Icky Dream

My dreams are most often very vivid. I have woken up on occasion wondering if what I dreamt was actually real. My husband tells me that I talk in my sleep in mumbles he can't quite understand. He said my tones rise and fall as if I am having a conversation with someone. Apparently, I sometimes even gesture with my hands. I have also woken myself up laughing! (What a pain I must be to sleep next too!) So, it is no wonder that often bad or disturbing dreams affect my mood for the day.

Last night I had a dream...a long, icky dream. People were telling me I was ugly. How cruel! I have always been a bit self-conscious so this hit my core. In my dream, I was walking with my husband and people were sneering at me. Some outright telling me I was nothing short of a troll. In the dream, my husband tried to be reassuring and said, "You are beautiful to me!" To which I replied, "Don't lie! I really am ugly. I can't believe I was fortunate enough to get married!" OK! What in the world does that mean? I have always thought that dreams were our mind's way of working things out while we sleep. I must have issues! At the very least, I must have felt less than desirable when I crawled into bed last night.

I much prefer the dreams that I don't want to wake up from. The ones that a person relishes. I have only once had a dream where I was able to fly by my own accord. That still ranks as my best dream ever! I was disappointed to wake up and realize I would not be flying to the kitchen for breakfast but rather using old-fashioned foot power.

My grandma never dreams. Isn't that interesting? She has had only a couple occasions in her life that she can recall dreaming. Her dream is always the same. She is lost in a crowd of people and frantic. When she was younger she was looking for her parents in the crowd and, later in life, the dream had her looking for my grandpa. She said the dream is almost like a nightmare and that she much prefers dreamless sleep. How odd it would be to close my eyes and then open them feeling refreshed. It there are no dreams than sleep must be like a blink. That is very hard to comprehend.

I actually enjoy most dreams. To me they are like a good book...a bit of an escape. I like when I am able to recall them. My husband and I often share our craziest dreams. Those dreams where you find yourself naked and no one else is. Yet, no one really seems to mind that you are naked even though you feel embarrassed. There are the dreams where you are hiking along a hill and your foot slips off the edge and you jerk awake because you actually kicked your leg out. Then there are the dreams were a sound in the room enters your dream as the sound from something different. I have had dreams about a woodpecker pecking on the house only to wake up and find the pecking sound was my husband making a clicking sound in his sleep.

Dreams are both good and bad. Good when they offer a brief escape or a nice laugh. Bad when they make the dreamer feel like a troll for the rest of the day!