About a year ago I found an old pillow that my great Grampa made. I slept on it and I had a dream. It happened again the next night. I was puzzled because I never had many dreams, and all of a sudden when I sleep on this particular pillow I have dreams. I went a month of having dreams every night. I considered that it might have dust mites in it or something that were getting to my head, I washed it, and also I put it in the freezer to kill the mites. It did nothing to stop me from dreaming. I also did experiments by sleeping on my other pillows and I wouldn't have dreams on those nights. I think it might have something to do with the density of the pillow. It is a heavy pillow from down feathers.

This is how I have dreams, but I was curious from all this dream discussion. How does everyone else have dreams? Just randomly?

Assuming you sleep normally, you have a rapid eye movement (REM) episode every ninety minutes or so. Each REM episode is very likely a dream, and so you have four or five dreams a night, every night of normal sleep.

How many of those dreams you recall once you are awake is the problem. For most people, dream recall improves with effort. A typical focus of effort is to make a project of keeping a dream journal. But vindicating a favorite grandmother's pillow apparently will do the trick, too.

If I understand you, then you recall one dream per night (or at least the first night) with the pillow. But there are three or four more to be had. You might want to try the dream journal approach, plus the favorite pillow .

Dream well, Meik. Welcome aboard.

I have dreams now and then, but nothing that frequent. Dreams are thoughts in your head visually put forth in a sequence of events that is entirely random. So, I am thinking that if you had a busy month, maybe you had a lot of thoughts that could not be contained, which resulted in a continuous and unexpected dream-fest.

Hmmm, interesting... I haven't had a dream for at least 7-8 months. None that I can recall in the morning anyway. I used to dream every night or so prior to that. Then all of a sudden, the dream oasis dried out. Nothing since. Blank darkness from the moment I lay my head on the pillow to the moment I wake up in the morning. Until a few nights ago, that is. The Mother of all dreams that seemed to last all night. I was actually exhausted when I woke up. Coincidence, I switched pillows as well (from duvet to ortho foam), my usual one still being too humid for comfort after I washed it. Perhaps just the change in sleeping conditions actually triggered subconscious brain activity, who knows?

Cheers

Sag, it would seem that it could be entirely be possible. It would make a lot of sense. Stress most likely has a lot to do with it.

I realize that a lot of times if I'm sleeping somewhere else other than my bed, like if I'm camping, or sleeping at a friend's house, or even on a sofa, I'll be able to remember my dreams with much more clarity.

Also, I think it's important that as soon as you wake up, you DON'T automatically think of what the day's events will unfold. Such as, don't automatically think of getting ready, or getting to school/work, having breakfast, what you're going to wear, or what you're going to have to do that day. Don't get up. Just lie down in bed, and either clear your mind and let the dream come back to you, or think about your dream. Like what feelings you had from waking up from it, and so on. Were you scared, excited, happy? A lot of times this will trigger your memory to recall the dream. I've noticed that when my mind is so busy upon waking up and just worried about how the day is going to go, I'll forget my dream a lot more. XP

I love dreams, and can't get enough from the discussion of it. I could ramble on and on about it, but seeing as how I seem to have a tendency to end just about every thread I've entered XP, I've been keeping my messages short. ;P Or short according to me, anyway. :\

I seem to have a tendency to remember my dreams. Then, when I do, for some odd reason, I can remember dreams I've had a long time ago, some that I've forgotten about, but it's really weird. Seems as if you have a specific storage area for dreams, all that you've ever had, possibly stored in a subconscious area, that can only be accessed under certian circumstances...

I find it quite amusing, and interesting when I'm able to do so, which is when I first get up some mornings, but not all.

It started out for me having 1 dream or maybe 2 a night, and now when I sleep on that particular pillow I have like 5 dreams. When I dream alot I wake up in the night and then fall back to sleep and have a different dream each time. I guess I"m not sleeping so well.

If you are now remembering five dreams a night, then you are likely remembering them all. That's very good. Congratulations.


It isn't unusual to wake up and fall back to sleep. Sleep is a cycle, light to deep and back to light again, over and over. REM sleep, dreaming sleep, happens on the light end of the cycle. It's easy to wake up during or at the end of dreams. (Just as many people do not remember their dreams, many don't remember waking up, either, when they do.)

If you feel tired in the morning, of course, that's another matter. If not, though, it sounds like you are sleeping normally, except for the gift that you have much better recall than most folks.

I think dreaming is caused from everyday activities past and present.
They get all mixed up in our minds somewhere. Thus all the weird
dreams...

When you think of life, what comes to mind?

To simplify this matter of "dreaming consciousness" and "waking consciousness" i will define each separately before i continue.

Waking consciousness is fairly straightforward. Order, sequence, always waking where you fall to sleep, etc.

Dreaming consciousness then is like the shadow to the waking world, chaotic, non-sequential, and not tied to any rules of the waking.

But, there is a catch. We are talking about conscious experience, which envelops both worlds and can not be seperate.
The state of most people's dreams are not very "conscious", thus why only vivid dreams are remembered and all the rest is never committed to memory.

The trick then is to find within the dream state your own conscious awareness of yourself. During waking periods this is exactly what you do, the human mind is constantly cataloging data and developing an awareness of the self and the environment.

Why should the dreaming consciousness be any different? Moreover, why are dreams seen by humanity as not worth remembering? An open arena of possibility is there if you choose to take it and develop it, and likewise this is the same in the waking world.

You will spend 2/5 of your life sleeping if not more, and with a few tricks the art of dreaming is a sinch.

Close your eyes and create a place in your mind before you go to sleep. This place should be as calming and real as you can make it, and dont create the "image"(IE dont stimulate your sense of sight) until you have a foundation of three things.
1) feeling is the strongest(because it is the "slowest") sense to build on, allow yourself to touch the place, the ground, trees, waterfall, whatever.
2) smell is very important, not so much even as stimulating "good smells" but its more about convincing this sense that the air that is filling your lungs is from this place within your mind. Try to envision clean, cold, crisp, or even humid air(or whatever "smell" encompasses your place)
3) hearing i would say is one of the lesser of the senses as far as being able to convince yourself something is "real"(truly the imagination is a part of reality, and it is quite a beautiful part as it is within itself pure mental creativity). Hear the birds, hear the buzz of small insects, hear rushing or lazily slinking water, anything your heart desires is already there waiting for you!

When you have all of these senses working together it should be easy to figure out what the environment should look like, and with the foundation already laid it becomes easier and easier to return to this, and any other place you wish.

Do this before you sleep for a few days and whalla you have successfully jump started your consciousness before entering sleep, causing more dream activity and more realistic dreaming experiences.

Part II is the real kicker. As you become comfortable with your own places, you may want to see if you can astrally project, it is actually quite simple to do, but it requires exactly what the above develops, conscious decision within an unconscious state.
Without this many people are discouraged into thinking that the psychic phenomena experienced by countless people is not "real" and does not exist.
With a bit of development(15 minutes a night or even less) for a week straight you should be charged with all kinds of energies of the self(especially those of awareness)

I have dreams everynight, Most of them are nightmarish and I hate them .. Sometimes I'll randomly wake up in the middle of the night, Text someone (Usually my girlfriend) and then fall asleep again. I don't remember sending the texts. But she's shown me proof from showing me the message on her phone. The weirdest one that I've sent is this "help me theres someone in my house!" I find this quite weird since I don't remember dreaming about someone being in my house at all.. Maybe I just didn't remember that particular dream.

I notice if I have a late dinner or supper, say round midnight onwards I'll be sure to get a horrible nightmare so I avoid eating late or have something light if I have to.

When I was a little kid I would get nightmares all the time. I would have 2 of them a night when I slept with my window open. They would involve killing and death and fear and stuff like. Then I closed my window and tried to read the bible before I went to bed and they went away. At one time I was so scared I couldn't talk or move. I'm not positive but I think it might have been a demon doing something.