Over a year back in another thread, I described dreams I had while aboard the oxygen-starved submarine. Dream anomalies, where I would have dreams inside of dreams, several layers deep. I would wake up from a dream to go about a daily routine, only to wake up and realize that the daily routine was dream, and then go about the normal daily routine only to wake up again, and so on. It would get to the point where I would wake up from so many dreams, and the dreams were so real and detailed, that at any given time I wasn't sure if I was really awake or not.

Those dreams stopped when I got off the boat. Until last night; maybe I had my head cocked, cutting off the air supply to my brain or something. not sure.

My wife is pregnant with a baby girl; last night I dreamed that she gave birth early, to twins. One boy, one girl. I was in the hospital and witnessed the birth. I asked her and the doctor how this was possible; how the second baby did not show up on the ultrasound. My wife's answer was that she had never had an ultrasound, and that what I remembered to be an ultrasound was some other kind of test. The doctor said that she had had an ultrasound, but that inattentive ultrasound technicians often miss a second baby; they find the first one and get fixated on it, and don't look around for a second one.

I woke up and told my wife about the crazy dream about the twins, and she said "dream? dear, the babies are asleep in their cribs!" She pointed to two cribs across the room. The shock of realizing my dream was true, shook me awake and I looked at the clock, realizing I had slept through my alarm and was running 15 min late to work. I got up and started getting ready. Got all dressed and came out of the bathroom and my wife was standing there holding two babies. She asked me to hold them while she brushed her teeth.

I asked her if I was dreaming, and she looked at me with a confused look and asked "what are you talking about?" I asked her to be honest with me about where the babies came from and she acted hurt and confused. She followed me to the kitchen, concerned, and kept badgering me with "we need to talk, you're scaring me. Please just stop and talk to me!" And I was saying "Look, I'm late for work, I don't have time to talk right now. We'll talk about these babies when I get home. I don't know where you got them, but they aren't ours, and they need to go back where they came from." I left with her standing at the door crying. I was thinking she had lost it, or I had lost it. I was driving to work, mulling over this profoundly confusing baby situation when I woke up.

When I woke up, the first thing I did was reach over and feel my wife's belly to see if she was still pregnant. She woke up when I touched her. To test the waters and see if I was really awake this time, I said "hey, wouldn't it be crazy if you were actually pregnant with twins?" She said "yeah, that would be crazy. Too bad. Are you going to work now?"

I said, "yes, thank God." That required some explanation, but I was nice to be back in the real world again.

Anybody else had dreams like this? I can often remember my dreams in great detail, and often they are very realistic before they go into Wonka World. But these multilayer dreams are just disturbing.

 

I would wake up from a dream to go about a daily routine, only to wake up and realize that the daily routine was dream, and then go about the normal daily routine only to wake up again, and so on. It would get to the point where I would wake up from so many dreams, and the dreams were so real and detailed, that at any given time I wasn't sure if I was really awake or not.

and they let you have atomic weapons?

Really, that is too weird. I don't think I've ever had a layered dream.

 

What kind of mushroom did you have with that steak?

 

What kind of mushroom did you have with that steak?

I don't know. they looked like this.

 

What kind of mushroom did you have with that steak?

He has a source in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Broward County

 

Common occurance for me! I am a intense dreamer and stuff like that is fairly normal.

So is becoming aware that I am dreaming and being able to take control from there.

To me if I am not having weird dreams on a regular basis I start thinking something is wrong!

 

and they let you have atomic weapons?

I know you're joking, but that's (was/would have been) a perfectly valid concern. We didn't have nuclear weapons, but there could have been still significant risk. I thought about saying something about it at the time, but I didn't want to look like I was trying to shirk my duties. That's how people get off submarines; it's a volunteer thing that you can't unvolunteer from. After the Navy has spent several hundred thousand dollars training you for a specific job on a submarine, you can't simply say "I changed my mind. I don't dig this whole submarine thing;" you're stuck there, until your enlistment is over or until you attempt suicide or sufficiently convince your shipmates that you're crazy and a danger to the crew & ship. So, typically within the first couple months of reporting onboard, guys who seriously don't want to be there, either feign suicide attempts or simulate "flaking out" to get off the boat. They leave with no respect and no friends. I didn't want to go out that way.

 

I couldn't have explained it as well.

I have learned to take control and enjoy them.
As a child I had night terrors. Couldn't shake them, so I took control!

Often I can't control well enough to wake up, but I do know I'm dreaming. (at least I'm pretty sure)

If I go into more detail I risk being put away.

Go ahead, tell your doctor that you can't separate dreams from reality.

 

I have very frequent and vivid dreams, compared to my friends.

I have seen from the common, shameful naked walking down the street, to blockbusters with car chasing, women and explosions that fall nothing short of Hollywood.

I don't have nightmares often but some dreams still have me mumble "the heck I just saw?" when I wake up.

Falling from great heights doesn't wake me up anymore. When I hit the ground I just tumble and tumble until the dream is over.
However, I still can't control my dreams. Just when I realize I'm dreaming I wake up. I still have to work on that.

 

[...]
I don't have nightmares often but some dreams still have me mumble "the heck I just saw?" when I wake up.
[...]

You know is a doozy when you wake up speaking another language!

I rarely have nested dreams, but they are usually quite frustrating when I do, though they don't usually relate much to one another...in a car going over the rails on a bridge, then being shot at, then two layers of zombies...it seems to always end up with zombies for some reason...

 

I did have some recurrent nightmares as a child, but I learned how to realize I was asleep and redirect the dream. Now, the worst that happens is that I become aware while my muscles are still paralyzed and I panic. I fixed that by putting an LED night light where I can always see it. If I can focus my eyes on the light, the panic subsides as I become oriented to where I am.

 

You know is a doozy when you wake up speaking another language!

I rarely have nested dreams, but they are usually quite frustrating when I do, though they don't usually relate much to one another...in a car going over the rails on a bridge, then being shot at, then two layers of zombies...it seems to always end up with zombies for some reason...

I have only one type of dream where I see that I wake up and then wake up again.

I wake up for work, take a shower, get dressed, maybe eat some toast and then... I wake up again.
Oh, man! I have to do it all over? This is BS!

 

I don't think I've experienced nested dreams, but just about any other variation mentioned here. I guess you guys are talking like the plot of "Inception".

I can go to bed with a specific topic or situation I want to dream about, and then start dreaming immediately.

I wake up in the morning, half asleep and return continuing a dream in a direction I choose. I guess that's controlling my dreams.

 

I can go to bed with a specific topic or situation I want to dream about, and then start dreaming immediately.

I wake up in the morning, half asleep and return continuing a dream in a direction I choose. I guess that's controlling my dreams.

That's how I solve more complex or ongoing problems that I can't properly focus on while awake.

 

Strantor I think you had a particularly deep sleep dream state (possibly caused by stress and lack of sleep) and the baby focus is obviously some subconcious pre-baby stress coming up to the surface.

It was probably a release of the stress or some of the stress, so you might sleep and dream better now.

 

Good point RB. A lot of dreams are merely sorting out what happened today. When what happened today was stress, sorting it can be distasteful enough to distort your dreams into nonsense.

 

Dreams related with problems of the day (but not nested in my case) seem to be spurred (?) by how stressful those problems are. Had my share of that in an old vessel we boarded in Greece.

Everything on board was wrong, or close to. Every nap was just a revision of the daily list of problems. Awful.

Bill, he had a different problem that he learnt to manage well. Good story.

 

Yes, I have had nested dreams but only one level deep, i.e. a dream in a dream.
It has been awhile since that has happened.

The thought provoking part is how do you know when you are truly awake? "Pinch me and wake me up" does not work.

You could still be dreaming!

 

The thought provoking part is how do you know when you are truly awake? "Pinch me and wake me up" does not work.

Back when it was a common occurrence for me, I would be suspicious if it had already happened a couple of times. And my suspicions would be confirmed when something odd would happen. Usually when I figured it out is when I would wake up again (to a new dream). It's like my brain was trying to prank my brain, and every time I figured it out, my brain would say "crap, he's onto us, oh well, reset, try again."

 

I have had a couple of those... enhanced by the side effect they mention for the " Chantix " quit-smoke aid...

For some reason, the enhancement disappeared once I was firmly quit of tobacco, and I must say, sometimes I miss them... they were totally freaky ...