General Chat

When we dream we do not use our eyes that receive light as electromagnetic radiation and separate out the various wavelengths into electrical impulses which out brains interpret as colours or black and white. In dreams our minds use the visual cortex at the back of the brain to produce images made up from memories.

If it's not too difficult to imagine, the brain can produce anything in dreams that we have ever experienced - and play around with it, even extrapolate. It can have us playing a musical instrument beautifully or speaking fluent Chinese even though we have no actual skills in reality.

In our dreams we may even flap our arms and fly, all in glorious technicolour - or maybe only black and white. We do not 'see' the colours, only recall them from memory.

It's all in the mind.
len

That's really interesting Len.
You always post such thought-provoking threads.

Where would the image of flying be remembered from?
I can remember being able to 'fly' when I was a young child.

Gwyn

I saw a Unicorn once in a dream...........the magic has remained with me even though many years have passed .

I wake up go to the kitchen, make coffee and take it back to bed.
a little later I wake up reach for the coffee and its not there, I go back to the kitchen , and it is a huge industrial kitchen with stainless steel fittings,

I realise this is not my house but a dream and go back to bed.

I wake up again, reach for my coffee and not finding it , go into the kitchen and discover that the kettle has just finished boiling.!

I'm left wondering at which point did I fill and turn the kettle on,I must have been sleep walking.... and what else do I get up to in my sleep ?

Gwyn.
Flying is a common dream. I used to have one where I was being chased and would fly to get out of danger.
Funny thing was could feel my stomach turn as I was going up. The same way it does when Im in a lift.

I suffer from motion sickness.
Another dream was I was going down the stairs in my house. I couldnt get down because there were snakes coming up. I was terrified and was glad to wake up.

Both these dreams happened frequently when I was a child.
Never had a satisfactory explanation

My grandson has to wear his glassess to bed - TO SEE HIS DREAMS .If he is staying with me I remove them when he is asleep.

Always been a dreamer :)

One I have just been reminded of was swimming as a whale ( no jokes abut my size please I was thinner then lol) , what was interesting to me about that was the sensation . I can't swim but know the feeling of water ...which was totally different as a whale.....

All through my childhood I had the same dream. I was in a large building and the room I was in had lots of books, but whenever I picked one up It was taken from me. Every room I went into was the same and I never got the chance to read a book. I stopped having the dream when I left home and could read without being told off for sitting about.

Gwyn. The brain extrapolates, that is infers from what is known. It associates birds flapping their wings with flying therefore it is not a great leap to imagine that flapping arms may achieve take-off.

Having said that, the subconscious mind never sleeps but sometimes uses dreams to sort problems or to replay events. Recurring dreams are said to be the subconscious telling one that some problem or dilemma from the past has never been come to terms with or properly resolved.

A recurring dream, always on the same theme (though maybe with variations), invariably relates to some past worry or trauma, possibly from childhood. With proper counselling, these deep-buried events may be recovered and resolved.

The sleeping brain, though stiil fully aware in some sectors, does not usually connect up the visual cortex with speech centres therefore the subconscious resorts to symbolism .

Len,thank you for an interesting thread.

Gwyn,Quinsgran,and Arctic Blonde-I too had the flying dream throughout childhood,probably heavily influenced by Enid Blyton's "The Wishing Chair"(-I was a big Enid Blyton fan.) I was a shocking bookworm,didn't do too well in sports,especially running races,so the only way that I could win a race was to fly in my own wishing chair!! I can remember the feeling of floating high above those running beneath me.

I also had the recurring dream where I was falling down a steep well.I would somehow shrink from normal size to a tiny size,like the little people in Gulliver's Travels,and would hop off onto the rooms in the different landings along the way.I NEVER touched the bottom of the well-that had to be avoided at all costs.What started as a scary dream initially ,ended up as an adventure,with me hopping off during my descent,and exploring the interesting rooms full of dolls house sized furniture.I eventually grew
out of that dream,and enjoyed it.As Len says,dreams can help you face your subconscious fears,and can act as a type of therapy.

Margot.