Monday, March 26, 2007

Even in My Dreams

I’m not one to believe that the answers to life, or future events, are hidden in a person’s dreams. Not too long ago, I was nearly heckled out of a community college psychology class when I divulged my belief that dreams were meaningless, (which was almost as bad as the time I told my history class that the President shouldn’t cry in public).

That being said, I realized this morning that my dreams seem to have a reoccurring theme: anxiety. In the last few weeks, my appearances in the dream world have consisted of the following:

  • getting my lunch stolen by an ex-coworker;
  • floating down a crocodile invested river with no raft or shoes;
  • getting stuck in a cruise ship elevator on the seventh floor while wearing an oxygen mask; and
  • driving aimlessly through a random town with shotty breaks

Obviously, all anxiety provoking events.

But strangely, the hypochondria rarely rears its head in that world. Aside from a recent dream—in which I found lumps in my brain and liver when my organs were laid out on a cafeteria table for inspection—the health component of my anxiety is virtually non-existent.

Not sure if this means I’m headed to the dreams-have-meaning camp, but this is definitely a pattern.

5 comments:

Barbora said...

That’s funny. I was just getting ready to post something about dreams, but you beat me to it.

It’s true for me too, that my health anxiety rarely (if ever) crosses over into dreams. Thus, I like to sleep, enjoy dreaming and do not attribute meaning to them.

What got me thinking about dreaming was that I had forgotten the side benefit of wearing a nicotine patch – the vivid, action-packed, dreams. I went kayaking last night! My dream life is officially more exciting than my waking hours.

One of the dreams I love best (and have frequently) is the one where I suddenly find a new door in the house that leads to a whole new, undiscovered section that I’d never explored before.

Dead relatives appear in my dreams with some regularity, but again, I don’t attribute meaning to this since my conversations with them are usually so mundane.

Barbora: “Hey, aren’t you dead?”

Dead Relative: “Yeah.”

Barbora: “Was that the last piece of lasagna?”

Anonymous said...

Barbora: Too funny!

Leila & Barbora: I always thought dream interpretation was a bit over the top; nonetheless, there are a few locations that show up over and over in my dreams. They are usually altered versions of places where I spent a lot of time--my first elementary school, for example. Probably some sort of deep significance there. That or I'm remarkably uncreative and have to recycle the same old material.

Leila V. said...

Barbora:
Okay, now you’ve done it, I’m getting the patch!

***
Trish:
Let’s just go with deep significance, it sounds much more important.

Barbora said...

My first elementary school!
Oh no!
Not the test taking nightmare.

Anonymous said...

Barbora,

Houses and rooms in dreams are related to concerns about your body or health (I read that somewhere.)