Themes in Dreams

Post Reply New Topic

Wondering if us Aspergians have common themes in our nighttime dreams.

Mine contain a lot of complicated city-scapes, complicated buildings with many rooms, and big public places where I am lost or distressed. Main emotional feelings are anxiety and frustration with frequent dreams about trying to make a phone call but can't get number right or speak when I get through or trying to walk or run and feel like I'm moving through molasses. Or wearing some kind of garment that doesn't fit or suit me. On the fun side, a fair amount of flying.

How's about yours?

Actually, I recall a thread where a few of us discussed large, complex architectural features as common in our dreams.

I very rarely experience emotional sensations in dreams. Mostly my dreams are entirely visual.

I do experience frustrating situations (not so much the emotion though) in dreams quite often, and I'm sure most people do. Dreaming is a time when the brain gets into problem solving activities.

I only fly in dreams rarely. The last time I did it it wasn't that exciting really.

I think neurology would affect how you dream more than the thematic content.

Up until the time I've practiced meditation and have been able to do lucid dreaming, I used to have nightmares of being chased by monsters or demons and go through half asleep/half awake phases of seeing shadowy figures in my room upon waking up.
Only sometimes, I've had city scapes or large buildings in my dreams

I definitely have these a lot. When I was a kid, the buildings would be my school. In my dreams, I was forever lost in the school building, which was a complicated maze, and I never knew where I should be or when. I continued to have those dreams for years after graduating.

Lately I often dream about being unable to communicate something or being overwhelmed by something, which sends me into a meltdown (in my dream) where I scream and cry. I often wake up with migraines after dreams like that.

I dream often of being in a bustling village, but I'm usually very happy in my dreams. I often dream of being in the same place, a village in the foothills of some mountains. My house is always in the same place, and I've even taken the same bus travelling the same route in different dreams!

I've read that dwellings in dreams can represent the mind, and I think it's really interesting that in my house (in my dreams) there are secret passages which I can't always access, and lead through vast tunnels and secret staircases

I also have recurring dreams about being lost at school. I'm usually getting lost on my way to class. If I do make it to class, it will either be the wrong class or one I'm failing. Sometimes I ditch class to go make art in the art room.

I have dreams about the world of my creation.

I have extremely vivid dreams which are quite unique and quite visual. While I can't say that I have dreams primarily about city scapes, I am usually in a building or surrounded by buildings of intense complexity. As far as 'maze like' I see this in many of the dreams I have and of navigating through my surroundings.

On another note, I dream from a perspective not my own (one which varies nightly on everything from sex, race, age, etc.). This is one of the reasons I am able to quite easily lucid dream - and have been for years.

Very rarely do I have nightmares. I don't get 'scared' very easily in real life and most dreams that I have, if violent/gory, seem to be disconcerting/unsettling without scaring. I can likely count the number of nightmares I've ever had on my fingers.

I remember my latest one was in a backyard and in a house that I've never been in before. I've actually had different dreams in the same house and described the interior in one of my stories. I've also had many dreams about a house that I lived in when I was a teenager. I had the same dogs in the dream as I did when I actually lived at the house. Other recurring locations are mountains, sand pits and children's lay areas and schools. No top secret government facilities yet.

Here are the most recurring themes:

Natural disasters; fires, tornadoes, meteor strikes. These usually involve getting to the car and running for our lives. For some reason they are always located near my old church, which used to be a drive-in cinema, and once in my dream the cinema was still there. Once the meteor strike was in a sandpit beside a local theatre in a city like Adelaide.

School dreams. These are usually back in time when I was in high school. There's a lot of me getting into arguments with teachers and other students.

Sexual. Er, I'm not explaining much further than this.

Non-verbal or hard to communicate. This was around the time when I realised I had speech issues.

Driving. I've been having these dreams since I was really young. I'd somehow be driving my parents car and struggling to drive it on the highway, being 8 years old and all.

Drowning. I've been haunted by these dreams since I was five. I still don't know how to swim and occasionally have these dreams.

Rockstars. I sometimes have dreams about rockstars that I know or would like to know. Once it was so vivid that I actually went up to the singer in real life like I already knew him.

My late-father. I have dreams that my father is still alive but still as terminally ill as he was before he died. In some dreams he has recovered.

Dogs Been dreaming about dogs a lot because I want one. The last one was really vivid. We got two abandoned dogs and I convinced my mum to keep one and it was a hellraiser. I had to tame it otherwise my mum was going to take it to the pound.

So yeah, my dreams are really detailed and long with the same recurring themes. I can't wait to have another dream about a rockstar.

Actually when I went off medication I would have dreams similar to teleportation. I'd switch from one dream to another, then another, then another. And these dreams were extremely busy with sensory stimuli. Just as intense as it is for me when I'm awake.

I dreamt there was a large wasp's nest nestled high in a tree's branch in the front yard. A man I hired to prune the tree climbed up to get it down. He sawed the branch it was on off and flung it into the air. It landed on the roof of the neighbor's house across the street and I panicked. I knew they would be so annoyed at that!
So, I went over there with a can of wasp spray. The branch was too far away from the edge of the roof for me to reach with the wasp spray. I looked up and over and saw the wasps flying and swarming.
I thought it would be easy to spray the nest and get the branch off their roof. It worried me it wasn't.
I woke up and felt relieved it only a dream.

On occasion I'll get this retro- lostness in school ( 30 years ago) and can't find my way around as the building is gargantuan in its layout, or can't remember my combination on the padlock for my locker--- I'll be sitting in a classroom full of kids and I don't know what class it even is, hence I don't know the material as it goes over my head while I'm sitting there in shock at it all.....

when i was an adolescent, i had lots of dreams where i'd be ridin' this big pink flying penis through the air, and i'd be dive-bombing my late father, and he'd be duckin' and running in terror from me and my phlying phleshy phallus. later on, i had repetitive dreams where i'd be trapped in this big building with a bulging bladder, only all the loos were locked-up or defective. or i'd be trapped in this dingy and dimly lit old room with peeling paint on the walls, and spider webs everywhere, and there'd be all these bugs and creepycrawlies doin' their best to crawl on me and eat me up, and i'd be frantically swatting 'em away with a little whisk broom, to limited effectiveness, and just as they were about to ick me to death, i'd wake up and be dripping in sweat and in a fright. an alternate dream was i'd be trapped in a dingy and dimly lit old bathroom and all the toilets were flooding and the nasty water was rising up to my nostrils and there were turds floating all over and they were getting in my clothes and hair and i was spitting the nasty turd water out of my mouth, and i'd awaken from that one in a scared cold flop sweat also. much later, i determined that these two last repetitive dreams were my subconscious mind's punny way of telling me to not let little [stuff] get to me, as i was very irritable at that point in my life.

My dreams are extremely detailed and often about physically struggling and being chased, normally at the same time. things like not being able to reach things, trying to run and not being able to, being lost in a maze, being able to see the exit and not being able to reach it... things like that. my mind has built a city and filled it with characters, I often dream about people I know, but they are always represented my one of the "avatars" in my mind.

Of course, there's also the whole dreaming about things that having happened yet, but that's another topic for another thread.

I don't tend to dream about city-scapes, but i often have dreams/nightmares that fill me some sort of emotional distress. The one that seems to repeat the most is being in some sort of danger and not being able to call for help. Like trying to but nothing coming out like my jaw is wired shut or my vocal cords are gone or something. These are usually quite vivid. Luckily in recent years i've become able to wake myself up from my nightmares.

Mine take place in shopping malls, mini mall type stores, walking along streets, and tower block type apartments that could be college dorms. They always take place in the day time but the skys are slightly overcast never sunny. people's faces are blurred but the key characters faces are clear. I never have had a dream while being in a moving vehicle I am always walking. I am also alone a lot in my dreams.

Some of my most vivid dreams I remember are:

Being in mud up to my nose. I am walking in an area as big as Lake Erie. I step foward but I feel no ground before me and I cannot move backwards.

I had my hand stuck to the table I worked at while I was working at the resteraunt in one dream.

I was lost and I could here people calling my name but could not find them.

I also have dreams where I am told I have cancer but I refuse treatment and my parents threaten to have me arrested so I will get the treatment then I am running away. I have had a lot of this type of dream.

Frequent themes I like:

- flying, leaping and other stuff that defy gravity
- moving into, or visiting a new house, and exploring it
- doing cool stuff
- finding lots of goodies
- eating lots of yummy food

Themes I don't like:

- looking for bathroom and never find one available
- dreaming about my parents or other relatives
- going to school and take exams and realize I didn't know anything
- dreaming about sleeping and other people bothering my sleep. Urg I hate these dreams the most. How boring is it to dream about sleeping? And then dream about other people annoy you and wouldn't let you sleep. Then you wake up all pissed off, and realized that you had been sleeping after all.

I guess I should at least be grateful that I don't usually have nightmares. Even if I dream about very dangerous situations I was never scared.