Dreams have always been something that has fascinated me. They serve as the most prominent medium through which our subconscious communicates with us. I can go dozens of nights in a row without remembering a single dream, and then I can also go weeks with nightly visits from my subconscious. Everyone dreams; it's just a fact of life. Some nights they can be pleasant, and others they can be terrifying. However, I always feel a twinge of exhilaration at the anticipation of dozing off, in case of what vivid splendors I may delve into.
For the past several years, I have made a conscious effort to write down my dreams right away when I wake up. Often, I'll find that I can wake up from the midst of an captivating story line of my subconscious, I'll lay in bed for another hour thinking about it, certain there's no way I'll forget it after thinking so hard about it. Then, lo and behold, it's gone the moment I sit up. Through writing down my dreams, I've found there are a few different categories to them.
First off, there's the good old fashioned nightmare. For example, when I was very, very young, I had a recurring nightmare of my Mom driving off a bridge into the Fox River, and beneath the bridge there were these trolls. The trolls forced us to do an obstacle course before they would let us go, and my Mom would always fall to her doom into the river while the trolls just laughed. Through the years, these nightmares have branched from bridge trolls, to house fires, to tornadoes, the usual.
Then there are those dreams that absolutely make no sense, but while you're dreaming them, it seems completely logical. My favorite of these for me is when I dreamed the Blues Brothers were robbing my house, and they had already killed my parents. I was hiding behind my older sister's bed, when John Belushi points a gun at my head and says "gotcha".
My most frequent version of dream is when I'm stressed or worried about something in particular, it will manifest itself and the dozens of ways it may play out in real life inside my head. These, in a way, are much more terrifying and disturbing than the classic nightmares. When I wake up, often I'll feel just more worried than I was to begin with, I'm not a fan of these nights.
This brings me to my favorite: the pleasant dreams. Usually, for me, these consist of replaying some of the best moments of my life. It's almost as if watching these scenes as a movie, allowing me to relive these wonderful times. The memories don't play out exactly as they happened, usually my subconscious will throw in something weird to shake things up: perhaps a stray giraffe, or something of the like. Regardless, these are the dreams I look forward to and hope for.
Dreams can be scary, interesting, meaningful, pleasurable, sensory, or simply a mode of communication with our innermost thoughts. I feel like my dreams let me know myself a little bit better each time. The effect these visions have over me is incredible. Sometimes, they can be so vivid, I can feel, smell, or taste these manifestations of my mind. Sometimes they can wake me in a cold and terrified sweat, other times they can find me waking up with a big smile on my face. Regardless of what kind of dream I have, I'm always grateful when I get to experience them.
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