draliman on life

Daily Prompt: Nightmares – Describe the last nightmare you remember having. What do you think it meant?

Wow, I’ve totally ripped off Shakespeare for my title! Here’s the “Day-Late-draliman” offering on the subject.

I tend to dream a lot. Well, I think we all do or we’d go crazy (according to a Star Trek Next Generation episode I saw recently), but don’t always remember them. I usually wake up three or four times during the night and often remember dreaming something.

My dreams (when negative) are usually more “disconcerting” rather than actual nightmares. The last nightmare I remember was a little while ago now. All I can remember is carefully sawing someone up into pieces. It was quite graphic and totally freaked me out.

What does this nightmare say about me? Obviously, I’m a total psycho. Surely completely sane people shouldn’t be having dreams like this.

When I was little I used to be able to control my dreams. I knew I was dreaming and I could make things happen. I would go find someone I knew and try to persuade them that I was actually dreaming, then to prove it I’d wake myself up right in front of them. I’m not quite sure what the point of that was.

I can’t do it any more. Think of the fun I could have now I’m all grown up! Occasionally in a dream I get the sense that it’s not real and I can “reset” certain things I don’t like, but that’s the best I can manage now.

I’ve heard that the details of dreams are held in a part of our memory that’s very short-term and our brains are clever enough to know not to stick them on the “hard disk” for long term use, and that’s why we can’t remember the details for long.

So, bearing that in mind, how come I can remember a nightmare I had months ago about slicing someone into pieces, but the moment I have a dream about (insert name of sexy celebrity here) and a tub of whipped cream, the details instantly elude me?

That’s life, I guess.