To think that our lucid drams can have meaning/truth

[sophiesophiesophie]

Bit controversial but interested to know other people's opinions.. I have quite horrific anxiety and OCD and because of this people that don't understand often tell me I have a wild and vivid imagination. Especially as I'm in my 30s people often think it's quite childlike. I've been having some very lucid weird dreams lately to the point that they've been so real and have scared me witless.. I cant help but then try to find info on what these dreams mean. I've read several articles and stories of people saying they dreamt of something and it turns out to be a warning or a real life event then occured kind of like a prediction. Are these people or loonies or do you think that our dreams can represent some truth or even premonition? Not sure why I'm going down this rabbit hole as I know it will only fiel my anxious imagination but I'm intrigued to know others thoughts.

I remember most of my dreams. I can remember ones I had years ago (even decades ago!) they’re really vivid. Some are about things / places I’ve been that day or I’ve seen on TV etc and some are completely random and out of nowhere. Because they’re do bizarre nothing has ever happened in real life that’s happened in a dream. I feel like my brain is just packing away thoughts I have had that day and clearing the decks for the next day.

I don't think they have meanings beyond the fact that they reveal what you're preoccupied about.

I remember many of my dreams, some from last night and some from years ago.

I'll have night paralysis sometimes, and sometimes I have premonitions. It's very strange and I just embrace it.

Your dreams can tell you what you're thinking. In some cases they could 'predict' the future because you've noticed something building up, but haven't consciously joined the dots. Dreams can never deliver any kind of external message, so they couldn't predict something happening to people you don't know in a place you've never heard of.

The problem with trying to extract meaning from dreams is that they're symbolic, and not in any sensible way. Your brain uses motifs as it finds them, often randomly. Once it's used a certain ''symbol' it carries on using it, for no other reason than it's easy. A good half of my dreams happen in Canary Wharf - I worked there 20 years ago 😂 My brain just knows its way around there, though it changes the layout every so often!

I'm sorry you're having nervy dreams. As you're aware, these are 'anxiety' dreams. Their only meaning is that you're anxious!

Have you ever tried going to sleep with a guided visualisation of somewhere beautiful, peaceful and comforting? I do this sometimes if Canary Wharf seems to have got stuck on repeat.

If you look at all the dreams of all the people, you can selectively find a few that happened, in retrospect, to be prescient. That's just ex-post cherry picking. It's a numbers game.

Dreams are just your brain doing garbage collection and, as PP said, working out some preoccupations.

I mean not necessarily "meaning" but I do believe all if not most dreams do have meaning.
For example something on your mind = you dream about it
Event that happened recently = dream about it.
If I'm anxious about something, it will manifest in the way of a dream that relates to what I'm anxious about. It doesn't have to be a direct link, but the thing on my mind will be there in some sort of way.

I first realised it as a child, when I had a very weird vivid dream about koalas coming out of the toilet... upon further thinking - I realised I had seen a kushelle toilet paper advert right before bed!

My dreams as ofst have been "bad dreams". Last night I had a horrible dream of witnessing a plane crash and then helping to go through the wreckage. It was weird,! Other dreams have been seeing myself with no hair and being told I have cancer. Others of son dying.. they are very real and it's almost like I'm trying to wake.uo and I can't wake up which reinforces the realness if that makes sense. I have tried some.guided meditations before bed but it doesn't de to make much difference.

I'm so sorry. It sounds like your days must be hard going, it's a bummer to have anxiety & OCD in your dreams as well. Understandable, but disappointing

Catastrophising's a primary feature of OCD so it makes sense that you have catastrophic dreams, too. What help have you had, so far, to calm your poor old brain?

Iv had 14 years of countless therapies and medications etc but nothing has given me much relief.. and my latest therapist even told me she doesn't know what she can do to help me and doesn't even know where to refer me to. The CMHT aren't interested either as I'm not classed as a risk.to myself or others despite being clearly unwell (their words). I thought that by making this post and getting other thoughts and inputs that I could make use and use it to rationalize and think logically.

I have extremely vivid dreams/nightmares and always have.

The cool thing about them is I can fly, drive fast, and skoot across water on various boats or on my own. The bad thing is I'm always fleeing something unknown and scary, being chased, or constantly losing things. Or getting lost, usually in a luxury setting like a posh hotel or shopping centre where I'm working but can't do what I need to. But there's always a lot of movement, or need for movement iykwim.

It's a way for you to express your anxiety and fears. It doesn't predict things but it's a sign of your feelings. I find eating well helps. I get worse dreams when I've eaten loads of junk or carbs.

I never had therapy or support to overcome childhood bereavement and trauma so I think that's why mine are a bit scary.

Lucid dreams are when you know you’re asleep….. I’m guessing you don’t actually mean lucid dreams as you’d already know they weren’t real (I actually LOVE lucid dreams, they’re far too rare, but it’s cool to then be able to control the dream).

Honestly, I don’t think dreams really mean anything. It’s just your mind sorting through data. I’ve had truly horrible dreams in my life, woken up crying and actually carried on crying sometimes from the upset (and relief it’s not real).

Sometimes there’s an obvious connection to current reality, sometimes they’re totally off the wall.

I read something that said all your dream is created in the split second before you wake up, even though you feel like it’s played out in real time. I have had occasions where a noise that’s woken me as been woven into my dream so intricately that actually I do believe that could be true, as what are the chances a whole dream would plan itself out around the split second that noise woke me?

Do you mean lucid dreams as that's when you are aware you are asleep during the dream? I've had one lucid dream, in it I realised I was dreaming and wondered if that meant I could fly, and I did and flew all around a beautiful landscape, totally in control of where I went. It sounds like you are having very distressing, realistic dreams.

It's v unlikely there's specific meaning/premonition to these dreams and more likely it's about your own current state of mind and anxiety. I often have very boring, realistic dreams about current things going on in my life, conversations I wanted to go differently etc. I think this a kind of sorting mechanism. Perhaps if you're feeling very anxious, a similar thing is happening where your brain is working through various anxieties. I think reading up on whether this is actually predictive (plenty of people online will think it is so it'll be easy to go down that line of thinking) is probably only going to increase your anxiety. Instead it'd be better to de-couple your thoughts and reality, understanding they are not one and the same, and frame your dreams as your brain trying to look after you and figure this stuff out.

I have a regular reoccurring dream of plane crash. It feels very real. I think it goes back to seeing the Lockerbie crash on tv when I was a kid

I could write this myself 😂 I use to do it, looking for the "meaning" and I realised it was actually making me crazy. I have one dream that keeps coming back - I'm standing on the hill/inside the building/on top of the mountain or on the beach and I'm looking at the horizon. Suddenly, tsunami like wave is rushing towards me. In the dreams when I'm in the building, water hits the window but never breaks the glass. When I'm on the hill or on the beach, water never gets me. It's the strangest things as I can feel the strength of water but it never gets me. Because it happens so often I started to look for explanation, including the more scientific explanations, research papers etc. Sometimes I wake up and suddenly think "oh no not this again"....
It's easier said than done but the best things to do is stop looking.
I think that with the dreams it may be true, it may be SOME warning or whatever or it may be nothing and our mind is playing tricks on us.
If our destiny is being written up somewhere, it's way beyond our control - unfortunately.
I highly recommend book "the knowledge ilussion" it talks about how memory, a thought it's created in our minds.

I have very weird and lucid dreams, every night. I have done so since I was a small child.

A lot of my dreams are action or disaster type dreams. I dream of plane crashes a lot, although I am never on the plane, I am always on a field watching the plane come down.

I also experience false awakenings which scare the hell out of me.

Tbh, I have never thought of any of these as being part of my over active mind, anxiety and possibly adhd (currently waiting for an assessment for that).

I work in a secondary school, with some challenging kids. The other week, I dreamt that I worked with the nastiest, vilest pupil you could imagine (I don't actually know anyone like that in real life and am actually very fond of 'my' kids!).

The very next day, in real life, a new pupil started at the school. I hadn't known anything about it previously. The Head warned us to be on our guard around this particular young person.

I can't tell you how weird I felt all that day. And I'm the least 'woo' person you could ever meet!

Same - when I have the horrible plane crash one I'm also on the ground. Awful

And yes the ones when you wake up but you know you are still awake

I've had dreams that symbolise something else. Eg. Trying to scale an enormous structure but it's really tricky. I dream that when I'm finding something in real life a huge undertaking and finding it hard to manage.
I think your subconscious could tell you stuff. Eg. If someone's a threat to you but has a charming public face, your subconscious could pick up clues that they are not as they present themselves and you could dream they turn into a monster or are trying to harm you.
Other than that I don't think you can predict the future

You are not crazy.

I also have extremely vivid dreams with elements of lucid dreaming. If I go for a period of more than a week without them (due to poor sleep or early waking) I become depressed and withdrawn.

In my dreams I experience things I need for my soul, happiness and wellbeing. These can and do include warnings, but where I may dream of an apocalypse for example it does not mean my world will end, but that there are things I need to push back on/ speak about about or change in my life.

Sometimes I am given direct written or spoken advice or warnings in these dreams. It is my subconscious telling me things I need to know.

I am 44 years old and this has always been how it is for me. My son is 8 and has been speaking to me about dreams similar to mine since he was 6. So, ask your family how they dream too e.g. my dad how is now in his 80s used to tell me about his vivid dreams- including one of an IRA bombing near his work the morning before it happened and others of road traffic accidents he then witnessed. I say this to reassure you that the warnings may not be about you, but about events around you.

I'd be happy to discuss in more detail if you want to message me.

Yes, I've occasionally had lucid dreams, where I know I'm dreaming and try to control the dream. Not had one recently.

They’re great, except once I dreamt I was in English class and it was boring so I decided to wake myself up and it knocked me sick 😂

I’m surprised I don’t have lucid dreams more often, as I regularly have what I call my “toilet dreams” (yes, it’s as bad as it sounds!) It’s not the same location or situation, but in my dreams nearly every toilet I visit is disgusting to the point of being impossible to use. Overflowing with shit, no door, not even a proper toilet sometimes 🤣 and each time I think “how do I not notice I’m asleep when I see yet another awful toilet??” Occasionally I do notice and realise haha!

I've had some very real dreams lately and historically. They feel like real life and the detail in the dreams is so real. I'm living in that dream. I've also had the same dream many times. I've never had a being chased by monsters dream they're just mundane very highly detailed vivid dream. I did Howe er once dream about going to the toilet and pulling out a snake from my vagina which was extremely disturbing.

Some anti anxiety medication can cause vivid dreams. They disrupt the REM sleep cycle.

I had to come off one because the dreams were too stressful.

I have those as well! Very common apparently.

I've had dreams where I wake up crying. I've also had the ones where something bad was happening and I was screaming in it to wake me up as I knew I was dreaming but wake up literally whispering.

And the most annoying 2 I have is one where I think I wake up but again still dreaming and the second is where I need to get to work/meet someone etc and I just can't seem to get ready.

Also had a few dreams that could be a premonition but unsure.

I also have a dream frequently that my dh has left me and when I have that one I check bbc news the next day to see who has died and 99% of the time someone has. Which freaks me out a lot.

I don't think dreams are anything prophetic, simply because I can control my dreams. If they were something mystical, they'd be completely separated from my (sub)conscious.

I learned it a long time ago. Invariably, I end up doing 'something' in my dream I'd never do in real life, and I focus on that. I then test myself by trying to hurt myself in my dream. It's true, you can't feel pain, so me trying to hurt myself ends up in a numb feeling. I then realise I'm dreaming and can do whatever I want.