Nightmares
My previous entry about a dream I had got me thinking about those nightmares that everyone has from time to time. You know the ones. The “falling” dream that actually has somewhat of a medical explanation. I never believed the myth that if you actually hit the ground in your dream it means you’re dead, then again I’ve never hit the ground and I am still alive as of this typing so who knows?
Then of course there’s the “showing up at school/work/wherever naked” or the “in your underwear” variant. I’ve had that one too, never been able to figure out why. For any psychologists or psychiatrists in the audience on the occasions that I have this nightmare it’s usually the underwear version. I have an interesting variant of this as well where instead of being undressed I’m simply under dressed. Just last night I dreamt I was on the bus heading to work when I realized I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans instead of the requisite biz-casual stuff I normally wear. Or I will often dream during the summer of getting off the bus and realizing I’m only wearing an undershirt and having to go to the GAP across the street from my office to try to buy a shirt to wear in, but then of course I don’t have my wallet either. At that point my brain says “you would never do this in real life, this is a dream” and wakes me up. Sometimes I even say those words in the middle of the GAP, a store that interestingly enough I’ve never entered in real life. Well, not the location across from the building where I work anyway.
Is your notebook full yet Dr. Freud?
Then of course there are other job-or-hobby-related nightmares. There are a few of the folks on the air at WFMU (pledge now, 800-989-9368) who talk about DJ nightmares. Despite the fact that I have not done a radio show in close to 20 years (I hung on at my college station for a semester even after I graduated). I still occasionally have a couple of the more typical DJ nightmares. One is that you’re supposed to be on the air in five minutes and you’re either some ridiculous distance away or you’re having car trouble or you simply overslept or something and you can’t get to the station in time and you have no way of contacting the station either. The last part of that nightmare was a lot more real in the days before mobile phones. The other one is that you’re on the air at the station and you left the studio for a minute to go to the bathroom or get a drink or something and the door locked behind you, you can’t get back in and the record is ending. Both are real panic inducers. I think professionals have them more than those of us who did radio as a hobby.
Speaking of hobby-related nightmares I now have ones related to curling. Not on-the-ice nightmares, those nightmares are real, based on my play and generally my skip’s problem. No, these again are a variant on the “can’t get there in time” theme though I usually reach the “I know this can’t be real life” phase when I realize that the premise of the dream is that I’m missing a bonspiel final because I so rarely play in a final. Another version that the Mrs. just had is the “I’m at the club and the game is starting and I can’t find my shoes” dream. I’ve had that one too, and just for a laugh my subconscious threw in a variant where I finally found my shoes in the bathroom, put them on and almost made it onto the ice before I realized I wasn’t wearing any pants.
Man, all these dreams go back to being naked, don’t they? Maybe it’s in the psychology of human beings to both desire and fear a lack of clothing. You definitely want to wear clothes when you curl though. Ice is cold.
Then of course there’s the “showing up at school/work/wherever naked” or the “in your underwear” variant. I’ve had that one too, never been able to figure out why. For any psychologists or psychiatrists in the audience on the occasions that I have this nightmare it’s usually the underwear version. I have an interesting variant of this as well where instead of being undressed I’m simply under dressed. Just last night I dreamt I was on the bus heading to work when I realized I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans instead of the requisite biz-casual stuff I normally wear. Or I will often dream during the summer of getting off the bus and realizing I’m only wearing an undershirt and having to go to the GAP across the street from my office to try to buy a shirt to wear in, but then of course I don’t have my wallet either. At that point my brain says “you would never do this in real life, this is a dream” and wakes me up. Sometimes I even say those words in the middle of the GAP, a store that interestingly enough I’ve never entered in real life. Well, not the location across from the building where I work anyway.
Is your notebook full yet Dr. Freud?
Then of course there are other job-or-hobby-related nightmares. There are a few of the folks on the air at WFMU (pledge now, 800-989-9368) who talk about DJ nightmares. Despite the fact that I have not done a radio show in close to 20 years (I hung on at my college station for a semester even after I graduated). I still occasionally have a couple of the more typical DJ nightmares. One is that you’re supposed to be on the air in five minutes and you’re either some ridiculous distance away or you’re having car trouble or you simply overslept or something and you can’t get to the station in time and you have no way of contacting the station either. The last part of that nightmare was a lot more real in the days before mobile phones. The other one is that you’re on the air at the station and you left the studio for a minute to go to the bathroom or get a drink or something and the door locked behind you, you can’t get back in and the record is ending. Both are real panic inducers. I think professionals have them more than those of us who did radio as a hobby.
Speaking of hobby-related nightmares I now have ones related to curling. Not on-the-ice nightmares, those nightmares are real, based on my play and generally my skip’s problem. No, these again are a variant on the “can’t get there in time” theme though I usually reach the “I know this can’t be real life” phase when I realize that the premise of the dream is that I’m missing a bonspiel final because I so rarely play in a final. Another version that the Mrs. just had is the “I’m at the club and the game is starting and I can’t find my shoes” dream. I’ve had that one too, and just for a laugh my subconscious threw in a variant where I finally found my shoes in the bathroom, put them on and almost made it onto the ice before I realized I wasn’t wearing any pants.
Man, all these dreams go back to being naked, don’t they? Maybe it’s in the psychology of human beings to both desire and fear a lack of clothing. You definitely want to wear clothes when you curl though. Ice is cold.
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