[Stubbs]

Anyone ever experienced a lucid dream? Basically a dream in which you become aware that you are dreaming without waking up.

I once had a dream i had been set upon by a gang of scallies, all punching and kicking me, in my dream state all my movements were in slow motion, as were theirs, but I came to realise their blows weren't hurting me, so i must be dreaming. At that point my movements came back to full speed, whilst theirs stayed slow, and I despatched all my would be attackers a la Jet Li in The One. Rarely has a dream made me so happy!

[Stubbs]

Sorry this has strayed off-topic, but I thought maybe somebody might have some suggestions for getting to sleep more frequently and maybe having the odd good dream. Obviously, my climbing is starting to suffer as a result of not sleeping!

i went through a period of insomnia for about two months a couple of years ago. I tried stopping smoking and drinking, but neither helped. In the end I realised the reason I wasn't sleeping was because there were so many things in my life that were either bothering me, or stressing me out.  I then went about sorting out as many of these problems as I could, and sat down and consciously thought through the ones that i couldn't do anything about.  After that process it was back to normal peaceful sleep.

Not sure that's any help at all....

[Johnny Brown]

I was looking at my hands when a gang of squirrels with large hooked claws ran down from the big tree and dug their claws into my hands, leaving me with huge multi squirrel mittens, at which point I woke up.

  I'm often aware I'm dreaming. Like you say, it usually means you're about to wake up and you never have time to rape anyone.

[account_inactive]

....I've had this recurring dream over the years.  Its nothing I can really put into words, but is mainly about how everything in the world is connected.  It has fractals, genes and weird stuff that makes me realise what life is all about.  It makes me feel like there is a point to this whole life thing. 

.......at which point I wake up elated and then stressed as I can't remember any of the details 

One day I will have the answer and be a genius

One day I tell you

One day

[Yossarian]

http://www.adimiron.com/images/scouts/squirrel.jpg

[Houdini]

Sorry this one slipped me by earlier but if anyone is interested in lucid dreams then I recommend the book I tipped earlier. WSB was a master at controlling the direction of his lucid dreams.  He slept with a book and pen next to him always so as to write his dreams down acurately as soon as he woke.  It really is a fascination book.

[r-man]

One day I will have the answer and be a genius

Then what will you do?

http://www.jaredwood.com/g/card_house.jpg

[SA Chris]

I have been getting 4 o clock internal alarm calls every night for the last week or so. Bang. Wide awake and then the brain kicks in. Mainly work stress due to a new boss who redefines the words slopey shouldered  . At least it's helping me lose weight. 

[lorentz]

Unlucky mate. Used to get that a lot during my finals at uni (many years ago.) Found a good remedy recently.

Get up leave your bedroom and read a really boring non-work-related book. History is my subject of choice. The drier and more fusty-dusty-academic the prose and subject the better. Much better than counting sheep and will take your mind off that repeat fantasy of openhanded-bitch-slapping your new boss repeatedly


 Been re-reading my a-level special subject set texts recently (I wish I'd read them when I was doing the exams - failed history in fine style!) Edward tudors religious reformation and policy anybody? Jesus wept ... SO boring!

[Houdini]

Cheese & The Brain.

I managed to cadge 4 hrs sleep last night.  I was woken by a hideous nightmare involving a strange house that had no carpets but vegetables growing where the carpets should be.  Then my mother dropped a glass on my left big toe and severed it completely.  I woke up with a Nooooo!  Now I am 9 toes, too!  After that, well, I was up.

According to the guy I live with (a man who refused to eat the cheese on toast I made him last night - to soak up the booze, see.  I ate his cheese on toast as well as my own) the eating of cheese before bed causes massive cerebral activity.  Edam, huh?  Those Dutch!

Anyone know anything about this? 

[Scouse D]

Definately true. Blue cheeses are the worst.

[unclesomebody]

Definitely untrue. I've had SO many friends of mine who are doctors tell me this is an old wives tale and isn't scientifically proven in any way. However, I'm sure someone will now provide a link to show me how wrong I am.

[account_inactive]

Right back at ya

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4851485

Booyakasha

[Houdini]

So I had a cheesemare!

Man, I don't recommend the Edam.  (They didn't test foreign cheeses.)

[soapy]

a pox on you for even entertaining the bedevilled edam, for tis not a cheese!

[fatboySlimfast]

Ok, so my dreams going along nicely with a series of unconnected episodes in my life, different unrelated people, you know the kind of thing. I find myself in a Travelodge type hotel room looking on at the beds, two sets of doubles. Not so weird there BUT...on the beds was the whole whole cast of Eastenders(which is weird in itself cos I dont watch soaps!)
In front is the 'awesome' Sid Owen playing ricky butcher sat on the edge of the bed

now in my dream I smile and lit rip with my best Frank butcher impression
'RICKY RICKY RICKY' done in best mockney accent
Frank Butcher now rises from the pile of people, points at me and says
'Dont take the piss sahn(son!)'

At this point i actually woke up laughing

sorry frank

[Houdini]

a pox on you for even entertaining the bedevilled edam, for tis not a cheese!

Yup.  More like rubber.  Don't worry it's gone now.  I mean, I nearly had the Wensleydale...  If I wasn't so tired I'd experiment and have a different cheese each night and describe my cheesemare.


Not sure what is worse: dreaming of eastenders or finding oneself in a Travelodge hotel...

[SA Chris]

It's a little know fact that Edam is an anagram of Mad E, as small quantities of ecstasy go into it during the manufacturing process.

I think the mould in blue cheese has a mildly halucinogenic effect.

I have always thought that because cheese relatively hard to digest that it's not a good idea to eat it before bed.

Nutmeg is also mildly hallucinatory, which is why nutmeg in hot milk is supposed to cause sweet dreams.

One of the above statements is a total lie.  

[Houdini]

Back in the day, sailors used nutmeg to get out of their swede.  Too much can induce violent vomitting and in cases of extreme consumption, death. 

I'll steer clear of nutmeg flavoured cheese befor bee-byes, fo sho.

[unclesomebody]

Thanks for pointing me to this Dylan;
Dr Judith Bryans, a nutrition scientist at The Dairy Council, said: "One of the amino acids in cheese - tryptophan - has been shown to reduce stress and induce sleep so cheese may actually help you have a good night's sleep."

So eat cheese before you sleep!

[moose]

Back in the day, sailors used nutmeg to get out of their swede.  Too much can induce violent vomitting and in cases of extreme consumption, death. 

William Burroughs wrote about using it, floated on a teaspoon of warm water, in a drugs essay that was at the back of my copy of The Naked Lunch.  Vaguely recalling him saying it had pretty unpleasant side effects was not to be recommended (at least not if you had any morphine spare).  Surprising really as the typical dose doesn't seem orders of magnitude over what you would bung on a custard tart.  Mind you it would explain the behaviour of some of the yoofs who gather outside our Greggs' pastie shops: custarded out of their skulls!

I reckon (or hope) there might be some truth in the psychoactive properties of cheese.  I have had some blue cheeses that were so far gone that they made me feel a bit mentally "peculiar" whilst eating them.  A "special christmas" mature stilton, found in february after 2-3 room-temperature months forgotten in a bag, gave me something resembling hallucinations.  God alone knows what it would have done if I hadn't scraped off the non-edible looking mould and drained most of the slightly fetid "liquour" that had seeped to the surface... that stuff was probably the dairy equivalent of crystal meth!

[SA Chris]

I found some Danish Blue in the back fo the fridge that had been there for quite a while. It made my face hurt and my tongue lost some sensitivity for a while.

[vivahate]

I think dreams are fascinating, I know their usefulness in terms of analysis is widely debated. I've heard some dreams that are totally representative of the anxietys of the person telling them to me, and was able to guess a lot about their upbringing, sometimes I think they are just too abstract to be comprehended and any associations to be made to the unconscious.

Very strangely (or not so, depending on what your view of Freud's ideas where) when I was about 7 I had a dream in which i was in a boat at sea (the boat was non-descript) when a whale came up, which I killed and dragged to shore. When I did so i realised that it was my Dad, and not a whale at all... and obviously woke up crying. That fact that the dream coincided with the proposed Oedipus stage of development is what gets me, because its 'perfect'. Whales are fallace shaped and so could easily represent the masculine, the sea classically represents the mother and by killing it and dragging it to shore I was taking my dad away from my mum, and best of all, I never realised it was my dad. My subconscious oedipal wish. This was unconncected to an conscious feelings that could explain why I'd feel like that. I remember it so well because I was well upset with it!

Although knowing that Freud' mum was considered the most attractive woman in Vienna makes me wonder if his Oedipal stage was was a fully conscious affair! He also lost faith in his father one day when they were attacked, and his father didn't live up to the great Jehova that Freud thought be acted in a cowardly manner.


And back on the topic.. I usually dream when I'm very tired, Its rare that I do dream, but I get some crazy stuff when I do! Usually its pretty obvious to me why I'm dreaming what I am dreaming and I make a lot of life decisions based on how I understand myself through dreams.

[soapy]

is your mother milf fodder then viva?

[SA Chris]

Whales are phallus shaped and so could easily represent the masculine

Speak for yourself mate. My Dick sure aint Moby shaped.