Dreams are fascinating.
No one really gets them, nor understand where they originate from. When I was little, I used to sometimes have vivid dreams of both the nice and not-so-nice kind. I guess you could call the latter nightmares.
Sometimes, I even used to try to influence my dreams; my thinking was that, if I went to bed thinking about something in particular, it would then morph into a dream. Sometimes, this worked. Other times, it probably just stopped me from getting to sleep in the first place.
Recently, I’ve been dreaming regularly. Most nights. Or at least, I’m dreaming and recalling my dreams, in varying detail/ One school of thought says that everyone dreams all/most nights, it’s just that we don’t always remember them.
I’ve noticed that I seem to be dreaming more often (i.e. I am more lucid – great word, eh?) with the sertraline medication that I am on. I take this at night before I go to bed. I am aware that others who take sertraline, and other SSRIs/anti-depressants in general, also report ‘dreaming more’ as a side-effect.
My wonderful therapist has encouraged me to notice my dreams, and even to note down what I have dreamed out. A ‘dream diary’, if you will. In the last couple of weeks (at time of writing), I’ve kept a dream journal, where I basically write down what I’ve dreamed about the previous night. I’ve done 3 or 4 entries now. It has been interesting to note the themes that keep appearing at certain times; things that I am thinking about during the day, whether consciously or subconsciously, appear to be emerging.
My therapist tells me that dreams are linked to our subconscious, and I believe that – especially given the links I’ve been making between my dreams and what’s been coming up in my mind.
Our subconscious is an incredible, mystical thing. My feeling is that little do we know, but things which may have happened in our life which we can barely remember, are there somewhere in our subconscious. Perhaps buried, somewhere beneath the surface, but there nevertheless. These memories may or not float back to the surface, and appear in our consciousness – in our dreams, perhaps. They may be, unwittingly, tapped into after we’ve been somewhere, or listened to a piece of music, or had a piece of dialogue. The most curious of things can spark an insight.
Where I can, I am going to continue to notice my dreams as they happen, and see if I can make any linkages. I feel that our intuition is somewhat linked to our subconscious, and that our dreams even have the potential to nudge us onto the right course. Some might say this is wacky, airy-fairy hippyish sh*t, and each to their own. It’s just my own hunch.
On another note, Girl J once told me about a dream she’d had about us, abroad somewhere together, me with sand in my eyes and laughing and smiling. I took that as a sign that she’d been thinking about me, or us. Perhaps that was her way of sharing that. Who knows.
I also recall a particularly wonderful dream I had as a child – which has to be my favourite ever dream.
I’ll have to write about that sometime, too. I also feel that more sensitive folks may be more prone to dreams than those who are not. Perhaps as an outlet of some kind.
A final thought: perhaps our night-time dreams are a reflection of our day-time, real-life dreams…
by Jas
✏ Written: Tuesday, 13th March 2018 @ 9.20am
What about you? 🤷🏽♂️
Do you dream a lot? Have you noticed any patterns or insights at all? Whether or not you feel dreams are important, I’d love to hear what you reckon 💙
