The short film festival in my head

Last updated 13:18 29/01/2008

Why does this loo have no door?I'm a bit of a dreamer, by which I don't mean that I'm aspirational but that I dream often. Technically speaking we all dream every time we sleep deeply. This is the kind of thing that "boffins" have determined (I imagine they were wearing white coats and carrying clipboards when they figured this out and I wouldn't be surprised if electrodes and wires were involved too). So we all dream but I'm lucky enough to be able to remember a lot of mine. I don't know how common this is. I know that my ex used to claim that he never dreamed. When I'd recount my subconscious adventures in the morning he'd look at me like I belonged in a psych ward. Having crazy dreams doesn't make you crazy...does it?

The stories that play out in my head while I sleep bear more than a passing resemblance to a short film festival. Often there's some kind of running theme. They're badly lit and look a bit "budget". They usually don't make that much sense and they're definitely not something I would usually pay to go and see (I have yet to receive any film commission funding, however).

The dreams that I find quite funny, and that I secretly marvel at, are not the "Beyonce's come down with glandular fever. We need someone to go on stage now! You're going to have to do it!" variety but rather the sort that are directly related to what's going on with me at that time. For instance, I have a lot of peeing dreams.

I have the bladder capacity of a nervous toddler. I can't drink anything after about 9pm or I will have to get up in the middle of the night to have a wee. Often I will dream that I am desperately searching for a toilet, through mazes of corridors, opening door after door trying to find a place to go. In these dreams when I do finally find the loos inevitably there is something wrong with them. The door is missing or it's overflowing, or perhaps there a people around who won't go away so I can pee in peace. Sometimes in these dreams I relieve myself only to find that I still need to go. Then I wake up and find that my bladder is ready to burst. I am intrigued by the way that while I have been sleeping my bladder has been talking to my sleeping brain, controlling the content of the short film showing at the time.

During exam times I used to be prone to "exam nightmares" where I'd find that I'd forgotten to turn the exam paper over and that I'd missed half the questions, or that I'd missed the exam entirely. Does anyone remember that scene from Top Secret where Val Kilmer's in high school and freaks out when he realises that he hasn't studied for his exams only to wake up and find to his great relief that he's only being tortured by Nazis and that he's not actually back in high school? It's a bit like that.  Without the Nazis.

The other morning I forgot to set my alarm and as a result I overslept by about half an hour. When I did eventually wake up it was from a dream in which my alarm went off and I was going through the process of getting ready for work. Obviously my sleeping brain knew that it was time to get up so it was going through the motions. Never mind that I was still conked out and in my jimjams, let's pretend we're brushing our teeth shall we? That stuff spins me out. On nights when there's heavy rain I often dream about floods or other watery environments.

They say that your dreams are only really interesting to you. If that's the case then I guess this has been a pretty boring read. Personally, I like hearing other people's dream stories. It makes me feel like I might not be the only one flying over the cuckoos nest if you know what I mean.

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M-P   #1   01:32 pm Jan 29 2008

I don't remember my dreams very often but when I do they're usually exciting, more exciting than my real life, I think I usually dream about things I wish I was doing. My dreams chop and change locations and are usually set in places I know. I can't remember what I dreamt last night, all I know was that I was dreaming (I remembered what it was this morning). My alarm goes off every 5 minutes and each time I pressed snooze this morning I managed to fall back asleep straight away into my dream which was pretty cool.

My partner always dreams of fighting, things ike being a ninja or flying around with swords etc.

Jack   #2   01:35 pm Jan 29 2008

The toilet thing is amazing. It happens to me too. I can't eat cheese before bed time. It always causes me to have weird dreams. Chocolate makes me talk in my sleep.

Paul   #3   01:46 pm Jan 29 2008

Sounds like your brain is giving you the hard word. Maybe you should listen to it and be more responsible (get up on time,study harder and ....well pee less?)

Anna   #4   01:47 pm Jan 29 2008

I have had the exact same dreams about toileting and sleeping through alarm clock. I've had them for as long as I can remember (and as a very young child (5-6) did not always wake up before sitting down, if you get my drift). Now my dreams resemble real life sometimes to the point I get deja vu in some situations, because I've already dreamt about them. This may be because my dreams resemble a non-stop 24/7 rolling to-do list. I used to dream about spreadsheets a lot (working at the time in a job that required pages and pages of them). Now my dreams are more about the general to do list of the day.

Do you think that the quality/depth/memorability (is that a word?) of your dreams influences the quality of the sleep had while experiencing them?

Sonia   #5   01:48 pm Jan 29 2008

I have toilet and exam dreams too!

My worst dreams are when I am at work (or school back in the "old days") and I look down and realise I have forgotten to put pants on. Then I have to sit and try and hide my bottom half under the desk without anyone else noticing, because, for some reason they didn't notice when I walked in...hmmm

I also have recurring nightmares about tornadoes.

JM   #6   02:04 pm Jan 29 2008

Top Secret has to be my all time favourite film! Just hilarious. I don't dream as often as I would like, but when I do they are kind of warped. They too are also relating to what's happening around me. I was working on a film set for a sci-fi type movie recently and I have been dreaming about that - Now they are some messed up crazy dreams!

The weird link between all my dreams is that I smoke. I am not a smoker, never have been. Never even had a puff - yet I am smoking in every single dream I have. That's a bit weird right?

Hey there   #7   02:07 pm Jan 29 2008

Weirdest dream I ever had was one with subtitles, it was some sort of bizzare crime scene dream. I had to keep trying to catch up with what was happening because every time I stopped to read the subtitles to see what I was saying I would still be racing ahead doing other stuff !! I remember waking up and feeling horribly frustrated as I had no idea what I had said in the last 30 seconds as the subtitles were still coming up as I woke up, and of course that had to be the bit where I was being rescued by the gorgeous hunk! Move over in the cuckoo nest Moata.

Silarnon   #8   02:15 pm Jan 29 2008

I have a Girl. Yes, the proverbial girl of your dreams. Every dream that I can recall seems to have her in it, somewhere. She kind of looks like Enya (and quite possibly is based on her).

I have a lot of recurring things in my dreams. There's the House (actually, there's three of those), the Village, the Car. With these physical objects I can usually sketch them, which is a great way of remembering them. My writing tutor said "sleep with a pen and a pad next to you. As soon as you wake up, write down your dreams."

Silarnon   #9   02:24 pm Jan 29 2008

I'll try to describe a recent dream (bear with me here.)

I'm in a semi-rural area, looking up a driveway. The left of the driveway is bordered with tall trees - oaks, elms, birch. (I hate pine trees, and never have them in my dreams.) The house is on the right. It's big - maybe 20 feet tall. But single storey. I go right and walk around the house. I come to the north-east corner (relative to where I began). I'm looking at the back-yard, which is big. About 60 feet away is the skeleton framework for a barn. An old car is parked in front of the barn.

The house is behind me. I glance at it, and see windows at ground level - they look into a basement. I walk along a bit, and see the only door into the house. I know if I go in there will be bedrooms to the right, and straight ahead a kitchen, and very large room. The very large room will be split-level. I turn and walk away from the house. I walk up a slope, past the barn. To my right is farmland, gentle rolling hills. To my left I can see encroaching suburbia - two-storey houses whose architecture is glass and weatherboard and brick and plaster.

I seem to fly up (like I'm in a helicopter) and travel over the suburbian houses. We come to a large bay, with the water to the left. On the far side of the bay is the city - it looks old, and dead.

To my right is a large ship - the front end looks like a space shuttle. It is raised up and takes off, with multiple sections breaking away like the apollo rockets, as it is boosted into space. Humanity's last hope, but I don't know why.

That's a very short summary. Weird eh? Go on then, analyse it.

Niri Tacen   #10   02:33 pm Jan 29 2008

I get the peeing dreams to. In mine I often need to go, but am in a situation that I can't get away from. Sometimes (rarely) it's an exam (comes from being at 'tech recently), sometimes I'm in public (there are never enough loos), and sometimes I'm having a conversation with one of those people who keep talking and won't let you leave, even when you actually tell them you need to pee.

I favourite dreams are the ones where I'm flying, and can control it. :-)


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