As well as the poll options, I’m interested to know people’s ages. In my own case I used to have a vivid dream almost daily (on visiting a new place in RL I couldn’t wait to see what the dream version was going to be like) but they have almost completely stopped now. I’m 33.
I’m defining “vivid” as a dream that you can’t help thinking about for at least the first 10 minutes after waking, because it was so scary or beautiful or whatever.
The kind of dream where you want to tell someone about it, but know that it will just sound stupid to someone who wasn’t “there”.
I don’t think most erotic dreams are vivid in this sense, nor are necessarily all lucid dreams.
I don’t seem to have as many *intensely *vivid dreams as I used to have (mid-40’s), but do have one about weekly. Just had a very intense one two days ago about…
nevermind…
(not sexual, just get-thee-to-a-psychiatrist bizarre, and long, too. Remember it well, even now. It was all I could think about the morning after I woke up, in a WTF?! sort of way.)
“Never”, at least these days. I used to have pretty vivid dreams but in the last ten years or so I’ve barely had any dreams at all that I can recall, much less vivid ones.
Mid forties, here. Vivid dreams are disturbing, chilling, horrible things. I hate them.
Occaisionally I’ll have a dream that’s just so over-the-top that I’ll want to share it, but then I realize how bad an idea it might be. There’s enough real horribleness in the world. No need to import more from my imagination. I wish I could forget ALL my dreams, and never remember them.
On average, about once a week. My dreams are vivid, but not often scary. Most of the time they’re merely a trip to Wackyland. I must be well adjusted…
Nightmares, when they do happen, are not of the ‘monster trying to eat me’ variety. They tend to be something like I’m headed for prison, regardless of guilt.
I used to have lots of vivid dreams when I was young, and as I got older, they got less common – I guess that’s typical. But this year they’ve come back, possibly because I started taking melatonin. Some are really gorgeous – dramatic landscapes and such.
Over the last few years I’ve been having vivid dreams about every 2-3 weeks. Before that I had them much more often, maybe one or two a week.
I don’t know if this is normal, but I almost always have vivid dreams on nights when I’ve had a couple drinks. That’s not the only time I have vivid dreams, but it’s more common.
About two months ago I discontinued my antidepressants, after decades of use. Since then, I have vivid dreams ever single time I sleep, even it it’s only a nap. Since I tend to sleep shorter amounts of time than normal, but more frequently, this means 3-4 times/day.
My libido (and ability to act on it) has also been sky-high without the antidepressants. But strangely, few of the dreams are about sex.
Prior to discontinuing my antidepressants, I rarely remembered my dreams at all. And when I did there wasn’t much worth remembering.
Not to mention too that my dreams are very detailed and super super super realistic. I feel pain, sadness, joy, despair, hope… die in my dreams a lot, I remember all the little details.
Sleeping generally is just about as stressful as being awake for me because I dream so vividly and never know what it’s gonna be.
ETA: dunno if it’s important but other people are saying their ages…I’m a young 26
At least once a week. I don’t remember my dreams every night and I never have two different dreams the same night. The dreams I remember are always very vivid and I can remember small details and emotions/feelings long after waking up.
I get awakened by at least one vivid dream a night (which is a vivid nightmare at least half the time), usually within an hour of going to sleep. The only time I don’t get woken up by vivid dreams is when I take a sleeping pill. But then I feel like I’m drugged the next morning (even with mild OTC sleeping pills like benadryl), so I avoid them–especially on work nights.
It sucks, but I’ve gotten good at waking myself just before the “bullet” hits, so to speak. One time last week I managed to wake myself up 6 times in succession before getting bludgeoned in the face with an axe (the dream kept continuing when I fell back asleep). I couldn’t wake myself up the 7th time, unfortunately, and it hit me all the same.
Late forties, male. Generally sleep deprived so get them during daytime naps too. Mostly pleasant, some mildly unpleasant (of the lost/no pants/phone not working/walking through muck variety).
Every week or two, generally. Going to sleep with a headache, or to a lesser extent other significant pain, seems to trigger vivid nightmares more frequently. Back when I had migraines, my dreams were a real horror show.
