My Dream

After reading my introduction of lucid dream last week, I believe that everyone have a basic understanding of lucid dream. So, this week, I decide to tell you something about my dream. Tell you several dreams that I once or often dreamed.

When I was a child, every time I catch a cold, I would dream one of the following two dreams repeatedly until I wake up. Both of the two dreams are very short.

Train:
In the beginning of the dream, I am constrained on a railroad track. However, there is no rope or handcuff, I just can hardly move my body. Then a train come toward me at a high speed. I make an effort to escape from the track, but still in vain. At the moment the train almost arrive me, I suddenly can see nothing and hear a huge sound of explosion. Then, the dream start from the beginning.

Valley:
In this dream, I keep running in a valley that look like volcanic crater. Just like the picture.

The red line is the way I run

All I can do is keeping running on that round route. Unless I wake up, the process will never come to an end. Never.



In fact, I want to tell you more about my dream. However, I have a midterm tomorrow, so I just simply talk about two dreams that I dream most frequently. If anyone want to know more about my dream, just come to me and chat with me. Of course, in Chinese. XD

Lucid Dream

Everyone know what dream is. And most people have dreamed a dream. However, have you ever experienced a lucid dream(清醒夢)? Or do you even know what is lucid dream? In this artical, I am going to talk about this amazing phenomenon.

According to Stephen LaBerge, who is a well known author. Lucid dream is defined as a kind of dream that you dream when you know that you are dreaming. It is totally different from daydream, which indicate illusions and images created by our brains when we are sober.

When a dreamer is in the dreamworld of a lucid dream, he or she will keep the ability to think or to remember. Also, the dreamer will feel the dreamworld much clearer. Sometimes dreamer can even control the content of dreams directly

Everyone's possibility to have a lucid dream is different. Roughly speaking, children have more chance than adults to dream a lucid dream. Somebody are born with a brain that can easily creat a lucid dream. If you have difficulty dreaming a lucid dream, you can try meditation or hypnotism. They can increase the chance that you dream a lucid dream.


Reference:
What is lucid dreaming? Lucid dreaming FAQ by The Lucidity Institute. (October 2005)
Eric Klinger. Psychology Today. October 1987
Lucid Dreams and Meditation, by Harry T. Hunt, Brock University, Ontario, Canada, Lucidity Letter, Vol.5, No.1, June 1986

Bad Dreams

Most people have experiences of having bad dreams. However, do you know why they exist? There are some causes that lead to our bad dreams. The three main reasons are pressure, anxiety, and the bad quality of sleeping.
Usually, kids that are preschool have more chance to have bad dreams at night. Most of those dreams come from horrible stories, scary TV programs, or videos.

Bad dreams often reflect our stress. This kind of emotion may accumulate in our mind, and can not be released. However, the process we people having bad dreams is a way for our body to automatically reduce pressure. In the nightmare, we experience strong emotion. At the same time, we released our accumulated stress.

Though it seems that it is good for us to have bad dreams, people have to see a doctor if it occurs too frequently. Having too many bad dreams will, however, leave us pressure.



Reference: American Academy of sleep medicine

Basic introduction of dream

Most people have experiences of dreaming something. However, do you know what actually dream is?

Dream is one kind of subjective experience(主體經驗) which will appear when we people are sleeping. Dreaming is a process of  creation. We involuntarily imagine sounds, images, and feelings. In average, human have about 3 to 5 dreams a night. However, most people remember only one or even none of them.

Since prehistory, dreaming was already a interested topic to philosophers and religionists. However, now people still can not understand the mechanism of dreaming. Nowadays, dreams are regarded as a way to associate with our subconscious(潛意識). They can be very normal. And they can also be totally different from the world now we live. They involve every different kinds of topic, such as magic, fear, and adventure.

Do you often have dreams that you remember? For me, dreaming is a important part in my life.
From next week, I will try my best to bring you into the fantastic world of dream.




Reference: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000. [May 7, 2009]