Themes in Dreams

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Large, complex, and sometimes labyrinthine buildings are a very common and frequent theme in my dreams. Unlike Moog, though, my dreams usually have a lot of emotional content (more so than my waking life, even).


Mine almost always have secret passages and hidden lifts and crawlspaces and such as well. I always know these secret routes and am usually the only one who does.

Another recurring (but not very frequent) theme I have is dying. I've died in my dreams many times over the years, usually by bleeding to death, sometimes by drowning.

Drowning
To dream that you are drowning, indicates that you are feeling overwhelmed by emotions. Repressed issues may be coming back to haunt you. You may be proceeding too quickly in trying to discover your unconscious thoughts. You should proceed more cautiously and slowly. If you drown to death, then is refers to an emotional rebirth. If your survive the drowning, then it means that a waking relationship or situation will ultimately survive the turmoil.
Sinking
To dream that you or something is sinking, suggests that you are feeling overwhelmed. Someone or something is pulling your down. You may be experiencing low self-esteem and confidence. Alternatively, the dream means that some important and significant stage in your life may be coming to an end. Consider what is sinking and its significance.
Maze
To dream that you are in a maze, denotes that you need to deal with a waking task on a more direct level. You are making the situation harder than it really is. Alternatively, the maze symbolizes life's twists and turns. It represents indecision, confusion, missteps, feeling lost or being misled.
Labyrinth
To see or dream that you are in a labyrinth, indicates your desires to get to the center of some issue or problem. Alternatively, it suggests that you are feeling trapped in some situation. You feel lost and that there is no way out.
Building
To see a building in your dream, represents the self and the body. How high you are in the building indicates a rising level of understanding, awareness or success. If you are in the lower levels of the building, then it refers to more primal attitudes and/or sexuality.
Secret passages=personal secrets, often elaborately concealed in waking life.
Hemorrhage
To dream that you are hemorrhaging, suggests loss of vitality, loss of faith in yourself, and lack of self-confidence. Also consider where you are hemorrhaging from and analyze the symbolism of that body part.
To dream of your own death, indicates a transitional phase in your life. You are becoming more enlightened or spiritual. Alternatively, you are trying desperately to escape the demands of your daily life.

I rarely dream but when I do they’re usually quite messed up… the last dream I remember was with my dog… I had done something to it that somehow seemed like it was done in the Sims (I have no idea how… it was a dream!). I had put a snake inside its body and then I had to kill my dog because the snake was dangerous. Besides, it wasn’t really my dog anymore o.o… it was rather freaky and in the end there was a lot of blood… when I woke up from the dream I had to go cool down by talking with my dog…
I also had a period where I was really afraid of fire and I often had nightmares where I was burned alive or the stables went on fire and my horses died. I once had a dream where a huge marble building was on fire and the pillars moved in front of the window but I wasn’t fast enough to get out.
I’ve also dreamt that I was in a big tank full of murky water and rats… D:
And once I had a dream where I was in a really weird futuristic, comic like world. I remember running around with my classmates with really weird guns o.o and I had that dream for two days in a row… well it continued the second day…
Sometimes I’ve also been so scared that I froze in fright and when I woke up I was completely stiff and tense… like the time where I was in a hotel and three very old and very small midget women “floated” towards me… *shudders*

^_^ Thanks, auntblabby. I wonder what it means to die peacefully (or more or less peacefully) after having one's throat slit. I've gone that way a few times. Sounds grim, and it's generally sad, but it's never as horrific as it sounds.

Stab
To dream that you have been stabbed, signifies your struggle with power. You are experiencing feelings of inadequacy and defensiveness, and are sometimes unsure of where you stand.
Throat
To dream that your neck is injured, indicates a separation between your heart and mind. There is a literal disconnect between how you feel and what you think. You are feeling conflicted. Your ability to be calm in this situation means you have resigned yourself to incessant changes in your life, IOW "I don't really understand everything that's going on, but what happens happens and i can't seem to do much about it other than nibble 'round the edges of it a bit."

My, that sounds quite accurate. Thanks again.

I rarely wake up remembering any dreams. However I will say that I have had two dreams in the last couple of weeks. I dreamed I was doing laundry in one dream and in the other dream I was grocery shopping. Usually I just wake up and don't remember anything.

I used to get a lot of dreams about strange vehicles, cars with the front half missing etc.

Another theme was talking cats.

Then there was building interiors - always weird, more like service ducts than corridors or rooms, with trap-doors and hatches connecting them in places where you wouldn't expect them.

That's actually a good thing. You should worry more if you find one and are able to use it. At least for me, if I have those dreams, it means I really do have to go.

That sounds a lot like me. Most of my dreams are about buildings, often large, complicated ones like warehouses, schools, or airports, but also about houses, usually fairly large and complicated ones as well. I also have the dream in which I'm trying to make a phone call but can never get through.

Yes. Those kind of dreams are your mind's way of keeping you from pissing/defecating in bed because your really do need to "go".

Some common theme dreams have that kind of prosaic cause.
The old "flunking out of schooL" dream that I ( and many other folks report having), or the dream I get every now and again about being a new teen driver and clipping someones's fender in a parking lot and being scared to death to tell dad about it ( ive been out of school and dad has been dead for decades) are what I call "anxiety nightmares". My theory is that they are caused by simply not having enough covers on your bed (or sometimes by needing to take a leak). Anxiety tenses your body, and so does cold (and so does having to hold your bladder). So your mind generates an absorbing narrative to explain why your body is tensed up to keep you asleep.

on a slightly related note, does anybody notice that they sleep and/or dream better or more (or less) during particular times of day?

I looooove sleeping in the mornings, and seem to have my most vivid dreams then. Weekends are great because I can wake up from a dream, go to the washroom, go back to sleep, dream some more, wake up, have breakfast, go back to sleep, etc.

Later REM cycles are longer than earlier ones. Those morning dreams after a period of wakefulness 'add on at the end', so to speak. I do most of my 'big' dreams in the morning after waking briefly.

had you been watching old Disney movies? this sounds like the fairy godmothers in Cinderella

If I take a nap during the day, I tend to have highly intense lucid dreams and false awakenings.

The dreams that I remember—I have a great deal of sleeping difficulty, because my brain forgets to breathe several times an hour, and my dreams usually don't take place in deep sleep because I rarely *get* to deep sleep—anyway, the dreams I remember are almost always full-blown movies in which I'm the camera; if I appear in them, I see myself as an actor, and not in first person. Full color, really detailed visually and verbally. Sometimes they're emotional, but at least half the time, the emotions aren't personal, but felt the way you feel them as an audience member.