[Personal]
[personal] Some thoughts on my dreamscape
I realized something interesting last night. My dreams very rarely contain a somatic component, despite the fact that the defining experience of my life these past few years has been the profoundly somatic experience of cancer and its treatments.
(The exception, of course, is erotic dreams. I don’t have them all that often, but when I do, they can be real doozies. And they tend to be deeply somatic, partly because my sexual style is very touch-oriented.)
Otherwise in my dreams I am a point of view, like a movie camera. Occasionally I dream in something like third person, where the point of view is following me or a surrogate for me, but most of the time I’m seeing from within.
My dreams are always intensely visual. Colorful, rife with imagery, often plentiful action. I dream, frankly, very much the way I write, by visually experiencing setting and action as if I were immersed in it.
Also, they are frequently auditory. It’s not unusual for me to experience a soundtrack, or what Hollywood calls occasional music. This often runs to jazz scores, or 1950s style studio orchestra melodies. This is odd, because in real life I am so unmusical I border on amusia, yet music can be prominent.
I do dream of taste sometimes, as my recent food dreams attest, but like erotic dreams, those seem to be in a special class by themselves, rather than an occasional property of my ordinary dreaming. I literally can’t recall ever dreaming of scents. The kinesthetic sense shows up mostly in the erotic dreams, thought that somatic/kinesthetic element also turns up in my infrequent classic anxiety dreams, for example, when I have the sensation of falling. Other senses such as temperature and pressure likewise rarely if ever express themselves in my dreams.
It’s all about the visual language. Which is very closely connected to how I mentally visualize and express story.
I’m surprised that the cancer experience hasn’t shifted me to a more somatic expression, either directly, ie, dreaming of pain, or indirectly, through dreaming of my body.
Is this the usual way of dreams? Are your dreams almost entirely visually-driven? Or do you dream somatically?
This is weird, fascinating stuff, and I think reflecting more deeply on it may illuminate my writing process.
Posted: 5:57 am Thu October 13 2011 |
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ces
October 13th, 2011 at 12:51 pmI’m a visual dreamer. In colour. Very realistic – so much so that sometimes I wake up thinking that I’m dreaming that I’m awake. I remember my dreams for years – like 50 years – I can remember dreams I had, in detail, from when I was 10 years old. My dreams repeat themselves. And I’m not surprised to find myself in a situation exactly like a dream I have had. Sometimes in my dream I’m watching myself – other times I am myself. My husband is in my dreams about once per year, if that often. about 50% of the time there is at least 1 person in my dream that I know. There is never music in my dreams. Nor do I notice any of the senses other than seeing and hearing. Erotic dreams are even rarer than my husband appearing in my dreams – they only occur when I’ve had anasthesia or epinephrine for dental work.
I don’t put any stock in my dreams – they’re just another form of entertainment for me.
Catherine
October 13th, 2011 at 1:10 pmMy dreams are usually audiovisual only. Also, I’m rarely “me” in my dreams – it’s more like reading a book in third person limited, and the character whose shoulder I’m looking over doesn’t necessarily bear any resemblance to me. Not just physically; they’re a different person complete with backstory, personality, etc.
Jan
October 13th, 2011 at 10:01 pmMy dreams vary, but all are as real as my awake life.
I also can remember dreams from when I was a child. I have one that haunted me for decades, but that is another story.
In my dreams I touch and can feel it, smell all sorts of things from snow to a flower, hear voices, music, and the strange sound of silence, and much more. I can feel sensations like hot and cold.
If I am talking in my dreams I usually am talking out loud in my sleep. I have crying dreams and most often wake up crying.
I have actually woken up my husband from dancing in my dream (kicking my legs doing the ‘rock lobster’)
My dreams can be a wonderful adverture, can give me insights, can help solve problems and can scare the hell out of me. I never know what they will bring.
Jan