Kanye West Snoop Dogg Mall Robbery

Last night I dreamed that I was hanging out with Snoop Dogg and Kanye West. A strange dream already, things got even weirder when the three of us somehow ended up robbing a mall in the middle of the night. Seriously. Kanye went off on his own as Snoop Dogg and I decided to break into an electronics store. We stole a few TV's and I stole a projector. I broke off from the group and ended up in a library within the mall that was very old and very messy. The library had two floors, the top floor being a children's section that overlooked the entire mall. As I sat in the library in the dark, I saw a few security guards. I ran to get my two rapper buddies and the three of us made our way out of the mall and across the parking lot.

Interpretation: 

Dreaming of a mall represents an attempt to make a good impression on someone. Being in a mall means that I am trying to establish a stronger sense of self. To dream of stealing suggests that I am feeling deprived. Stealing also represents unrealized or unfulfilled goals. Often times this means that I have set my goals too high. To see a projector signifies the need to "project myself" and that I feel the need to make my presence known and my voice heard. A library represents a search for hunger and ideas. A library that is disorganized means that I am having a difficult time organizing my information and that too much information is coming to me at the same time.

While I am usually a very organized person, I have been feeling extremely overwhelmed by the amount of work that I have due before the end of the semester. I believe that this dream, with the exception of the celebrity guests, represents my inability to sort out and conceptualize the work that I have to do. This influx of assignments has made me question my abilities. Because of my increased stress levels, I have needed to look inward at my work ethic and dedication as a student. Though still stressed out, I feel better knowing the source of my issues and better able to deal with them. 

Night Terror: Vacation

Experiencing dreams in such a vivid manner has really changed the way that I sleep. When I go to bed, I feel like I enter another world and, often times, I am able to do whatever, wherever, whenever, with whomever. I wake up the next morning feeling like I have been awake for hours and remember all of my thoughts, feelings, and senses incorporated with each dream. My dreaming had been going great and I was really excited about how much I had learned about dreams and about how often I had been having them. My opinions on these experiences, however, changed a bit after last night. Apparently, as my dreams had become more vivid through the use of these various dreaming techniques, so had my nightmares...

The dream began with my roommate and I going on vacation with his family. Though I had met his mother before, she looked completely different in my dream. On the trip was me, my roommate, his mother and grandmother, and his little brother (which he does not have). The dream was going fine and everyone was enjoying themselves on the trip until his grandmother started acting strange. She became very ornery and curt with everyone. Though we could not understand what was wrong, we all decided to go to bed and to deal with it in the morning. That night, as I lay exhausted in the bottom bunk of a bunk bed underneath my roommate's little brother, I heard the door open and the grandmother walk in. She was speaking to the little brother and was saying strange things. Because I was so tired and pretending to be asleep, I recorded the conversation on my phone to listen to the next day. That morning, forgetting about my recording, I went about my day as usual. The little brother, however, started to act strange. He too became easily irritated and closed off from the rest of his family. A little concerned at how the grandmother and little brother were acting, I went back to my room to listen to the tapes. I can still hear the conversation. The grandmother was screaming curses at the little boy. She was telling him that she was a demon who was possessing his soul and that she planned to possess and kill the rest of us after him. He fought back but was unable to escape. He screamed for his life. The tape was horrifying and I was immediately scared. I went to sleep and woke up to find that my roommate's mother, too, was acting strange. As we were leaving, I finally caught my roommate alone. I broke down and began crying trying to tell him of everything that I heard. As I tried to tell him to listen to the tapes, I was suddenly unable to speak. No matter how hard I tried, I could not voice my warnings or tell him what was going on.

I woke up in the middle of the night screaming. I sat in bed shaking in a cold sweat for an hour before finally getting back to sleep.

Interpretation:
To see a tape recorder in you dream means that there is a message that I need to learn and incorporate into my daily life. To see someone possessed or to be possessed indicates a feeling of helplessness. To dream of demon possession indicates ultimate helplessness.
While I'm uncertain of what this dream means, I hope I never have it again...

Night Terror: Safari

Shortly after my terrifying dream about demon possessions on a family vacation, I was able to fall back to sleep for a few more hours. The next dream I had was equally scary and stressful...

For some reason, another one of my roommates, my girlfriend, and I were at a safari park. We parked my Jeep and I turned in my keys to the main building. Everything was going fine until there was a stampede of wildebeests. Somehow the animals broke free and were running wild throughout the park. The main building was knocked to the ground killing everyone inside. Luckily the three of us survived. After all of the wildebeests left, however, the big cats came. I watched a child's head crushed in the mouth of a tiger. His mother was helpless and could do nothing but scream as the tiger carried her son away. In a panic, my friends and I rushed to the rubble of the building to find my keys. The keys were everywhere and were pressed in the mud from the hooves of the stampeding animals. As I searched in a frenzy, I turned around to see a massive, blood covered lion staring us down and coming our way. Scared beyond belief, I had to make a decision. My roommate and I looked at one another and stood up in order to defend my girlfriend from certain death. Somehow, we were able to chase the lion away and find my keys. I woke up as we got back safely to my Jeep.

Interpretation:
To dream that you are on safari represents a desire to break free from the rules of civilization. To see a stampede signifies a need to show restraint. It represents wild and erratic behavior. To dream of a tiger represents power and an ability to exert this power in various situations. To see a key To dream of mud indicates that I am in a tough, stressful situation. To dream of a lion represents strength, courage, and aggression. To dream of being attacked by a lion represents challenges and self-destruction. Though I am still unsure what to make of the dream, I am glad its over. Both dreams were extremely scary and vivid. While I am usually able to control my dreams and avoid nightmares through lucid dreaming, I was unable to do anything in both cases. They were incredibly realistic. They were unbelievably terrifying.

Courage

My dream began with me looking for water. I was so thirsty and was driven by my need to find something to drink. I searched all across campus until I came to the Smith Building. Smith, the all-male, freshman dorm, is where I lived my first year at Elon. After I drank from the water fountain for a while, I ran into one of my friends. In my dream, my friend had just been promoted to RA of the entire building. She told me about a class that we both needed for our major that was being offered at nights. This class was unique in that it only met three times a semester. As we got to the class and met outside of the classroom with the teacher, we realized that not only was there only five other students in the class, but that they were shirtless. All of them! As I reached into my pocket and pulled out the key to open the classroom, my dream changed entirely. I turned the key and, all of a sudden, I found myself in the middle of the plot to one of my favorite childhood cartoons, Courage the Cowardly Dog. As is the plot to nearly every episode, I was trying to save my owner, Murial, from a monster while her husband, who hates animals, tried to prevent me from doing so. After a crazy battle with the monster, I saved my owners and was rewarded with a pat on the head and a warm, comfortable place to sleep.

Interpretation:

To dream of a water fountain means that I am feeling emotionally refreshed or rejuvenated. Also, drinking water symbolizes spiritual refreshment. To dream of a classroom represents personal growth. It means that I have learned an important life lesson or that I am learning something about myself. To dream of being shirtless indicates financial worry or a risky endeavor. To see a key represents opportunities or freedom. A key can indicate that I am locking away emotions or unlocking a solution to a problem. After completing a large class assignment and finishing packing for a weekend beach trip, I felt a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. My stress levels dropped and I felt like I finally had some time to myself. This trip represented freedom from my schoolwork for a few days, however, the trip was very expensive and added a lot of unnecessary financial stress. Interestingly enough, a dream that is depicted as a cartoon may suggest that I need an escape from the stressful realities of my life. 

Lucid Dreaming and Multimedia

Jayne Gackenbach: Dream Writer and Researcher/ Former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams


Gackenbach claims that there is a strong connection between video game play and lucid dreaming. She believes that, because video games increase absorption, reaction times, attention span, and spatial and problem solving skills, it enhances your sense of being within a virtual reality that is mimicked in lucid dreaming. In 2009, Gackenbach published evidence that links lucid dreaming to all forms of multimedia. She found that, through our advancements in technology, we have developed a much greater self-awareness. Her research suggests that because our society, driven by media, encourages these consciousnesses, we are innately developing our skills of lucidity. 


-Source

Dreams and Psychosis

Scientists have discovered a link between lucid dreaming and psychosis. Because lucid dreaming creates distinctive electrical activity patterns within the brain that are similar to those made by conditions such as schizophrenia, dream therapy may be useful in psychiatric treatments. Dissociation, or the loss of conscious control over mental processes, is involved in both dreaming and some psychotic conditions. Just as lucid dreaming can be used to prevent nightmares, scientists believe that this training could also be used in psychiatric therapy. The research field for both psychiatry and dreams may go hand in hand in an attempt to explore interpretations and to cure psychiatric conditions. 

Source

Sleep Cycle

Sleep stages each last 90 to 120 minutes. Though dreams can occur in any of the sleep stages, the most memorable and vivid dreams occur during REM sleep in the fourth and final stage. After a full cycle is completed, the cycle repeats itself, which happens an average of five to seven times each night. As the cycles repeat, more and more time is spent during the fourth stage.

Stage 1:

• Entering a light sleep
• Muscle relaxation
• Lowered body temperature
• Slowed heart rate

Stage 2:

• Further drop in body temperature
• Muscles more relaxed
• Immune system begins working to repair bodily damage
• Endocrine glands secrete hormones
• Blood pumped to muscles for reconditioning

Stage 3:

• Even deeper sleep
• Metabolic levels extremely slow

Stage 4:

• REM sleep (rapid eye movement)
• Occurs 90-100 minutes after onset of sleep
• Blood pressure rises
• Heart rate speeds up
• Respiration erratic
• Brain activity increases
• Involuntary muscles paralyzed
• Dreams usually occur

-Source

History of Dreams

Dreams were interpreted as far back as 3000 and 4000 B.C. and were recorded on clay tablets
In the Greek and Roman eras, dreams were believed to be messages from the gods and people looked to them for solutions to their problems. Shrines were built for gods as places to go to dream. Dreams were taken so seriously in that time that they thought they predicted the future and were used by many political and military leaders to make important war strategies.
Dreams were believed to heal during the Hellenistic period and temples, called Asclepieions, were built in their honor. People came to sleep in these temples in order to cure their illnesses.
In ancient Egypt, dreams were recorded as hieroglyphics and priests acted as interpreters of these messages. Those who dreamed vividly and who could interpret their dreams were seen as divinities.
Ancient Chinese believed that your soul actually left your body and entered a dream world. 
During the Middle Ages, dreams were viewed as evil temptations of the devil trying to mislead men down wayward paths.
In the 19^th century, Sigmund Freud researched and expressed the importance of dreams and of their interpretations. 

Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is dreaming while being aware that you are dreaming. Originally described as "lucid" by Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederick van Eeden in order to describe mental clarity, lucid dreaming usually begins when the dreamer realizes that the unlikely or even impossible experiences occuring in the dream are not taking place in physical reality. Although lucid dreaming, by definition, only describes that the dreamer is aware that he/she is dreaming, there are varying degrees as to how aware and involved in a lucid dream one may become. Lucid dreams can vary from simple awareness of a dream situation, to full control of what, where, and how a dream occurs. By learning to control lucid dreams, a dreamer may knowingly achieve things in dreams that are not possible in our own physical reality. These dreams can enable people to overcome nightmares or fears, practice things in their sleep that they do in the real world, or even solve complex problems that they can not while awake. There are others who also believe that we can improve our own physical health as well, simply by dreaming that we are healed or of good health.

An example of using lucid dreaming is the movie Inception. By understanding the world that they are in is a dream, they are able to change what they want at will and to overcome whatever they are faced with within the dream. Inception Video Clip

Because everyone's brains work differently, lucid dreaming effects different people in different ways. Personally, I have found myself able to control dreams for years. Although not very common, I have been able to experience impossible situations, overcome numerous nightmares, and even change the construct of a dream altogether. It truly is an amazing experience!

Remembering Your Dreams: Dream Blogging

Although dreams are often difficult to remember, there are various, scientifically proven techniques that you can use in order to better recall the dreams you have each night. These techniques work to not only stimulate more vivid dreams, but also train you to immediately remember and record your dreams for later interpretation. Here is a list of these different techniques:

• Get plenty of rest. Because we experience dream periods every 90 minutes, the longer you sleep the more you dream and the better able you are to recall them the next day.
• Before you go to bed, make a conscious decision to remember what you dream. By doing so, you are subconsciously working to retain as much information from your dreams as possible.
• Create a dream blog/ diary. By placing a notebook and pen beside your bed, you can write down what you remember from your dreams immediately and avoid forgetting important details. If you awaken in the middle of the night during a dream, quickly write down key points as a reminder the next day. 
• Make your first thought the next morning is about what you just dreamed and try to recall what you experienced. By laying in bed and trying to recall and note the different themes, concepts, and emotions of your dreams before getting up and starting your day, you will be more able to recall the dreams you experienced that night.

-Source

Dream Facts and Information

A dream, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep." -

• You forget 90% of your dreams.
• Everybody dreams.
• We only dream of what we know, however, dreams are primarily symbolic and rarely mean what we perceive them as.
• We are only able to see the faces of people that we already know.
• Blind people can dream and not everyone dreams in color.
• During REM sleep, your body is actually paralyzed.
• If you are snoring, then you are not dreaming.

Source, Source, Source