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On Dreams.
I've noticed an interesting trend in my dreams of late and also realized that this development stretches back at least a year.
As a child, I used to have very intense nightmares. (I was also subject to sleepwalking, sleep-talking, and night terrors, but that's a whole 'nother issue.) They were typically themed, often recurrent, and sometimes even serial. When I was about ten years old, I had a serial nightmare that spanned a week and involved a very intricate--and quite terrifying--plot line.
These nightmares have continued all my life, with a revolving set of themes--whatever happened to be on my mind, I suppose--taking over at different points in my life. Needless to say, ghosts and monsters always formed a crucial mainstay of my nocturnal struggles.
However, a dream I had the other morning made me aware of something really strange: I don't exactly have nightmares anymore. I still have intense dreams that are filled with disturbing imagery and content, but I am not afraid during them. And I usually figure out a way to avoid bodily harm in the dream, either through some ingenuous plan or simply through a kind of unstoppable will power.
For example, I recently thwarted the attempts of flesh-eating monsters to capture me with a brilliantly constructed automatic dummy. I first used the machine to get away from them--and to make them aware that I was inside of it--and then snuck out at a propitious moment to watch them chase after it in blind fervor.
Other dreams from the past year have been similar. I sometimes wake up tense, but never from fear. I suppose this says something about my mental state, or my self-confidence, or something like that. And that's good, I guess.
But it makes for way more pleasant sleeping, regardless. And that's great.
As a child, I used to have very intense nightmares. (I was also subject to sleepwalking, sleep-talking, and night terrors, but that's a whole 'nother issue.) They were typically themed, often recurrent, and sometimes even serial. When I was about ten years old, I had a serial nightmare that spanned a week and involved a very intricate--and quite terrifying--plot line.
These nightmares have continued all my life, with a revolving set of themes--whatever happened to be on my mind, I suppose--taking over at different points in my life. Needless to say, ghosts and monsters always formed a crucial mainstay of my nocturnal struggles.
However, a dream I had the other morning made me aware of something really strange: I don't exactly have nightmares anymore. I still have intense dreams that are filled with disturbing imagery and content, but I am not afraid during them. And I usually figure out a way to avoid bodily harm in the dream, either through some ingenuous plan or simply through a kind of unstoppable will power.
For example, I recently thwarted the attempts of flesh-eating monsters to capture me with a brilliantly constructed automatic dummy. I first used the machine to get away from them--and to make them aware that I was inside of it--and then snuck out at a propitious moment to watch them chase after it in blind fervor.
Other dreams from the past year have been similar. I sometimes wake up tense, but never from fear. I suppose this says something about my mental state, or my self-confidence, or something like that. And that's good, I guess.
But it makes for way more pleasant sleeping, regardless. And that's great.