# Strange Dream **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 16, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921 "2006-06-16T14:20:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bic910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@bic910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bic910)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/1 "2006-06-16T14:20:49Z")
Ugh. I rarely dream, but I was two for two last night. I fell asleep in a recliner and woke up at 3:00 with the strongest sense of dread and fear. I couldn’t remember the dream, but the ending was intense. Snapping awake in total darkness only added to the dread and fear somehow. It seemed to _confirm_ something. It’s hard to explain. And I haven’t been afraid of the dark in years. So, off to bed. In the second dream, I was back at my friend’s wedding last year, where I was a groomsman. The dream took place at the reception. I should point out that I’m very introverted. Social situations make me feel very awkward. A wedding reception is a kind of personal hell for me. So I’m wandering around the reception, killing time. I run into the bride (actually not _the_ bride, in my dream she was a stranger to me), and she hands a small red trinket, about the size of a dime. She also explains some type of symbolism of the trinket. I understand, from overhearing random bits of conversation, that the trinket is for some type of ceremony to follow, where I’ll return it to her. But nobody’s bothered to clue me into the details yet. All and well. I put the trinket in my pocket. Then I run into a bridesmaid, and she give me _another_ little red trinket for the ceremony and explains the symbolism. I don’t know her name, but the trinket she gives me is distinguishable from the first, and I figure I won’t have any problems matching the trinket to her face and remembering the symbolism (I assume I’ll need all of this information). At this point it occurs to me that I should be getting names and writing all this down. But I figure, nah, I’m fine so far. So, eventually each bridesmaid tracks me down (I don’t know any of them) and gives me a trinket and tells me what it symbolizes. And of course I don’t write any of it down, just stuff them in my pocket. Ofcourse when the ceremony begins, I realize that I have half a dozen trinkets in my pocket, I can’t match a single one to anyone, and I’ve forgotten _all_ of the attached symbolisms. :eek: On preview, this sounds like a pretty mundane dream. But I tell ya, it was the worst nightmare that I can remember. Great start my day has gotten off to. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/2 "2006-06-16T15:20:26Z")
I have weird dreams all the time. The other night was kinda weird. Not all of it, just a small part made me think “huh?” I was one of the kids in _That 70s Show_. Odd enough since, even though I have watched it, I’m not really a fan. But not that odd. Jackie was sitting on my lap, strattling me and facing me. OK, not really a sex dream, but kinda sexy. Not that odd. Donna’s father walked in with someone else carrying a life-size plush allegator and treating it as if it were alive. “Huh?” They were real careful to tell us to back away and to not get too close. The rest was rather mundane and the allegator did not take part in anything else in the dream. All in all, I thought it quite bizarre ---
**Author:** ![Locat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Locat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locat)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/3 "2006-06-16T16:11:28Z")
I have nightmares. All of the typical ones (crumbling teeth, falling, being chased, etc.) and lots of really unique ones. Some are only scary in the dream, others creepy even in the light of day. The one I had last night wasn’t the scariest, but was very freaky. In the dream, it was a given that you’d find out when you’d die. I woke up and looked at my calendar. It was my day to die. I thought I better tell my mom. I walked down the stairs calling out for her, feeling a bit woozy. I reached the bottom of the stairs and collapsed. I was dying. I could feel my consciousness slipping away, couldn’t move at all. My thoughts included “this isn’t so bad,” “wish I got to tell mom first, oh well, she’ll find out,” “how much longer will it be?” Then nothing. I woke up pretty promptly after that – thank goodness! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/4 "2006-06-16T16:47:58Z")
I dreampt last night that the house we just bought was found to have a rather nasty infestation. And unfortunately, the exterminator didn’t have anything to drive away the leopards. Not something you want to see scurrying about the kitchen when you turn the light on. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/5 "2006-06-16T17:20:49Z")
**Bic910** That’s not weird. You want weird? I’m at a temporary city built at a comic convention. Everybody is wearing costumes. Somebody makes fun of my costume. I tear it off. I tear off my skin with it. I am revealed as an inhuman monster. I once dreamt I was a lesbian android with a bum knee. In the same dream, I was huge praying mantis stalking the rooftops of Philadelphia. On the first night in this apartment, I dreamt that one of the neighbors was a werewolf and had entered my dreams to kill me. He was hiding in a pile of trash on the couch. His position left his belly exposed, and I disemboweled him. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/6 "2006-06-16T17:45:17Z")
I agree with \*\* DocCathode \*\*. This dream isn’t particularily weird. And it doesn’t remotely qualify as a nightmare. ---
**Author:** ![bic910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@bic910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bic910)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/7 "2006-06-16T19:29:15Z")
[QUOTE=clairobscur] I agree with \*\* DocCathode \*\*. This dream isn’t particularily weird. And it doesn’t remotely qualify as a nightmare. [/QUOTE] _::shrugs::_ I guess what was weird was that I remembered the dream. Perhaps it’s harder for me to convey how the dream made me feel because you’re not familiar with me and my insecurities. But yeah, definitely a nightmare. ---
**Author:** ![moonstarssun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@moonstarssun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moonstarssun)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/8 "2006-06-16T20:53:08Z")
I’ve been weirded out by pretty mundane dreams before. Sometimes there’s just this atmosphere of dread or something that you can’t really put into words. My most recent weird one wasn’t scary: I was at a dinner party with five other people (I knew them in the dream, but not IRL) at the apartment of someone who kept switching from the CEO of the company I work for, William Shatner, and Wile E. Coyote. We figured out that our host brought us all there to kill us, so we kept finding ways to foil his plot (wrestling guns away from him, etc). He was pretty easy going about it, though, and would even let us go out into the hallway when we needed breaks. I finally decided I’d had enough, excused myself to go use the bathroom, and called the police. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/9 "2006-06-16T20:55:47Z")
One of the more graphic pnes I’ve had involved me using a knife and fork to cut a piece out of my brother’s belly and eat it. He was an infant in the dream, while in real life he is older than I. But usually they are the student nightmare or no-usable-toilet dreams. I do know the feeling of waking up in stark terror in the wee hours, with no real reason for it. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/10 "2006-06-16T21:06:26Z")
[QUOTE=clairobscur] . And it doesn’t remotely qualify as a nightmare. [/QUOTE] Yes it does. > [@](#): > > night·mare ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ntmâr) > n. > > 1. A dream arousing feelings of intense fear, horror, and distress. > 2. An event or experience that is intensely distressing. > 3. A demon or spirit once thought to plague sleeping people. It was intensely distressing to **bic910** , was it not? It might not have been were _you_ to have the same dream, but it was to him. I bet you’ve had nightmares others wouldn’t find scary, too. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/11 "2006-06-16T21:28:42Z")
**Bic91** I’m noty questioning the status of a nightmare. It was a dream that frightened and agitated you. It just doesn’t strike me as weird. ---
**Author:** ![bic910](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@bic910](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bic910)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/12 "2006-06-17T02:24:27Z")
[QUOTE=DocCathode] **Bic91** I’m noty questioning the status of a nightmare. It was a dream that frightened and agitated you. It just doesn’t strike me as weird. [/QUOTE] Fair enough, your dreams are _much_ weirder than mine. I’m not sure whether that makes me luckier than you or not. 🙂 Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![J.Z.Knuckles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecccb3/32.png) [@J.Z.Knuckles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J.Z.Knuckles)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/13 "2006-06-17T08:44:15Z")
I once had a dream where I had been kidnapped by pirates. I was on board their ship and it had been deemed necessary to kill me. However, as murderous pirates go they were actually rather compassionate, and one of them sat me down, gave me a razor blade and quite kindly, regretfully, informed me that I had to cut my own wrists. I awoke before I mustered the will to do the deed. My most interesting dream ever, must have been about eight years ago now, was as a somewhat unwilling sidekick to a serial killer. He’d employed some rather cunning social engineering to gather personal details of a young student and had used this information to persuade her to let us into her apartment. Similar to the pirates above, this fellow was pleasant, polite and somewhat sympathetic - just, not enough to reconsider killing the student. In my dreams, murder appears to be a strangely well-mannered affair. He enjoyed a minute or so of exposition, terrifying the poor student out of her mind, before taking out a knife and cheerfully and leisurely starting to work. The student pleaded with me to help her, but as I miserably explained, any attempt at intervention would just be a slight inconvenience to him briefly and then I’d be dead too. It was breathtakingly terrifying. When I awoke, that ‘wha… it was just a dream?!’ moment preceded a powerful, intoxicating surge of relief and joy. To my great disappointment, I don’t have nightmares anymore. I think my subconscious has given up on trying to scare me - I enjoy it too much. Shame. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-dream/360921/14 "2006-06-17T13:47:14Z")
I rarely remember my dreams, but watching airliners crash seems to be a common theme. I’m never on the plane, but on the ground helplessly watching them go down. About a year ago I graduated to watching the Space Shuttle crash in the parking lot at work. I was in the first Gulf War, and right when the current war started I had a variation of the classic student nightmare. I dreamt that my old reserve unit tracked me down after 12 years and shipped my ass out to Iraq. So there I am, a 34 year old PFC, with no idea what I’m doing, no idea how to use the new equipment, and my superiors (sergeants 10 years younger than me) just can’t figure out why I’m so incompetent. It was as if I was expected to keep up the military regimen for the rest of my life. I don’t remember how that one ended.