Dream a little dream...

Dreams are so mysterious to me. Do you think dreams have some hidden, deeper meaning? I think we dream what we do based on what’s happening in our lives and dreams help us process things in our brains while we’re sleeping. But sometimes my dreams are so bizarre and make no sense. Like, the other night I dreamed I was at RT and Mari Carr and I were having a lively discussion about alligators in romance novels. I know! I can see where RT came from, because I've been planning that trip and thinking about it, and Mari Carr is going to be there, and it makes sense that we might talk about romance novels - but alligators? NO idea where that came from! And then last night - I dreamed that I was showing Angelina Jolie this great new red lipstick I'd bought. She asked me to handcuff her and Brad together, put some lipstick on her, and leave them alone...yeah, I know.

Sometimes I have amazing dreams, story ideas that are the BEST idea I’ve ever had…except I can’t remember them in the morning. (Unlike friend and blogmate PG Forte who dreams entire series of books and remembers it all!) One night I dreamed a whole movie…I was actually thinking that while I was dreaming it – thinking “this would make a great movie! I have to remember this when I wake up!” But no. It was done.

Lucid dreaming is apparently a dream where you’re aware that you’re dreaming. This happens to me all the time (like in the above movie dream). Sometimes when a really scary dream is happening, I keep telling myself “It’s okay, it's okay, it’s just a dream.” Sometimes if it’s a scary dream I’m able to “redirect it” by telling myself I’m dreaming and I should dream about something else.

When you’re having a really, really nice dream and you wake up, do you ever try to get back into it? I’ve only ever been able to do that a few times, usually it doesn’t work (which is really annoying because if it’s a really nice dream, I so want to go back there).

And then there are the sexual dreams (at the risk of sharing TMI) – where you wake up right on the edge of an orgasm. If you can’t finish, it is SO frustrating!

I have “chasing dreams” as I call them, where I feel like I’m spending the whole dream, chasing something or somebody (I often can’t remember exactly what or whom) but it’s SO frustrating because I can’t catch them. These are closely tied to fighting dreams. These always disturb my sleep and I often have to get up and read a book for a while to calm down.

Then there are the dreams where you’re falling – like you’ve just driven over a cliff and your car is falling through space…and you wake up before you crash.

Also - the dream where you’re trying to run but your feet won’t move, and the dream where you’re trying to scream but nothing will come out. I wake up in a sweat with my heart literally pounding and often I can’t get back to sleep after this.

And there are the dreams where you’re so freakin’ FURIOUS at someone you want to hit them and beat on them, and when you wake up in the morning, you’re actually still mad at them…for no reason whatsoever.

So how weird am I? Do other people have dreams like this? Come on, tell me!