I have been noticing a correlation between my thoughts throughout the day and the subjects of the dreams I have that evening. I have done several experiments over the past few years and I think I’m on to something(well, as far as my dreams are concerned).
It goes like this, I will be going about my day when suddenly I think of something that sparks my interest(say a vivid memory or an imagined scenario), but that thought will be interrupted by an outside event(such as someone coming up to me and asking a question), the point being that I don’t have time to finish the thought. That night however, I will usually have a dream that embodies or includes the main topic of the aforementioned interrupted thought…
For example, maybe I will be walking to class and I see someone who reminds me of an old friend, but before I can think about the good times we used to have together, a squirrel runs right ahead of me and I have to move my foot to avoid stepping on it, I then realize that I need to hurry on to class…That night though, I have about a 75% chance of having a dream with my old buddy as a prominent DC(in a normal dream).
However, if I spend enough time thinking about something that I complete the thought and move on to another topic, I have almost no chance of dreaming about it. This can be both a blessing and a curse, on one hand I can avoid reliving a terrible memory by just thinking it through, how I reacted at the time, what I would do to change it if I could, ect… On the other other hand, if I am trying to dream a certain scenario and I have the time to think about what might happen, I will most likely have a completely different dream(maybe this is why MILD and dream incubation never worked for me?).
Does this happen to anyone else? I did an experiment the other night, I looked at a picture of a friend for just a second and put it away in a drawer. I then went on to brush my teeth and get ready for bed, not giving the photo a second thought. Guess what?, that night I had a dream with my buddy in it(I was protecting him from some villanous DC)…odd huh? It is as though my brain uses the downtime at night to process and complete scenarios that were interrupted mid-thought…Any thoughts(sorry for the long post BTW)?
It makes perfect sense. If you don’t finish thoughts during hte day they come back when things quiet down. Sleepwalkers often get up to finish things they didn’t complete during the day. That’s a good sign of this. If you think about it, The most prodctive thing you can do at night is to finish thoughts. Unless you’re sleepwalking that is.
I might have noticed something like this some time, i don’t remember any such incident. Perhaps I have not been observant enough.
I’ve noticed this as well, but I’m not good at catching myself in the day. Normally I’ll just wake up and be like “Oh yeah, I thought about that yesterday too!” But knowing this about myself, I’ve had to modify my MILD technique, because only passing thoughts seem to penetrate my dreams.
There is only one exception I’m aware of: stress. As in, I had to write 4 essays for my English class, and I had 3 months to write them, and they’re due this Monday. Anyway, I’ve had WAY too many stress-dreams related to this. I might be able to turn this into a hyped-up MILD technique, but I don’t think I should link LD with stress.
That is so interesting. Thank you for bringing it up. I AM GOING TO EXPERIMENT! LIKE MAD!
I’d try that with “Lucid dreaming is -” or something.
Also, there is a related technique for making your dreams more interesting. Run your day through your mind, slowly, backwards. Starting from right before you go to sleep to when you woke up that morning. You have to do it as though you’re a detached observer.
Maybe I should make a separate post for this. It’s a good technique. I’ve had BORING DRIVEL for dreams before I tried it. The first night worked the best. A girl walked with me and talked with me in a manner not unlike Waking Life. 'Twas cool.
So, this technique working supports your theory. More of your unfinished thoughts will be finished when doing it, so your mind is more free to make up some interesting stuff.
Hey, I did it again last night(by accident)! I was looking through a magazine before I went to bed and I happened upon an advertisement that showed a little girl at a birthday party, naturally I just flipped past it to get to the article I wanted. After that I listened to some music before calling it a night, and what happens? I have a dream(normal, mind you) featuring a similar little girl, although I can’t remember the dream too well(didn’t write it down in DJ), so details are kinda sketchy.
Oh hey, I just wanted to mention, I actually caught myself yesterday! I was, in passing, thinking about my high school’s band and in a separate thought I reminded myself to let that other thought fragment go. And guess what, I dreamed about my band last night!
That happens to me almost every night! It seems the smallest, most random little thoughts that pop into my head during the day and are forgotten by the evening are what I usually end up dreaming about. And then the next morning when I’m writing down my dream, I remember thinking about it the day before. It’s kinda weird!
That’s very interesting Maybe you can induce Lucid dreams with this
Now that I begin to think about it, I recognise things in my DJ on stuff I did yesterday. For example, my friend was talking about his new lay out on his site, but I wasn’t really interested. Last night, I dreamed about his site.
Anyway, I’ve had WAY too many stress-dreams related to this. I might be able to turn this into a hyped-up MILD technique, but I don’t think I should link LD with stress.
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