10 votes

What dreams have you been having and how do you interpret them?

I guess I’ve started a collective dream journal! Feel free to post here multiple times for different days.

14 comments

  1. [3]
    AugustusFerdinand
    (edited )
    Link
    I don't interpret dreams as I don't think they have any greater meaning or point toward anything (except my work stress dreams, which are entirely self inflicted because they come when I know I've...

    I don't interpret dreams as I don't think they have any greater meaning or point toward anything (except my work stress dreams, which are entirely self inflicted because they come when I know I've been procrastinating about something that I should have done and won't take long to do, I just don't want to do it).

    That said, latest dream I can recall:

    A little NSFW

    Dream happened about a week or so ago now, I was in a bike shop in need of a bicycle at that very moment to get somewhere and it was the only form of transportation I could get in this dream.
    The bike shop was run/owned by Willem Dafoe.
    He was out of normal bicycles, but was overstocked with penny farthings for some damn reason. So many that he's selling them at a loss to get rid of them. I need transport and need it now, so I buy a penny farthing from Willem Dafoe and leave.
    I go outside and I'm immediately in a freaking penny farthing race for some reason. I've got somewhere to be, the race route is the direction I need to go, so I say screw it, pedal my ass off to get around all these people.
    I'm carving the other racers up, who knew I was a penny farthing racing savant, and I'm in the home stretch with no one near me.
    I hear an announcer over loudspeaker as I'm about to cross the finish line say...

    ...and the winner of the Annual Willem Dafoe Sexual Favor Penny Farthing Race is... AUGUSTUSFERDINAND!

    wait wut?

    At the end of the little area where the racers stop is Willem Dafoe with that trademark toothy mile-wide grin on his face. Oh no...

    The dream didn't have any visuals of the actual act, but I remember feeling Willem Dafoe giving me what I can only describe as a very loving, gentle, slow, and honestly pretty nice blowjob.

    I call it a wet nightmare.

    9 votes
    1. papasquat
      Link Parent
      The world would be a better place if the Annual Willem Dafoe Sexual Favor Penny Farthing Race was a massively popular event.

      The world would be a better place if the Annual Willem Dafoe Sexual Favor Penny Farthing Race was a massively popular event.

      4 votes
  2. [2]
    kfwyre
    Link
    Anyone ever get "heavy legs" dreams? Usually mine take the form of me needing to run away from something threatening and I can't. I feel like I'm trudging through sludge, or in the dream I try to...

    Anyone ever get "heavy legs" dreams? Usually mine take the form of me needing to run away from something threatening and I can't. I feel like I'm trudging through sludge, or in the dream I try to pull myself along the ground with my arms, which also doesn't work.

    Anyway, I had an interesting variation on the dream recently. I was in a similar threatening situation, but instead of needing to run, I needed to make a phone call. Instead of my legs being heavy, it was that my hands and the phone didn't work. The dream was a cavalcade of errors -- some mine, and some the phone's. I'd clumsily tap the wrong app, then it would crash on load, then I'd try to close it and it wouldn't, then I'd drop the phone, then I'd pick it back up but it would be upside down, etc. No matter what I did I couldn't actually get to the dialer app, or my contacts.

    Don't know what to do with it in terms of interpretation (my experience has been that every dream I ever have is just an additional manifestation of my anxiety -- I never have good dreams), but I thought it was interesting.

    4 votes
    1. rosco
      Link Parent
      My mom and sister get a weird parallel. They often have dreams where they are trying to go to the bathroom but all the toilets they find are broken or disgusting, so they continue to run around...

      My mom and sister get a weird parallel. They often have dreams where they are trying to go to the bathroom but all the toilets they find are broken or disgusting, so they continue to run around the dream searching without success. When they wake up they have the urge to pee. Seems like a more straight forward version of yours.

      4 votes
  3. stu2b50
    Link
    Speaking of the topic, I'd recommend trying dream journaling in general - that is, you really need to groggily jot down what happens in dreams right when you wake up. Speed is of the essence,...

    Speaking of the topic, I'd recommend trying dream journaling in general - that is, you really need to groggily jot down what happens in dreams right when you wake up. Speed is of the essence, since the memories drain pretty quickly.

    At least for me, reading it causes "memories" and like sensations? associated with the dream to come back, which is a pretty interesting feeling. It reminds me of a weed high.

    One that I jotted down recently was a dream where I was riding a bicycle and being chased by a demon. But that is really pretty misleading - it was more like temple run vibes, not a nightmare or anything. Unfortunately I've forgotten most of the terrain.

    2 votes
  4. PantsEnvy
    Link
    Best nightmare: I was looking at myself in the mirror. An evil face appeared behind my reflection. There was no one behind me. In the mirror, the evil effigy slit my throat, and my reflection's...

    Best nightmare: I was looking at myself in the mirror. An evil face appeared behind my reflection. There was no one behind me. In the mirror, the evil effigy slit my throat, and my reflection's head flopped around and deflated like a balloon. Not sure how to interpret this tbh, other than maybe I was suffering from sleep apnea which woke me up....

    2 votes
  5. PantsEnvy
    Link
    Most frustrating dream: I was shooting a hand gun, but the bullets simply plopped to the ground at my feet. I ended up going to a shooting range and firing a hand gun for the very first time. A...

    Most frustrating dream: I was shooting a hand gun, but the bullets simply plopped to the ground at my feet. I ended up going to a shooting range and firing a hand gun for the very first time. A more traditional interpretation is that I was feeling ineffective? Either way, shooting a hand gun for the first time was exhilarating.

    2 votes
  6. lou
    (edited )
    Link
    Interpreting my own dreams by myself generally feeds previous apprehensions, neurotic fixations, etc. So I generally avoid it, and most of my dreams are really just random and inconsequential...

    Interpreting my own dreams by myself generally feeds previous apprehensions, neurotic fixations, etc. So I generally avoid it, and most of my dreams are really just random and inconsequential anyway.

    However, some dreams kinda come with their own translation and are quite amusing.

    I recently dreamed that I had sex with an old friend of mine. The sex itself was not depicted, I just suddenly knew it had happened. For a "sex dream", the whole thing was oddly devoid of eroticism. We are both male and heterosexual. Upon waking up, I didn't experience any shame, apprehension, or negative feelings from the dream.

    I feel no desire whatsoever to have sex with my friend, but it's been an year since we've met, I probably miss him, and my emotionally stunted brain couldn't think of a way to express affection other than sex.

    So yeah, I interpreted that dream.

    2 votes
  7. teaearlgraycold
    Link
    Not sure what this means if anything, but I had a dream a couple of nights ago where I managed to get a tour of a movie studio and snuck into places I wasn't supposed to be. I had some kind of...

    Not sure what this means if anything, but I had a dream a couple of nights ago where I managed to get a tour of a movie studio and snuck into places I wasn't supposed to be. I had some kind of tour badge but I was aware it would out me as in the wrong place as it was the wrong kind of badge.

    I went to a basement level and saw that it was a giant underground Walmart. This to me felt enormously revelatory as the production staff would never need to make a run to the store for any conceivable item needed on set. I then went into a super old looking elevator and popped myself up to the lobby. For some reason instead of playing it cool and just walking out the front door I ran as though I had seen/heard something shocking outside and needed to get out there. I was sure I'd get caught at that point. But that's where the dream ended.

    2 votes
  8. knocklessmonster
    (edited )
    Link
    I occasionally get these dreams that are controlled via some sort of system. It could be me speaking into a mic, pulling levers, ordering people around, whatever. The problem is I never understand...

    I occasionally get these dreams that are controlled via some sort of system. It could be me speaking into a mic, pulling levers, ordering people around, whatever. The problem is I never understand how it works and come back to half consciousness trying to figure out. The last occurrence was me using a thing with levers and wheels controlling people like it was The Sims, sorta. This is the most recent dream I can actually remember, because I often know I dreamed, but details fade quick.

    I think it's some metaphor for not being in control or something, but IDK. They show up when I'm dealing with long-term low-grade stress.

    Similarly, during College Algebra class (pre-calc?. but that's what my college called it), I had dreams about unsolveable problems. The rules I knew just didn't apply, but it was more algebra than trig or calculus. It also had that weird quality people describe where signs/text don't appear right in some dreams and floated like this gif on the page I think it was one of the first "unmanageable system" dreams I had, and they started as an adult.

    1 vote
  9. [3]
    papasquat
    Link
    I've had fun dreams in the past, but I don't tend to dream much if at all in the past decade, or at least, I don't remember them. I'm one of those people with the opinion that dreams don't...

    I've had fun dreams in the past, but I don't tend to dream much if at all in the past decade, or at least, I don't remember them.

    I'm one of those people with the opinion that dreams don't actually mean anything. They're random neurons firing that have associations with one another causing you to think scenarios that you've experienced or have thought about are happening in various mish mashed ways. The human brain is so ridiculously complex that drawing any conclusions of their underlying meaning is absolutely impossible with our current level of understanding. The only rare exception I can think of are particularly intense, recurring, emotionally painful dreams, which can be indicative of some sort of trauma or subconscious issue.

    I guess they can be fun to talk about, but I put dream interpretation firmly in the same boat as tarot or astrology.

    1 vote
    1. [2]
      teaearlgraycold
      Link Parent
      There's tarot level dream interpretation, and then there's much more straightforward situations like you're stressed with work so you have more painful and intense dreams.

      There's tarot level dream interpretation, and then there's much more straightforward situations like you're stressed with work so you have more painful and intense dreams.

      2 votes
      1. papasquat
        Link Parent
        I agree with you. When I say dream interpretation, I mean something in depth like "the teapot was red which represents your anger towards your father, and you woke up on a waterbed, which is...

        I agree with you. When I say dream interpretation, I mean something in depth like "the teapot was red which represents your anger towards your father, and you woke up on a waterbed, which is indicative of your sexual feelings towards your best friend who likes to fish".

        I think regular, disturbing dreams being attributed to stress, or a recurring negative dream about a specific person that you have animosity and anxiety about have causes that can probably be correlated to real life issues pretty regularly. I should have been clearer there. I don't know if there's a difference in terminology between those two ideas.

        2 votes