Dreams

So I have had several pretty intense dreams in the past few days. I can't always remember the details of my dreams, but I do wake up in an emotional state because of them.

I have always had intense dreams every so often. To some extent, my dreams in the past were so intense that I physically carried out actions in my sleep.

A more common instance when I was younger was that I would actually sleep walk. I slept walked into my brothers room during a storm and you may not believe it, took a shower in my dreams. How did I do that, you might say? Well, I was dreaming that it was 6am and that it was time for me to get up and get ready for school. So I got up, took a shower, even shaved my legs in a half-awake, half-asleep phase. When I walked out of the bathroom in my towel, I noticed that my parents were sitting in the family room watching TV. This was unusual as they are never up at that hour and that's when I realized I had been dreaming. I played it off of course. When I woke up in the morning, I didn't really believe I had done it until I touched my legs. Clean and smooth!

Most commonly, I would wake up not knowing I had gotten out of bed and done something weird unless my toe hurt (I stubbed my toe one night) or one of my roommates told me that I did something weird.

My first roomie in college told me one of the weirdest things I ever did was get out of bed, kneel on the floor and move my hands like I was checking plants in a garden. While I did that I said, "the flowers, the flowers!" My roommie then proceeded to tell me that the flowers were fine and that I needed to go back to bed. Very odd! I do not remember doing that at all.

I have a fear of dangerous spiders and I hate roaches. Occasionally, with my travels outside the US, I have come in contact with them. Often, when I was little I would wake up screaming that there was a bug, wake up the whole house, and have my dad and/or brother come in to see what was wrong. There was nothing wrong and no bug--> I was dreaming. I still have those occasionally, but I don't scream. I more like wake up turn on the light and search for where the bug has run off to before realizing that I am dreaming.

Any of you who have shared a room with me know that I sometimes talk in my sleep. I definitely don't remember what I said, and sometimes what I say is incomprehensible. Occasionally, I say the funniest things. We could carry on a whole conversation and I would have no idea that we did. The moral is: do not say anything important to me unless I am fully awake! =p =)

Lately, my dreams have been distressing and odd. I had a dream one night that those kidnapper terrorists in Iraq had kidnapped and killed everyone that I loved. Another night I had a dream that my fiance and I broke up because I was busy. I have dreamt about snow shutting down the Triangle, and even about random fairy-tale like stories. I hope that none of the bad ones are omens for the future in any case. Which leads me to my next point....

A couple of the dreams I have had have come true. One night I dreamed that the Panthers would lose in the playoffs. That was the year that they did lose a week later after my dream. I also dreamt that the traffic lights would all be green on the way to church one morning. They were! (Don't ask me why I dreamt about traffic lights back then; I have no idea). There have been others, and I just think that, over all, they are coincidents and just plain weird.

I attribute the latest dreams to the stress that I have been under. From worrying about responses from medical school, to planning a wedding, being busy all the time, and being over-committed, it's no wonder I don't even have time to let my emotions out. I guess the way my brain deals with it is through dreams.

Well, whatever the reason for my dreams (don't analyze them too much), at least I know I dream in color. That in itself is unusual as most people dream in black in white or can't remember. And, I can practice speaking Spanish in my dreams (which I have had several dreams all in Spanish--- I did understand them!). I think I sleep better without dreaming anyways.