Sweet Dreams

I dream all the time, this isn't unusual for me but I know that this isn't normal.  From what I have read when I have explored the study of dreams we experience dreams when we pass through a Rapid Eye Movement [REM] cycle which is a stage in the sleep-wake cycle.  Although we dream all the time when we pass through this stage of sleep, most people do not remember these dreams unless they leave a lasting impression or their sleep is otherwise disturbed or disrupted.  I have always remembered my dreams though, for as long as I can remember and for me personally I attribute this fact to my Nystagmus which is a condition where my eyes constantly move involuntarily to this I also attribute some of my turbulent relationship with sleep.

Recently my dreams have become more fantasy oriented than usual, I am not sure what has been driving this, I haven't binged anything of that nature in a while so I don't think it's a case of feeding my imagination with material it can use - this is something I have done in the past though with mixed results.  Despite not knowing where this theme originates I've taken to documenting these dreams, this isn't something I have done for some time, not because I don't find my dreams interesting but for the simple reason that at face value they rarely make any sense.  I have broken dreams down to try and understand the symbolism behind them with some success but it's hard to tell whether that meaning is something you're impressing upon them or whether that was the inspiration in the first place, because dreams are for the most part out of our control.

I have experienced lucid dreams, and lucid nightmares which I have discussed at length before but the shortened explanation is to say that in these dream states you become aware of the fact you are dreaming and you can influence the events in the dreams, you can't access the full extent of your conscious mind however and the more you attempt to do so the more likely you are to wake up from them, so it's not like being in a white space like the Construct loading program in the Matrix and being able to create whatever you want.

Documenting dreams is something I have only done in the past when they were recurring, or when my thoughts were focusing on them too much as it allowed me to process what I experienced and draw a line under it and move on.  These dreams are rather different however, they represent a freedom of creativity that I haven't been able to access consciously for quite some time.  It's been over a year since I wrote any fiction that had a substantial body, the latest work that I spent most of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 writing and editing was largely produced as a way to deal with some very dark thoughts and feelings that I was struggling to process in my personal life.  Whilst that was a work of fiction it was mostly an allegory for my actual life with elements of fantasy incorporated into it so there wasn't much imagination involved or creativity for that matter it was more an act of documentation than anything else.

It's strange to see my own imagination now striving to create worlds that I find entertaining within my subconscious in some ways I find it touching that despite my conscious mind not being in the right frame of mind to be able to tap into that creativity it's still there deep inside and it's bubbling up.  There are a few dreams that I have written down now that I would like to take and develop into short stories, maybe something more substantial.  I don't know how far I will get with that but I've learned not to place expectations on myself because they are inevitably biased, creativity shouldn't be something that is accessed on-demand, it should be organic and come from a place of emotion, it's interesting to me that unconscious emotion can be so strong, this is something new to me, and I find it exciting, and a little bit intimidating because I have absolutely no idea what to expect but I'll run with it.

I do wonder if we will ever reach a point where we can use technology to record our dreams and watch them back.  I am aware of brain to computer interfaces that allow you to control movement and create shapes on a screen through thought but from what I have seen this technology is still nascent and it will be a number of years yet before it reaches that stage, if it ever does.  I realise that some people will have privacy concerns and may find the idea of a computer being able to read their mind deeply disturbing but for me personally I would love to be able to have a way to effectively utilise a part of ourselves that is incredibly powerful but up until this point has remained almost entirely a mystery to us, forbidden almost.

On that note, Happy Leap Day!