The Lens:
A while back, I read an article about someone who started tracking her dreams. She said it gave her insight into her life, how she was feeling, understanding her worries, etc.
This really intrigued me. I have a fascination with dreams. I was in my 20s when I realized some of my dreams were premonitions. The far majority of my dreams are just dreams. But, there are those miniscule few that foretell the future.
The first of these dreams that I couldn’t chalk up to coincidence: In my dream, I walked up to my car, went to put the key in the door (in the days before key fobs), and saw a huge gash in the driver’s seat upholstery.
I woke up in a start.
The next day, I walked up to my car after doing some shopping. I gasped. I could see through the window there was a giant rip in the driver’s seat upholstery. It took a few moments before I realized I had walked up to the wrong car.
I have numerous dreams I could recount that have come (somewhat) true. My premonitions are never 100% on the money. Just like the one of the gash in my car seat, in my dream it was my car. In reality, it was someone else’s. (I had never gone up to the wrong car before and don’t think I have done it since.) The dream is always worse than reality.
In general, I have vivid dreams. Quite often I remember them. It took some time before I could distinguish between dream and premonition. Now, I have a pretty good idea which is which.
But, when the pandemic hit, my dreams changed. I haven’t had a premonition in years. And, my once vivid dreams often fade moments after I wake up.
I thought by keeping a journal, I might start remembering my dreams again. I miss them.
The task proved a lot more work, though, than I wanted to go through. However, the effort to take a mental note of my dreams when I wake up is paying off. They are ever-so-slowly becoming vivid again.
As I started to remember my dreams, I also decided I didn’t really want to put them down on paper. Dreams are very personal. I didn’t want someone to be able to take a look into my head.
The Refraction:
Years ago, when my oldest son was probably in 1st grade, we went to a friend’s house for dinner. They had young children, too, and she was showing me the kids’ room. Their youngest was transitioning from crib to bed and they had just put-up bunk beds.
I had just read an article about bunk beds which said children need a space of their own, preferably their own room. If that wasn’t possible, they should at least have their own bed as their personal space. Bunk beds should be used only as a last resort if space was a real problem.
I shared this with my friend and added what a bunch of nonsense it was. Just about everyone we knew had bunk beds for their kids. After all, we lived in San Francisco where space is a premium. My son was champing at the bit for his younger brother to be old enough for a bed so he could get bunk beds, specifically a top bunk, for himself. Bunk beds were almost a rite of passage.
I know. It seems like have strayed. But I haven’t. Back to dreams.
As I said, my dreams changed during the pandemic. I was stressed to no end. I was teaching 1st grade with some students on site and others online. It was just hideous.
I started trying to analyze some of my recurring dreams. I didn’t find any concrete answers. Nor, did it help relieve my stress. It did, though, give me a way to feel like I was doing something about my stress, even if I really wasn’t. And it was kind of entertaining.
As I was exploring dreams, I found out there are all sorts of dreams about bathrooms and meanings associated with them. If you are interested, you can do an Internet search for the types of dreams there are about going to the bathroom and what they all signify.
To save you some time, some of the things our subconscious tries to work through in our bathroom dreams are the need for privacy, ridding ourselves of the crap in our lives, being afraid to be vulnerable.
Being as stressed as I was, I guess I could have been working through some of these things in my subconscious. But, then I wondered was I creating symptoms to fit the definition?
Have you ever tried to figure out what that pain in your left arm is by doing an Internet search? All of a sudden you are aware of a pain in your hand you hadn’t previously noticed and wondered if it could be another symptom of what the pain in your left arm cold be.
When I think about the woman who was journaling and then analyzing her dreams, I wonder about the insight she was gaining. Were her dreams reflecting an accurate picture of her life’s struggles or was she interpreting her dreams to fit her current situation?
Dreams are very complicated. There are no concrete explanations as to why we dream. Experts can’t even agree on the simple idea of whether or not our dreams serve a purpose.
Regarding bunkbeds, my friend’s response to the article was, “We over analyze our children.” Indeed. Certainly, there are pros and cons to bunkbeds. But, really, do we have to add to the pros and cons psychological damage we might inflict on our children by not giving them their personal space?
Research isn’t bad. That pain in your left arm might mean you are having a heart attack and need immediate medical attention. Chances are, though, it is something far less serious.
Sometimes, we put too much into making sense of a situation when the answer is the most obvious. Have you ever had dreams about going to the bathroom? Probably. And, maybe there is some deep meaning to that. Sometimes, though, there is a far simpler explanation for why we have bathroom dreams – we need to go to the bathroom.
NYTimes Dream Journaling article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/magazine/dream-journal-recommendation.html?searchResultPosition=1