A strange dream. Might have TMI

[elfs]

So, in order to find out if my back problems are caused by an overactive bladder, or vice versa, my doctor has me peeing into a graduated bottle for the next few days.

Last night, like usual, I awoke somewhere between 3:45 and 4:15 and went to the bathroom and did my business, measuring it out and writing the volume down in a little journal via flashlight, then went to bed.

Shortly thereafter, I got up and went again. I was a little confused about why I was wandering into the bathroom when I had just gone. I fumbled a little with the flashlight and the bottle, and then I felt a wetness on my hand as if I'd missed the bottle (ick-- told you it was TMI), but that was impossible, I'd just gone so I had nothing to give and I didn't feel like I was giving anyway. I pushed down the button on the flashlight and saw that the stream was coming out of the flashlight!

I've never had a lucid dream before, but I instantly realized that any situation this surreal had to be one. I turned my head towards the door and tried to say, "Omaha, wake me up!"

And then I learned that there are different levels of volition: one for what I was doing in the dreamworld, and one for what I wanted to do in the real world. I couldn't get the words out! "OooohhhhMMmmmmmm." My mouth was trying to form the words, but it was if my face had hardened like Play-Doh left out too long. "Mmmmmmaaaaaahaaaaaa...." It's like that scene in The Matrix when Smith says "How will you call your lawyer when you can't even speak?" only not as freaky. And then, with a transition so smooth it will be the envy of television programmers everywhere, I was transported to my bed, conscious and mostly puzzled, and intrigued about the whole incident.

Fortunately, I hadn't actually made a sound or moved at all, and Omaha never noticed. I went back to bed, undisturbed either by back pain or strange dreams.

There must be something in that dream, some insight into the nature of volition, that I can use in a Journal Entry. Into the hopper with it!

Comments

[kavri.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how one would be able to verify this, but I've speculated, having gone through similar dreams (lucid enough to know I'm in a dream, hampered when I try to 'change' it, or to wake up) that it might be the following:

- some part of our brain recognizes that the 'signal' is a dream, and, accordingly, tries to gain 'control', so to speak, of our 'physical self'.

- sometimes we may wake, but usually, our 'physical self' stays asleep for a bit.

- our brain, recognizing the struggle, somehow interprets it into a 'struggle' scenario in the dream (your Matrix-like struggle to call out Omaha's name)... in my case, I've had times where I struggle to call out, where a door is locked between me and the 'conscious' people, and a favourite ...I dream I wake, and am so tired I'm too tired to call out, and then fall asleep again, and then 'wake' and can't stay awake long enough to call someone.

- about this time, some sort of 'signal' makes it to the brain that we really mean business, that it is essential to wake (sort of like how someone might wake to a baby's soft cry, or the smell of smoke...something triggers in the brain to say "WAKE UP NOW"

- we then awake fairly suddenly, as our brain has been trying to jog the 'physical self' awake for some time now.

...just thought I'd share my experiences and interpretation of them.

[funos.livejournal.com]

Wanting to do something like turning my head, but not being able to, is not uncommon in my dreams. It's some strange point in light sleep where one is aware of what is happening, still dreaming, but still under the normal sleep paralysis. Very disconcerting.

[casualprofessor.livejournal.com]

Dream paralysis has been offered as one of the underlying causes of alien abduction stories. The elements are all there: dreams, paralysis, consciousness and struggling without effect.

As to interpretation: Years ago I took a solo motorcycle trip to Alaska to see a friend. Along the way I had a couple of spills, some from my own stupidity. In one episode, I was driving too late at dusk and couldn't see the mud on the road.

The first few nights after I arrived in Alaska, I had the same dream: that I was driving the bike, that it was too dark to see, and that all of a sudden I was flying through the air because I had hit something. I would usually wake up on the floor, with the blankets tangled around me.

My interpretation then was that I was rehearsing the episodes due to my residual anxiety, maybe learning to overcome it. I think you might be doing the same thing here - you're a bit anxious about this situation.

[atheorist.livejournal.com]

Crises occur relatively infrequently, but are important to handle well. One idea is that dreams are practice for future crises. Unfortunately "realize it is a dream and attempt to wake up" is not a useful technique to learn.