The Nights That Aren't

Kris Weberg | November 2, 2004
Does anyone know any good methods of making sure you remember your dreams?

John E Gunter | November 2, 2004
Supposedly, if you write them down as soon as you wake up, that works. Or should I say, you are supposed to write down what you are thinking about as soon as you wake up.

Here's the method, if I remember the book I read about it correctly...

You place a pad of paper and a writing instrument in easy reach by your bed, with the idea that you will be using that to write your dreams down on. Then as soon as you wake up, you pick up the pad and start writing what you were just dreaming about.

Something about the effort to actually attempt to record your dreams makes you remember them long enough to write enough of the dream down that you will eventually start remembering them. I've never had a problem with remembering a dream if I take a few moments to concentrate on it once I wake up, that and it's a dream I'm interested in remembering, or it's a particularly disturbing dream.

If I remember the title of the book that I read which discusses dreams or better yet, can find it at home, I'll post the title here.

One further thing, dream researchers say that certain kinds of dreams mean certain things, but I personally don’t feel that you can just use some generalization to interpret your dreams. What I would suggest is, use whatever you can find as a template to interpret them and then sit back and form your own interpretation as to how you feel the dream was about.

Since everyone is different, from body chemistry to how we each view the world, I feel you can’t take a generalized interpretation and apply it to your dream without taking your particular view of the world into account, same way that a medication will work one way for you and a different way for me. Our bodies are very different chemical engines, so we’ve got to try and figure out what works for us.

Hope this helps.

John

Lori Lancaster | November 2, 2004
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Jackie Mason | November 2, 2004
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Anthony Lewis | November 2, 2004
My nightmares usually revolve around my job and what NOT to do in order to keep me out of trouble. I already know that stuff, so there's no need for me to remember my nightmares.

As far as the good stuff...I don't know if I want to remember them. I always wake up before I have sex in my dream. It's so depressing.

Jackie Mason | November 2, 2004
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David Mitzman | November 4, 2004
For some odd reason (I'll attribute it to just plain insanity, I'm sure Todd and Horowitz can attest to that), I remember many of my dreams. There was this one I had about 4 weeks ago:
In real life I was expecting a morning phone call from a friend to tell me about the events of a situation he was going to encounter in the morning.
Now here's the dream: I was waiting all morning and he hadn't called so I finally called him. When I was questioning what happened, he was jumping around the question, not really giving me an answer. I asked him flat out if he had done something and he said "well , kinda, sorta...." and I got so infuriated that I yelled "WHAT THE FUCK ". I actually screamed that out loud because shouting it woke me up.

That kind of set the tone for my morning, but luckily the dream did not predict the true events.

I also had this one dream about 5 or 6 years ago where I was standing outside a friend's house and I saw this girl that I was on rather unfriendly terms with at the time. When she first walked up to me, I started bitching her out and throwing insults at her, and she walked away. Then I calmed myself down and apologized and we started talking. I woke up after that and went write over to the computer and emailed her an apology for being an immature assclown (even though she was to blame equally for the dissolving of our friendship). She actually emailed me back the next morning and we became somewhat friendly again. Two weeks later she became a total bitch again but this time it wasn't because I was being an ass, she was just being her true self.

Those were two dreams that stick out in my mind. If I have a dream tonight I'll be sure to post it in the morning when I wake up.

Todd Brotsch | November 4, 2004
Yup, you're insane, what's next?

David Mitzman | November 4, 2004
Well I am a bag full of surprises. We'll leave that up in the air.

Jackie Mason | November 4, 2004
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Lori Lancaster | November 4, 2004
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John E Gunter | November 4, 2004
Hmmm, now where would you get the idea of tentacle monsters and sex? ;-)

John

Amy Austin | November 4, 2004
heeheehee -- that reminds me of my favorite line from "Better Off Dead!" with John Cusack (got that one, Todd? Added: or Lori?):

(French accent)
"He kept putting his testicles all over me!"

Lori Lancaster | November 4, 2004
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John E Gunter | November 4, 2004
ROFLMAO.

Yeah, I love that line from "Better Off Dead!" Great flick! That movie is where I heard Van Halen's "Everybody Wants Some"! Great song!

I bought the DVD of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, but someone took off with it I think. Basically I had it at home, but it disappeared.

Not surprising though, I've had some trouble with my DVDs in the past, children loaning them out and such, but I think the Valley DVD was stolen by one of the adult roommates that we had at one time. Course, he's not living with us anymore, but that doesn't replace my DVD.

Gonna have to go out on eBay and get another.

John

Jackie Mason | November 4, 2004
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Lori Lancaster | November 4, 2004
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David Mitzman | November 5, 2004
Hehe yup those dreams of mine are weird. I used to sleepwalk a ton too. One time I walked downstairs to the den and had a conversation with 2 family members that weren't there (and this was 2 in the morning). Another time, when I was probably 4 years old, I rolled out of bed, walked into my parents bedroom, and started peeing on furniture. Fortunately for them it was only like 10pm so my parents were still awake and they were just watching tv or whatever.

Lori Lancaster | November 5, 2004
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David Mitzman | November 5, 2004
speaking German? Hrmmmm, nobody who speaks German can be evil.

Lori Lancaster | November 5, 2004
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David Mitzman | November 5, 2004
Only evil when requesting goo's :-o

hehe, that german speaking line is one of my all time favorite Simpson quotes.

Scott Hardie | November 6, 2004
Reminds me of a college dormmate who got very drunk, unzipped in front of his friends, and started urinating on his own chair. When they told him he wasn't in the bathroom, he nodded calmly and said, "I know."

Jackie: "I don't think I can contact him. He dropped out of high school."
Lori: "You should check out your local Game Stop."
Tell me I'm not the only one who thought Lori was going somewhere else with that.

Kris Weberg | November 6, 2004
My frosh roomate did the same thing once. Must have been a BU thing.

Amy Austin | November 6, 2004
Hmmm... kind of reluctant to share here, but...
Never peed on any furniture intentionally, but did start to wet the bed my freshman year of college (17) -- not because I was drunk, but because I had been up 72 hours straight working on an architectural design final project (which amounts to the same thing, really). When it was all over and done with, I went to bed for 24 hours -- and was startled awake by the dream of going, right down to sitting on the toilet and urinating! As if stopping mid-stream isn't hard enough... try rousing yourself from a full 24-hour slumber, climbing down from a top bunk, and running down about a 60-75 foot hallway into a dormitory stall to finish the job!

Lori Lancaster | November 6, 2004
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Amy Austin | November 7, 2004
Well, was it healthy to be *awake* that long??? ;>) I don't think one really cares about "healthy" amounts of rest when you're that tired/sleep deprived! (And yes, it would have been more embarassing if it made it to the sheets...)

David Mitzman | November 8, 2004
Kris,
Would that freshman year roommate be one Mister Brent ?

Also Mr. Hardie, lest we not forget how many sleepless nights I went through. When Timm and Jeff woke up for their morning classes, I'd be sitting at my desk or whatever and they'd be like "mornin dave!" and I'd be like "night guys!" and subsequently pass out an hour later in class. Hmm, wonder why I did so poorly in classes at BU.