't sexual before anyone asks
Dreams are definitely weird!

When I was a kid and I was ill with something feverous I would dream I was a sycamore leaf drifting toward the ground, swaying and gently descending, almost an out of body experience.

But the really scary ones were those that came true. Did you ever have the school friend who's parents would NEVER allow you into their house, it was just a total no no? You always had to stand on the doorstep and wait no matter what the weather?
I once dreamt that I was in the house looking through the front window, impossible in my mind, there was a red car outside and we were going to get into it for a trip. I was perplexed, unbelievable, I knew in the dream that this was impossible.

Two months later my mother left my father, turned out she'd been sleeping with a neighbour who had a red Ford Escort, company car, it meant you were a high flyer in the 70's. I was in his living room looking outside while they packed some clothes before doing a runner.

I never saw my mate again, his son, he turned out to be a total shit and I haven't spoken to my mother for 35 years as she's still with the nob.

Dreams are funny things!