Dreams and Desires

http://www.mysticbanana.com/dreams-and-nightmares-our-desires-and-fears.html

“The world is dictated by our desires rather than our thoughts. The prior puts the latter in motion.” ―Sarah Noffke, Awoken

A day cramped up with too many classes and work. Returning home after 12 hours’ worth of activity, I take a quick but relaxing, steamy bath and flop down onto bed with only a shower gown draped loosely around my tired body, my face finally free of makeup that was erasing itself with time anyway and hair dripping wet with the familiar scent of my favorite shampoo. Without the physical nor mental strength left in me to even crawl underneath the warmth of my sheets, I fall dead asleep just like that – petty worries about life melting away into a heap of pillows. My day, though, has yet to end. With my drowning consciousness, my subconscious takes a trip through strange artifacts of dreamed images in a rather familiar world.

 

A guy I vaguely recognize. But he’s actually someone I know really well – just something about him, although I can’t make out exactly what, is changed. It’s making me confused. We’re on a roller coaster together, very front seat just the two of us, making out. Our surrounding is only a blur. It’s as if we’re flying through a rapid forward of images. My body is taken over by the ride's G force combined with the adrenaline-infused rush from his intricate strokes of sensuality – it’s a truly frightening drive, though, and I’m screaming my lungs out – inside – because my lips are too busy with unsteady, unsure passion. I look up at the guy in between our intimacy, searching his face for answers, but his face is void of all expressions – his eyes sort of empty. The roller coaster then slows down and enters through a translucent tube, but there’s a crack a little ways up the track. Fear overcasts all other emotions, and just when I think we’re going to fall through the crack and die, I jerk awake from sleep.

 

Such vivid, memorable dreams occur in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep. Brain activity is high, resembling that of being awake – there is a continuous movement of the eyes, contrary to the eyes of the guy from my dream. The reason why I was able to remember this particular dream so well is probably due to the fact that I was awakened during this REM phase. Many dreams are immediately or quickly forgotten, though, sometimes to the point where we falsely conclude that we had not dreamed at all. These dreams, whether they be fairly ordinary or overly surreal, have been seen to be linked to the unconscious mind – arousing fear, excitement, magical wonders, sexual instincts, whatever it may be in the dreamer. What happens in dreams are normally outside the control of the dreamer – if otherwise, I would have been able to stop the roller coaster from falling at my own will. I, personally, endorse the Freudian theory of dreams – interpreting the contents of my dreams as manifestations of my deepest desires and anxieties, kind of comparable to how drowned consciousness from alcohol consumption brings out our hidden desires and emotions. Perhaps, there is reason for me to really ponder over my true feelings for this guy…

 

"Dream". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000. Retrieved May 7, 2009.

Hobson, J.A. (2009) REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness, Nature Reviews, 10(11)