(Updated on November 13, 2023)
Do you remember that song: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)”?
It was the band Eurythmics that sang the original hit song in 1983.
My dreams are often scary and filled with anxiety. My heart is pounding as I awaken.
I tend to think that this kind of dream is somehow tied to something in real life.
Where Am I?
Do you ever wake up from a dream and wonder for a few moments which world you’re living in?
The one from the dream you just had, or the one you’re actually living in?
Does it take you a few moments to realize where you are and what year it is?
I often dream that I am somewhere, lost, and I cannot find my way home.
In these dreams, I’m always looking for someone to point me in the right direction.
If I’m in my car, driving, I pull over and search for scraps of paper that might have numbers written on them. I try to jog my memory.
But I always come up empty.
I drive a ways, then I pull over again and ask people I encounter if they have directions they could give me.Â
They shake their head. None of them know me. They move on.
It is a vast and empty world at that moment. And I am but a tiny being just trying to find my way home.
Sometimes in the dream I actually find a phone.
But I can’t see the numbers on it. Or my fingers won’t dial it correctly. It is either too dark to read the numbers or the writing is too small.
The dream continues in panic mode until I wake up.
What Do Dreams Mean?
I sometimes try to figure out what my dreams mean.Â
Do we keep dreaming about the same thing due to unresolved problems in our life?Â
Maybe the anxiety or trauma is tucked away in a place where we aren’t even cognizant of it every day.
But still, it is there, just waiting for a still and fateful moment to float to the surface. To remind us of something we’d rather not contemplate.
Dreams seem to help us process our emotions by constructing memories of them. What we experience in our dream might not be real, but the emotions attached to them are.
There was always much interest in the interpretations of dreams.
Freud & Jung’s Theories Of Dreaming:
But it wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung put forth some of the most widely known modern theories of dreaming.
Freud’s theory centered around the notion of repressed longing. It was his idea that dreaming allows us to sort through unresolved and repressed wishes.
Carl Jung believed that dreams are a way for the unconscious mind to communicate with the conscious mind.
Jung believed that dreams are symbolic and can have multiple meanings.
Post-Jungians tend to identify Jung’s dream theory with the concept of compensation.
However, Jung’s theory regarding dreams was a product of an evolving process throughout his whole intellectual and professional life.
Unfortunately, the theory has not been understood in such a developmental light.
So, after much debate and lots of rhetoric, dreams are like pixie dust held in our hands.
The original Disney use of pixie dust occurs in the film Peter Pan. In the film, Pixie Dust is a non-specific sparkly powder that gives one the ability to fly.
Peter shakes Tinker Bell over Wendy Darling and her brothers and glitter rains down. And then when they think happy thoughts, they can fly.
Dreams Of Flying:
Actually, many times in my dreams, I have dreamed that I’m flying.
In the dream it is usually dark. And I run like the wind to gather both my courage and my stamina.
And suddenly I am flying. Soaring over mountains and cities and roads with tiny people and cars beneath me.
Maybe I am leaving my problems behind. Or finding a way to deal with them in real life.
I wake up and am just aware that no, I cannot fly. And I am always disappointed.
Because the act, the giddiness of flying stays with me.
It was magical. Unlike any experience I’ve ever had. It signified freedom, and I felt light as air.
But somewhat like the imagined pixie dust, the magic of being able to fly sifts and flows through my fingers.
And the wind blows it far, far away.
I have very vivid dreams if I doze off while in the recliner chair. I don't dream or don't remember them when I am sleeping in the bed. When I doze off in the recliner whatever happens to be on the TV becomes part of the dream, since I don't usually watch scary or gruesome stuff that usually isn't a problem, but when I had my wisdom teeth removed a while back I dozed off in the chair. It was during the first day when I had taken one of the prescribed pain pills. Apparently I fell asleep with my finger on the channel change button because I woke up from the worst, horrible nightmare about being tortured by having my teeth pulled. Apparently, I had accidentally let the remote go to some movie, where they were pulling teeth out to get information from someone. I woke up terrified from the dream I was having and then there it was on TV. For a few moments I couldn't figure out what was reality, since the pain pill had worn off and my tooth holes were hurting. That was pretty bad.
One time recently I dreamed my friend and I ran into Caesar Milan, the dog whisperer, in the library. That was an entertaining dream.
I have a recurring dream that it is the end of the school year and I "forgot" to go to math class all year so can't take the test that will enable me to graduate. Weird. I also have one similar to yours about trying to dial a phone number – usually a rotary dial and I keep messing it up. In both dreams I feel very anxious. I really liked this post – very interesting!
I have very vivid dreams and some of them are indeed recurring. I used to keep a dream journal but that didn't last long. It was interesting to go back and look at my dreams. I rarely remembered any of them.
I used to have the same dream over and over for years. Thankfully, it no longer happens. It was me living another life in another time but with the same husband and children. Very strange. I knew the house inside and out, it was so familiar. Perhaps a different timeline? Who knows.
I love the quote you chose. I often think dreams are a moment you express something you don't dare to express during your waking life, be it a desire or a fear.
Here's what is interesting about your dreams of not being able to get back home — over the past few years, it seems like in your awake life you are getting more and more comfortable with yourself in your own home. Yet you still have this unsettling dream of not getting home. It reminds me of how I occasionally have a dream about my ex-husband, or about a man I was once engaged to who broke off the relationship. In the dreams, I'll be in a relationship with one of them, and he'll call and tell me to meet him somewhere. I'll agree, and go to the place, and then he'll never show up. I haven't been in a relationship with either of them for over 25 years, and I've been happily married to a very loving and dependable man for 11 years. So, I'm not sure why I have dreams about those people from the past who weren't there for me. I already know that about them. Maybe the dream is about something else, or about me still being vulnerable in some way. But I'm not sure.
Regarding Linda's comment about dementia, I am intrigued by stories of people who are about to die, who say they've been visited by someone who already is dead. Before she died, my mother-in-law told me of visits she had from her sisters and her late husband. I always went along and did not try to contradict her. The people in the family in the medical profession just brushed it off as being related to her old age and medicine she was on. But, I've always wondered. To her, she really did see the people, and she wasn't upset by it. So, it seemed like a good thing for her to seem them.
I've often thought that the dream state is another part of life, albeit one I often can't remember or understand. Sometimes I even wonder if dementia is closer to the dream existence…weird I know. Dreams must do something for us…work out what's going on in our lives, perhaps? I do have some recurring dreams…they tend to be the anxiety type. And my most vivid dreams and nightmares are always in the morning before I wake. Interesting post, Brenda!
I am a very vivid dreamer. They feel so real to me. My husband never remembers his dreams. Maybe that's why he sleeps so well! 😉
I love the Peter Pan quote too. Yes, I have recurring dreams. Sometimes troubling. And yes, dreams that stay with me. I'm always thankful that I have dreamed because it's a sure sign I have slept. 🙂
I love that Peter Pan quote.
I've never had a recurring dream, although hubby has. I've had dreams that have stayed with me, which invariably are the ones with the most meaning.