I have always had very vivid and interesting dreams. I usually remember all of them after I wake up, for a short period. Some I do remember for a long time, and some dreams will be triggered by a déjà vu feeling, when I am in a certain situation, or place. I remember colors, people's face in detail, names, etc.

For the last several years, I cannot sleep without dreaming. Although some are very entertaining, I never seem to get the rest I need. Some dreams are very frightening, although I wouldn't call them nightmares. Some are just crazy, where I wake up and think to myself... wow, what in the world was that all about. Some are very pleasant, where I wake up feeling very calm and loved. Some are very anxious, where I awake feeling nervous. There are some where I have screamed out in my sleep, and knew I was doing it, but couldn't wake up. Some where dead relatives and friends are with me, and we are having a great time. Some where my other family members are dead, or dying. Some where relatives are trying to warn me that someone is going to die. In other words, I have so many different types of dreams!

I don't want to stop all of the dreams, because often they are quite entertaining. But I also need some real rest, without my mind always being on overdrive! I swear the dreams come from the minute I fall asleep, until the minute I need to get up for the day. I know this because I often wake up several times in the middle of the night, and I remember the latest dreams. It also happens when I just lie down for a short nap, and it doesn't matter what time of the day or night.

Any thoughts? :)

Hey there Starby! I will share some info with you shortly. When I saw this subject, I thought, oh, I just posted to someone about that. Let me find it and get back with you!! :)

:::EDIT::: Ok, sent info to you.

I've heard that in some people this can be triggered by watching cartoons before sleeping, also alcohol can give you some interesting dreams if you drink before bed.

Waking up several times during the night can be tiring. How about going to a sleep lab? They could monitor your sleep and tell you if you're getting any Delta sleep.

What is Delta sleep Simone? I would venture a guess that it would be the deepest sleep? I live in a really small city, and we don't really have access to sleep clinics or things of that kind. I have thought of that before, but I would have to travel quite a distance.

In the last few years, and actually a lot of my life has been a whirlwind of "not so good" experiences. I also have someone who would by most accounts be considered a stalker, although the police do little about it, so that also interupts a lot of my sleep, and is likely the cause of some of my "less that pleasant" dreams.

I have seen a few therapists, that have helped somewhat, but not with the sleeping problems so much. Because of some of the meds I am on for HBP, and pain killers for rheumatoid arthritis, and others, I really can't take any sleeping pills, because they just don't mix, and I have also tried some herbal remedies, such as Valerian, but if anyone has any different herbal things that I may not have heard of, and that wouldn't interfere with especially my blood pressure meds, I would sure like to know, and would consider them.

Now I'm starting to think I've posted under the wrong forum... LOL! Sorry you guys, but this topic in the forum could help also, was my initial thinking. I'll take all the advice I can get, and well, it's worth a try right?

Also, thank you you Rebby for your PM with the info. I really appreciate that my sweet girl.

Farmgirl, thanks for your input. If I'm drinking, I like to stay awake to watch the cartoons... LOL... they are funnier that way! ;)

When you dream that is suppose to be your more restful sleep. Waking up often is what leaves you tired. You might want to try a sleep lab. You might have sleep apnea too.
Try writing down all your dreams, the colors, the moods, if it was sunny, gloomy and every detail you can remember and get them interpreted. They say it is best to lay quiet as soon as you wake up and go over your dreams to remember them the best.

Hey NH,

Many times it seems it is the dreams that wake me. I do know that one bad thing I do, is I fall asleep with the TV on. This would seem to be an easy fix right? Not so much! I have done this for many yrs. and when I have tried to just turn it off, I cannot sleep at all. I just lie there awake for hrs on end. So I usually go back to the lesser of the two evils.

I used to write down my dreams all of the time, but it honestly got too time consuming! I've never had them interpreted though, and I tell you, whoever had that task of doing that would have one helluva job ahead of them! ;) I'll give it another try though.

Thanks NH. C'ya at the Island. Maybe I'll row over and visit you this eve! :D

You'd be surprised how much your dreams can reflect what is going on in your life. In the past two weeks alone I have had at least 5 dreams that I looked up and they all pointed in the same direction my life has been going this summer. I couldn't believe how accurate they were and they were very different from each other and very abstract symbolism.

I've taken Ginko Biolba in the past, but not for some time now.

I'm thinging of this new thing that I've heard of, called a sledge hammer... anyone heard of it? LOL! ;)... sorry, I get goofy when I'm tired!

Oh I forgot to mention too, I have to sleep with the TV or radio on too, thanks to old boyfriend.
Any way I have noticed that often whatever they are talking about on the TV or radio often will end up in your dream somehow so don't have something on that could cause bad dreams like no horror movies or murder shows.

I have noticed that too NH. Those dreams I can usually pick out if I happen to fall asleep while watching Leno or something, and then they show a weird movie. Especially when the dreams are right off the wall. I'll usually put it on the comedy, or music channel or something like that. Murder shows... nooooo... I would be a basket case! ;)

(btw, I started keeping the TV on because of an ex too, and I don't even want to tell you how many yrs. Ago that got to be a habit.)

Yeah same here my ex was 91 -94 and I have gotten to where I can sleep with a radio instead since I started listening to coast to coast instead ---but talk about weird dreams when they start talking crop circles, UFO's etc and my dreams pick up on it... forget it!!

Hi, Starbuck!

I am also a Dreamer. This can be challenging work, and it takes a helluva lot of energy. Scientists have measured the amount of glucose we use up from our bloodstream when we're dreaming, and it's a lot! Which makes you wonder: If there were some cavemen who dreamt a lot, and some who didn't, and a sabertooth tiger attacked the camp in the middle of the night, the non-dreamers would have more energy, more sugar fuel in their blood, to run from it. So the dreamers would get eaten. Therefore, natural selection would cause there to be fewer and fewer dreamers. Darwin said Nature never does anything without a reason. So dreaming must be good for us. It must have a real-world survival benefit that outweighs the cost in energy. But scientists don't know what it is. Only the Dreamers and shamans and magickians know...

Anyway, I also periodically have the problem of spending so much energy in dreaming that I am fatigued during the day. A few years ago, I decided that if I was putting too much energy into dreams and not enough in the waking world, I would do some work with the specific intention of opening the gates between the worlds so energy could easily flow between them (ever hear of the sorceror's apprentice? Yep, that's me, the guy with broom marks all up and down his back). I started by doing basic exercises on dream recall, incubating dreams, lucid dreaming. It was all going swimmingly and then this scorpion guy started showing up in my dreams and told me to knock it off, I was going to hurt somebody. He stung me on the ankle one time, I still have the scar on my waking-body skin. If you want, I'll tell you the whole long story some time, but the short version is I didn't listen to him, and ended up doing terrible harm.

Let me know if you find a good way to manage dream energy. I'll keep you posted about my experience with this also, if you like. I find that some basic ritual or meditation, like surrounding yourself with white light or praying or calling on your angel or guardian or what-have-you to keep an eye on you, is a good way to keep from harming others or yourself in your dreams.

Unfortunately, a lot of the doctors in our society will try to "cure" you, when what it sounds like you really need is training. With your gifts, you could learn the basics of shamanic journeywork very quickly. Then you could ask some teacher or power animal in shamanic space what to do, and I bet get a better answer than any us humans could give you. ;)

Blessings,

Alder

Thanks for you answer Alder. What you wrote is very interesting. I really would like to hear more about the things you wrote. I'm really not sure how to go about the things you have mentioned. I wouldn't know where to start. Perhaps you could explain in a little more detail, what it is I would need to do to understand or redirect my dreams.

As I mentioned before, I don't want them to totally go away, as some are very enjoyable. I would just like to get the rest I need. I feel like my brain is racing 24/7.

Thanks again for your input!

This is an area I'm exploring, too. It was about six years ago that I really declared myself as a Dreamer, with a capital D, not really knowing what I was getting into by doing it. But, then, I really was in it already. I'd been having a lot of peculiar dreams, including "true" dreams, since I was a child. My dad did, too. So did his mom and her mom from Romania. As far as directing your dreams, there's all kinds of basic exercises to train your brain for lucid dreaming or dream incubation (telling yourself to have a dream about such-and-such).

Here's where we get to the tricky part; or, to paraphrase Morpheus (the Laurence Fishburne version), how far down this rabbit hole are you willing to go? Because there's a very simple rule to the universe: Power = Danger. The more powerful you are, the more of a danger to yourself, and others, you can be. Tell me this:

Have you ever had a dream about something, and then it came true in the waking world?
Have you ever had a dream about something, and it came true in the waking world, and you really feel like you caused it with your dream?
Have you ever shared a dream with someone else (you and another person had dreams about the same thing on the same night, and were surprised when you compared notes the next day)? (The common name for this is "dreamwalking")

FYI, I would answer yes to all three of those. I'm sure many people who read what I'm about to say will think it sounds pretty wacky, but all I can describe is my interpretation of my experiences. There is a boundary between the waking world and the worlds of dream. It's analogous to the border between the US and Mexico. There are strict laws as to what and who can cross the border, and various defenses, fences, border guards, etc. to enforce those laws. But then along comes someone like me, and perhaps you, who has this knack for breaking the laws, unintentionally or intentionally. A smuggler, a Coyote. For example, our spirit leaves our body when we die, but our body doesn't die when the spirit goes off into dreams, because the boundary only lets a tiny bit of our spirit cross over. One problem I have is that sometimes in sleeping dreams or in shamanic trance, I get so into it that a much larger chunk of my soul goes off gallivanting around the universe, and my body starts to turn into a corpse. I get back and it's ice cold, stiff, my lungs hurt like hell when I start breathing again. I've done some very specific work with that to keep the pipes from freezing, as it were, while I'm on vacation (but that is kind of private--if you're having this problem I'll share with you some of the details of what I've done, but only in a private message).

Anyway, I'm happy to continue the discussion on this thread (except for really personal stuff), so we can get the input of others' wisdom too as well as sharing our experiences. Also feel free to drop me a private message and we can correspond by e-mail about different techniques we've tried, and what works, and so forth. Pleased ta meetcha, regardless!

Alder