Recurring dreams and daydream beasts and monsters

I should add that I no longer have such dreams.

I often had falling dreams when I was working in a power plant. You know, step out of the elevator on 5th deck and the almost invisible grating really wasn't there. I had that one more than once, and always when I was just about to go to sleep.

The psychoanalysis industry in the West was largely fueled by the common experience of such dreams. Jung said they reflected the collective unconscious of our past as hunter-gatherers etc, and Freud said they were disguised manifestations of states of our sexual drives. Interestingly, having started analysis, Jungian patients tended to dream Jungian dreams, and Freudian patients Freudian dreams. Of course, in non Western cultures, the most vivid dreamers tended to become Prophets or Witch Doctors ! (You've missed your chance there Edgar !)

Let us say, rather, that they tended to report Jungian or Freudian dreams, depending upon the the expectations of their analysts. Ordinary sleep cycles run about 90 minutes, including ten to fifteen minutes of REM sleep. Although each period of REM sleep may involve many include more than one "dream," that is at least five dreams per night. That is more than 1800 dreams per year, even if one assumes only one "dream" per cycle. I seriously doubt that analysts were getting 1800+ reports of dreams from each patient.

The sleep cycles to which i refer are those characterized by certain EEG states, including several types of alpha wave activity, centered in different regions of the brain. There is not consensus about whether this alpha wave activity arises in those regions, or is only traceable to those regions. Characteristic alpha wave activity may be subject to debate on the origins, and the meaning of the brain regions in which it is detectable, but that it occurs is not a subject of any controversy. Sleep studies, of which hundreds have been conducted with totals of thousands and thousands of subjects, show the recurring cycles to be nearly universal, with the notable exception of "intrusive" alpha wave activity, associated with pathological sleep disorders. Neither Jung nor Freud had a clue about this EEG activity, and its significance in reports of dreams during REM sleep.

Succubus in my dreams.

I have read Jung and Freud on dreams. I used to put a great deal of stock in that, but not so much anymore. As setanta points out, science marches on.

The significance of Freudian or Jungian systems was in providing alternative semantic fields of discourse (to religion say) between so-called "therapists" and "clients". As Popper pointed out, such systems did not qualify as "science" in the conventional sense, so your comment "science marches on" might be properly be rephrased "science marches past". The fact that REM sleep is associated with dreaming is unlikely to have had any impact on Freud et al had he been aware of it, and is therefore something of an irrelevance, since psychoanalysis is not concerned with psychophysical parallelism.

Dreams of such like expose an underlying sense of insecurity. Relative phobias regularly appear in such circumstances.
I have no phobias, so only experience pleasant dreams. The only ones I dislike are the ones where my car has vanished from outside my workplace - But it's quite common, and It alerts me I'm dreaming - So I don't fret and the dream changes.
Guess I just loathe the thought of walking 4 miles home.

I haven't. I feel that, like most eductive reasoning, I am of an opinion that much dream analysis is not science but showmanship,
Ive found that I can pretty juch control my drems by dietary changes.
Any large amounts of tomato or salsa based sauces for my evening meal will always generate a series of entertaining dreams that I can think about for days.
Last week we had a heavy Penne marinara with Italian hot sausage balls and I dreamt of travelling on this little car that Ive apparenty invented in my dreams. Ive dreamt of this car in several episodes and each time, its a slightly different adventure.

Last week, I was diving my little car and I was bumping deer off the right of way by gently tapping their rumps. I was with my old friend Joel (He died in high school). We came upon this one deer (a buck) who would not be moved and instead , begn chsing us. It was a grand rce during which the deer kept catching up nd when I woke up, my heart ws pounding.

I also have a dream in which Im in a group of colleagues except Im in my underwear. Ive been told that such dreams are common among folks and It means that we fear being "found out"

Also, I can control my dreams by concentration or by keeping a TV on in the bedroom with a movie that I can incorporate into my dreams.

Its merely the filing cabinet of the mind clearing cache. I think that thinking them too deeply is bullshit.

Good reply, fm.

I used to have a reoccurring dream when I was a child: a baby is dropped off at out home and it is my responsibility to take care of it. I am at school and suddenly remember that I forgot to feed the baby. In a panic, I had to run all the way home . . . then I wake up, heart beating a mile a minute.

My parents were alcoholics and apparently I was under pressure to hold the family together. I was an over- responsible child, one of the typical roles for a child in an alcoholic home.

I bet if you really thought about it you could trace the reasons for the re-occurring dreams you had as a child.

Not on this forum.

That's true punkey - Understanding yourself from a 2nd or 3rd person view will reveal your habits and trait's origins.
Regression therapy is used by the medical profession to penetrate the protective, superficial barriers people erect (mainly subliminal or via social/indoctrinal-engineering) around themselves, and is a useful tool in highlighting typical traumas and/or affecting criteria.

Did you ever go clear?

Yes. I don't have that dream anymore. Once I figured out why and where it came from, it left me.

I agree with you, long have, re dreams being related to file cabinet cleanout.. at least for me. Also agree re chile pepper, etc., re interesting dreams.

When I get stressed I have a night terror. I can usually handle stress. This is about extreme stress. Not a nightmare, about impending doom.. A night terror. I've only had it twice in my life. But--it was always persistent. It lasted months.

I've not had that, so far..

I did have hallucinations last December from a drug prescribed for me for itchy skin. I stopped the drug immediately when I caught on (and read all the notes that came with the pills more intensely). Caramba! But those hallucinations stopped completely. I'd never even had anything I'd call a nightmare before, and thankfully, not after stopping those pills either.

You're lucky I guess. I had night terrors( ( about 15 years ago ) when going through custody battle). Not since... Glad to report. At least you could stop the drug.