Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

orpheus · **#21** by **orpheus** » Oct 01, 2011 10:23 pm

MattHunX wrote:
orpheus wrote:I also suffer sleep paralysis. Started a thread about it a while ago; maybe it's a good idea for me to link here: http://www.rationalskepticism.org/paran ... 19043.html

Orph!

Hey, Matt! :cheers:

Sorry to hear you've had this awful sleep paralysis terror too. It can be really frightening. Although it sounds like you've got quite a rich dream life in general.

Re interpreting dreams: my understanding is that a simple one-to-one correspondence of symbols in dreams with meanings is ridiculous. But that isn't to say they don't have meaning to the one who dreams. Usually it's a constellation of meanings. Two things I've heard that seem to make sense: first, the content of the dream - the ingredients - is often taken from what you happened to be thinking about during the day, or in the evening before falling asleep. The context of the dream in your life may be more important - the question "why am I having this dream now?" can be an important one.

The second thing is actually a pretty good way to see if there's any meaning for you in a dream. Go through the dream mentally, focusing on the first element you remember, be it an image, an event, a sound, whatever. Let your mind free associate with it; see what comes up. When you're tired of that element, move to the next one you recall, and do the same. Do this for all the elements of the dream you can. It's like going through an art gallery and standing in front of each painting, taking it in and letting your mind work on it, then moving to the next.

The idea is not that any one thought you have is going to "explain" the dream in a "Eureka" moment, but that you may begin to notice that all the associations your mind brings up during this process may begin to weave a sort of web that might clarify what meaning or meanings the dream has for you. It makes sense, actually: your brain gave you the specific content of the dream for some reason. After all, it could have given you something else. And if it's your brain that gave it to you, letting your subconscious continue to work on it might shed some light on things.

Speaking just for myself, for this process to work, it takes a lot of mental effort, concentration and patience. In the past, it has helped me to do this with a therapist - not for the clichéd idea of the therapist telling me what the dream means, but just to have someone experienced help me keep on track while talking through the process myself.

Anyway, good luck! I hope the sleep paralysis thing doesn't recur.

MattHunX · **#22** by **MattHunX** » Oct 02, 2011 12:50 pm

orpheus wrote:
MattHunX wrote:
orpheus wrote:I also suffer sleep paralysis. Started a thread about it a while ago; maybe it's a good idea for me to link here: http://www.rationalskepticism.org/paran ... 19043.html

Orph!

Hey, Matt!

Sorry to hear you've had this awful sleep paralysis terror too. It can be really frightening. Although it sounds like you've got quite a rich dream life in general.

Re interpreting dreams: my understanding is that a simple one-to-one correspondence of symbols in dreams with meanings is ridiculous. But that isn't to say they don't have meaning to the one who dreams. Usually it's a constellation of meanings. Two things I've heard that seem to make sense: first, the content of the dream - the ingredients - is often taken from what you happened to be thinking about during the day, or in the evening before falling asleep. The context of the dream in your life may be more important - the question "why am I having this dream now?" can be an important one.

The second thing is actually a pretty good way to see if there's any meaning for you in a dream. Go through the dream mentally, focusing on the first element you remember, be it an image, an event, a sound, whatever. Let your mind free associate with it; see what comes up. When you're tired of that element, move to the next one you recall, and do the same. Do this for all the elements of the dream you can. It's like going through an art gallery and standing in front of each painting, taking it in and letting your mind work on it, then moving to the next.

The idea is not that any one thought you have is going to "explain" the dream in a "Eureka" moment, but that you may begin to notice that all the associations your mind brings up during this process may begin to weave a sort of web that might clarify what meaning or meanings the dream has for you. It makes sense, actually: your brain gave you the specific content of the dream for some reason. After all, it could have given you something else. And if it's your brain that gave it to you, letting your subconscious continue to work on it might shed some light on things.

Speaking just for myself, for this process to work, it takes a lot of mental effort, concentration and patience. In the past, it has helped me to do this with a therapist - not for the clichéd idea of the therapist telling me what the dream means, but just to have someone experienced help me keep on track while talking through the process myself.

Anyway, good luck! I hope the sleep paralysis thing doesn't recur.

Thanks, Orph!

It wasn't all that bad. I was conscious of it, too, this time. And this was maybe the third of forth time I had sleep paralysis. This time, I just screamed in anger a little that I couldn't budge an inch. When I woke up I just shrugged and went back to sleep.

About interpretations. What does an endless row of toilet seats mean? I also had a dream recently where I set down on the toilet, looked to the side and there was a row of toilets that seemed to go on forever, door open, people walking around.

Maybe, I needed to go to the toilet? :dunno:

jaydot · **#23** by **jaydot** » Oct 03, 2011 6:04 pm

when i complained of sleep paralysis, my doc told me that the body aims to keep the person asleep once it's got there and to that end paralyses it. if the depth of sleep lessens and the person regains a little consciousness, it then finds itself unable to move. bloody terrifying, but normal, it would seem.

MattHunX · **#24** by **MattHunX** » Oct 03, 2011 6:14 pm

I just had another weird thing. I was able to doze off in work, today. I finished what had to be done, filled the tankers, brought the samples to the lab...etc., then ate my sandwich, gulped down a load of milk, then relaxed in the chair. After a few minutes, I was seeing images flash in front of me, each one shaking just a little bit, kinda like the screen flickers in the Assassin's Creed games...anyway...whenever an image popped in, it zoomed in on itself. In full view it was some almost coherent text, names, notes...equations? But, when in zoomed in, it turned incoherent, messed up. This went on for a few seconds, had a few images flicker in front of me like that, then I became more awake, and it stopped. It was really strange. Looks like my brain decided it was time for a quick defragging. :dunno:

John P. M. · **#25** by **John P. M.** » Oct 03, 2011 6:44 pm

Have you ever successfully read anything in a dream? In my experience, it's really weird; in the dream, I can hold a book or a newspaper or whatever, and can read letters and maybe a word here and there, but it's completely impossible to make a coherent sentence out of it, no matter how hard I concentrate in the dream. Like, I read a news story, but it's complete gibberish. Within the dream, I know the article is supposed to say something (obviously), but I can't make it out. This has happened to me a few times, mostly when I'm about to wake up I think, so I'm kinda somewhere "in between". It's a bit weird that my brain doesn't simply make something up, or for that matter recall something I've read.

MattHunX · **#26** by **MattHunX** » Oct 03, 2011 7:05 pm

John P. M. wrote:Have you ever successfully read anything in a dream? In my experience, it's really weird; in the dream, I can hold a book or a newspaper or whatever, and can read letters and maybe a word here and there, but it's completely impossible to make a coherent sentence out of it, no matter how hard I concentrate in the dream. Like, I read a news story, but it's complete gibberish. Within the dream, I know the article is supposed to say something (obviously), but I can't make it out. This has happened to me a few times, mostly when I'm about to wake up I think, so I'm kinda somewhere "in between". It's a bit weird that my brain doesn't simply make something up, or for that matter recall something I've read.

Yeah, but it was always some test I had to fill out. I was sitting in school, at an exam, and it was damn frustrating that I couldn't even write a word properly with the pen. Also, another thing with my dreams is, that I almost always automatically talk in English, and so does everyone else, and it sounds almost always perfectly coherent, and I don't even monitor my speech or anything. :lol:

BlackBart · **#27** by **BlackBart** » Oct 03, 2011 7:07 pm

jaydot wrote:when i complained of sleep paralysis, my doc told me that the body aims to keep the person asleep once it's got there and to that end paralyses it. if the depth of sleep lessens and the person regains a little consciousness, it then finds itself unable to move. bloody terrifying, but normal, it would seem.

I assumed its some sort of evolved mechanism to stop yourself injuring yourself or others whilst dreaming which occasionally misfires.

Berthold · **#28** by **Berthold** » Oct 05, 2011 2:38 pm

Recurring features in my dreams (other than have been mentioned :smile:

):

Things change behind my back (I can't retrace my steps)

Gravity is fractional (I run and jump in slow motion)

These and some other gross deviations from the world as perceived while awake may give me the idea, "Hey, this is a dream!", and try to enjoy it, manipulating its content; however, as has been mentioned somewhere above, usually awakening soon follows. Such lucid dreaming is comparatively rare, but not entirely unknown, for me.

Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Re: Paralyzed in Dream and Other Odd Stuff

Who is online