On Dreams and Dreaming

I had a couple of dreams the last few nights that were quite emotionally stirring. After having woken up from them, It took about 10-20 minutes of lying awake to realize that they were just dreams and and that they were not for real. These dreams had evoked emotions from relationships past that I think are not resolved (nor will they ever be). After falling back to sleep, the strangest thing happened, the dream continued on from where it left off. Usually when I fall back to sleep, the subject changes or I don't dream any longer. The only thing I can attribute this instense dreaming to is the amount of sleep I got over vacation. Eight to Ten hours a night for about four nights in a row. I think I need to go back to my insomnial ways.

Some thoughts on my dreaming the last few years.

I used to have a lot of control over my actions when I dreamt. I used to be able to wake up from within a dream at will, make choices, take action or not. I am no longer a lucid dreamer.

I used to think that dreaming meant that I was getting good rest, that I was in a deep sleep. The more dreaming I do lately, the more emotionally drained I feel when I wake up.

I used to think that dreams really had no meaning, that they were stray brain activity or snippets of memory that would crossover into sleep consciousness at random. Because they have been so emotional the last few times, I am now not so sure.

I still remember my scariest dream from high-school where the evil yellow with black spots cat-woman was chasing me down trying to kill me (or whatever). Although I could care less about cat-woman or marvel comics or any fictional creature, this one was scary. I was physically frozen for about half an hour after I woke up because I was so scared.

For now, I would rather not dream. I'd rather just go to sleep, void, then wake up rested.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on dreaming.