Girlfriends dreams

My girlfriend has been having crazy dreams! She has been waking me up at night and having very realistic dreams about her dog and her close friends and family. She had a dream that she was playing with her dog but the dog was not the same.  She looked exactly the same but acted very strange.  Her neighbor, who was a dog abuser, came over and claimed that her dog was his dog.  She would not let him take the dog, fearing that he would treat the dogs poorly.  Another dog appeared, identical to the first dog.  She kept both of these dogs from the neighbor and the neighbor gave up and went home.  This is a very strange dream but I am guessing it is due to her obsession with her chihuahua, Daisy.  Weird dream, anyway, something to think about, I am hoping I have some solid dreams tonight, I will keep you posted. Sweet dreams....

old friend

I talked to an old friend today almost all day.  We talked about the good old times we had together in college and living on almost no money.  I cannot stop thinking about this person and hopefully I will dream about them tonight.  I am picturing a scenario in my mind over and over again, hoping that my mind will repeat this tonight.  I will update later tonight right before I go to sleep.  If I wake up in the middle of the night, I am going to have my computer right by my side to write about my experiences.  Talk to you soon.

Crazy dream

So my experiment did not quite work.  I did not dream about the certain thing that was on my mind all day.  But I did have very intense dreams.  I can't seem to remember the content of my dream though.  I hate when that happens.  Or when you wake up in the middle of your dream and fall back asleep just to try and dream that same dream again...Last night was a very intense night of dreaming but I have this problem.  I can't remember any of the dream! Not even a little part of it! It is driving me crazy because I know it was a great dream but I just have no memory.  Hopefully tonight will be a bit different...Sweet dreams...

New Method

I have been noticing lately that whatever I think about throughout the day, I will dream about it.  I know that sounds cliche but if you really think hard about something all throughout the day, your mind will mimic that in your sleep.  For example, if I thought of a red wagon all day and even looked at pictures of them, my mind could repeat that image while dreaming.  Tonight I am going to try something new.  Well, not exactly new but more enhanced.  I have been thinking about something very hard all day, in hopes of dreaming about it.  Here I am, staring at the computer screen, hoping for a good nights' sleep before my final in the morning, IN THIS CLASS and my presentation due in the class after that.  Fun night.  Here I go to dream….Sweet dreams...

no memory

I have been having trouble dreaming lately.  I am not sure exactly why, but I have been sleeping heavier and deeper every night.  I believe this is due to my non dreaming.  I have been doing experiments on myself, seeing if I dream more on a good nights sleep (8-10 hours) or if I dream more on a bad nights sleep (4-6 hours).  I have found that the less sleep I get, the more I dream.  Also, these dreams are more vivid and realistic.  I took a road trip to Florida last year and the drive was about 16 hours.  I drove the first 14 hours and couldn't take it anymore, I had to have some rest.  I changed seats with the passenger and I feel asleep right away, but I was just sleeping.  My eyes were half open and I was dreaming instantly.  My body was so sleep deprived, that I was immediately thrown into REM sleep and I was dreaming.  I have found that I have the most vivid and wicked dreams when I am sleep deprived.  My body is begging for sleep and needing it so bad that I move directly into REM sleep and skip the other stages of sleep.  Maybe I should sleep deprive myself a little bit so I can have more interesting dreams and a more interesting blog haha.  I think I will be sleep deprived the next couple weeks, not intentionally, but because of finals week and I am graduating this semester.  Hopefully my mind will produce some dreams that I can write and talk about but until then...Sweet Dreams...

space dream

Last night...Last night...

What a crazy night of dreaming?! I can't remember much of anything except one crazy part.  It was one of the most intense dreams I have ever had.  So the dream starts off on a huge ship like an aircraft carrier that planes can land on.  We were packing up a Stealth Bomber, loading a huge flat board with about 20 astronauts strapped to it.  Yes, astronauts, meaning small people. Very strange, I know. 

After loading up the astronauts(small people wearing suits in this case), a massive explosion happened at the front of the ship.  A bunch of planes blew up and a huge fire had started on the main ship.  All of the pilots were yelling at me to get on board right away for take-off. I couldn't get in through the door, so I just jumped on the front of the Stealth Bomber.  I was literally holding on the nose of the plane by my hands, hoping to make it out of there.  The Stealth took off like a rocket in the sky, straight up in the air and all the way to the outer atmospheres.  I was holding on so tightly while the plane jolted through clouds and turbulence was at a high.  The plane kept rising in altitude until we reached the unknown, outer space.  The stars shined bright as I sat on top of the plane's cockpit.  At this point, I knew it had to be a dream because no human could possibly breathe in space, let alone hold on to the front of a Stealth for so long.  As we continued, obstacles in space began to make the Stealth take sharp turns, move up and down and it became harder and harder to hold on.  Right when I let go, I woke up. 

I had alot of other weird dreams last night but I just couldn't remember them.  I dream the best in the morning, when I have to wake up to pee pee then go back to sleep for an hour or two.

Assignment - Alan Smith

For class on Tuesday, we had a guest speaker named Alan Smith from England.  This guest was very interesting and also full of quotes.  He started out working construction in England for half his life until he decided to become a teacher.  English was the main subject that he taught.  Eventually, at age 50, he began writing.  He wrote a novel that was sent to many different publishers, movie directors, and other sources.  He finally found a publisher who helped distribute and print his novel.  The New York Times wrote an article about Smith and about the book that he wrote.  After this, he began working in a prison, hired as the media press and writer.  Most of his articles, over 70, were sent to the Guardian, a well established newspaper. He teaches at the University of North Hampton in south London.  The class that he teaches is Creative Writing.

 "Sometimes, I make it up," Smith claims.  When telling a story or discussing a certain issue, he not always uses fact but uses fiction to help the reader understand.  He says that a great deal of talking or writing has the ability to be fact mixed with a bit of fiction.  The stories that he heard in prison are not always stories that people want to hear due to the graphic nature and evil acts.  Instead, he tells the positive side of the story, putting the prisoner in a bright light instead of a dark past.  I thought that he was a great guest and proof that you never know where you will end up.  He didn't even start his writing career until he was 50, which is what he believes is his livelihood.  People my age, myself included, still aren't quite sure what they want to be as a career but with time and hard work, anything may come up.

One hour dream

I had a very vivid dream this morning.  It seems like every time that I wake up early and fall back asleep for an hour or two, I have the most wicked dreams.  My girlfriend's alarm went off at 6:30 this morning and I didn't have to wake up until 8.  I was so tired that I went into the guest bedroom to get another hour or so of sleep.  I went to lay down and couldn't fall asleep right away.  I think it is so interesting how we actually fall asleep, sometimes I think about it so hard that I can't fall asleep.  In this dream, it was so realistic and possible that right when I woke up, it was almost hard to establish that it was a dream.  But I knew right away.  In this dream, I was driving my pickup in a parking lot, a Walmart parking lot.  In this lot, there were many shops and a McDonalds.  The McDonalds had a strange delivery area that made me wonder while in the dream.  I parked my truck and then got in my friend's truck.  I can't exactly say what happens next because I don't really remember.  We went driving around for awhile and came back to the huge parking lot.  In the dream, I had to go home so my friend's dropped me off, not close to my truck, but very far away.  I got out and walked a good distance to my truck.  I noticed that I didn't have my keys to my house so I had to go back to my friend's truck.  For some reason, I knew that my friend's did not have any cell phones so I had to run back to their truck and find my keys.  I ran as fast as I could, right next to the street to see if they had left yet.  Luckily, they had not moved the car.  I ran up to the car and fell down right beside it, exhausted.  All of my friends were staring at me, wondering what the hell I was doing.  I told them that I had lost my house keys and we needed to look for them.  We couldn't find my keys anywhere so I just decided to join them in the truck for the rest of the day.  And that's it, the ending of my super exciting dream.  The reason that I am posting on this is because of the vividness and reality of this dream.  Everything was possible and I woke up very relieved to know that it was just a dream.  Some dreams are just so real that you almost have to tell a friend about it.  If you read this and have a crazy realistic dream, comment and let me know...

SAVAGE dreams

I have been having crazy savage dreams lately.  I have no idea why but it is starting to freak my out a little.  In all of my dreams, someone is attacking me, either bad men, dogs, creatures, or whatever my mind comes up with while I am sleeping.  These dreams may be due to Halloween and all of the scary images on television that I am seeing daily.  I cannot seem to remember all of these dreams but I only remember certain parts.  They are very violent in nature, sometimes making me wonder why I am dreaming these horrible images.  I have this reocurring dream a few times a week.  I am in this log cabin out in the wilderness.  Usually I have some friends with me, my girlfriend, and my cousin who is always appearing in my dreams.  I am always threatened by something while in this cabin.  People come to attack us, or rob the house or there is some monsters or rabid dogs looking for shelter in the house.  I have no idea why this happens but it does all too often.  Maybe I am meant to be a protector, fighter or maybe I am just reflecting what I see during the day.  Who knows? Dreams are a mystery to us sometimes.  I won't get into the gruesome details and violent parts of the dream because I feel like it is better left in my head.  I don't want people reading this blog and thinking that I am going to be the next killer on the street.  I think that American culture has a love for violence, violent movies, TV shows, guns, and people always gather around two others fighting like in high school.  We love to see these images but most of us could not act on what we see.  Maybe that is why I dream of them instead of acting them out, which is a great thing.  I will try to go to sleep with more positive thoughts in my head instead of thinking about the horror movie that I just watched before going to sleep.  Until then, dream on....

assignment dave rhea

I learned alot from Dave speaking in class.  Dave kept saying one main point that I took the most advice from.  He said to post, post, post.  The way to get more attention and traffic to your blog is to keep up with your posts.  This is very important because you never know who could find your blog and read the material.  I would improve my blog by posting more and just spending more time online.  I would also improve my blog by researching other blogs and find out ways to attract more attention and gain viewers.  I thought it was interesting when he told us about his past.  He was in a band that toured in a bus around America.  I wondered how he went from a band to becoming a blogger.  His story is very interesting.  With dedication and motivation, anything can be accomplished.

Insomnia

I have not posted recently which I have no excuse for.  The only excuse that I can offer is Insomnia.  And for those of you who do not know what insomnia is, than your lucky.  Insomnia is when you lay in bed for hours upon hours but you cannot fall asleep.  Your body is tired and dead but your mind is racing.  I cannot seem to relax my mind, thinking about music, school, work, friends, family, playing guitar, whatever it may be.  It seems my mind becomes obsessed with one topic and there is not enough time in the day to learn more about that topic.  Two weeks ago, my obsession was Jim Morrison from the Doors.  I watched a movie called The Doors based on his life and the band.  He was a very deep, poetic soul who will be forever young, dying at the age of 27.  I am so interested in his life, his poetry and philosophies, and the impact and inspiration that he accomplished before even reaching his 30s.  This amazes me.  I have now shifted my obsessive thoughts towards all music and guitar playing.  I feel that the more obsessed and more time that I spend on something, the more it races through my mind, the less I can sleep.  It's like I have so much energy that sleep is a waste of time, I need more music.  I have only been getting about 4 hours of sleep for a week now and this greatly effects my dreams as well.  The only time that I can dream is once I have woken up in the very early morning like 3-5 am then fall back asleep.  I had a dream last night that I was with my family in a log cabin and we were being attacked by people in the woods.  This is a common dream.  I always dream of isolation and danger, living life on the edge, not knowing when you will have your next meal.  I do not believe this is a reflection of my life but who knows, the thoughts are coming from inside.  Who knows what dreams really are, a compilation of yesterday's events, or your mind predicting the future or casting light on current events.  We all sleep and we all dream but certain minds go deeper and push the limits of the unknown, the dream world.

Assignment

Dr. Kurt Kochenauer started his blog called Okie Funk in 2004 and has been blogging ever since. He started at a time when there was only about 2.5 million blogs. Now the blogs have reached over 200 million. He posts on political issues mainly focused on Oklahoma. His blog has a liberal point of view, very uncommon in this state. He has had over 1000 posts and gained many thousands of hits. He does not allow advertisement in his blog because he wants to keep his content genuine. He teaches classes here at UCO and even another blogging class, which is the only other class besides this one. He has had some controversial run ins with a few politicians of Oklahoma as well as some trouble with the UCO administrators for posting certain content on his blog. He keeps his blog as real as possible, sometimes pushing the limits. He also wishes that his blog and all blogs in general could get more page views and attention. However, a Facebook post about your last nights' dinner could get more page views than a 2000 word post about problems in the government.

I gained from his speaking that my blog takes a lot of research and dedication to posting. The more you search and learn about blogs, the better yours may become. Posting a few times a week will also generate more page views throughout blogs. Your blog page is very important because the average reader these days only has an attention span of about 15 seconds or less.

Getting arrested and fighting for my life

Last night was crazy.  It seems like when I don't sleep good, I have more vivid dreams.  I think that because I am awake and not sleeping for half the night, then I finally fall asleep, I go into a heavy dream state.  For my first dream, I was in a field with a few friends just hanging out.  It was becoming night time and we were doing nothing more than sitting on the tailgates of our trucks.  All of the sudden, police from every direction came out of the woods.  They started yelling at us to get down and shut up.  I thought this was weird in my dream because we were doing literally nothing wrong.  The police then began arresting all of my friends claiming that they found drugs on us.  I was freaking out, pleading with police, telling them that I did nothing wrong and that I have no idea what drugs they are talking about.  I then got a thought in my head that these weren't real police and they would take me somewhere else.  I almost ran off into the woods but I was outnumbered.  I kept yelling at them to not take me to jail and that I am too much of a pretty boy to go to jail.  They said that I would spend over a week in jail and I was not having that.  After fighting and kicking and screaming, I woke up.  I felt like it was real but a sudden sigh of relief came across me when I was comfortably in my bed in the darkness.
     The next dream I had occurred directly before I woke up.  This dream was much more intense.  I had just watched a scary movie before bed so I believe that was the inspiration.  A man kept trying to break into my Uncle's lake house with my family inside.  A man broke a window in the back room and I ran to the loud noise.  I saw him trying to come in the house through the window but I grabbed some broken glass and sliced his face then his hand.  This had no effect so I ran as he entered the house.  I found a small, aluminum baseball bat and a hammer to protect myself with.  He came into the kitchen and I hit him over and over with the bat.  This did nothing.  He continued to attack.  I needed my gun.  After trying to defend my house, the man eventually took control and I woke up to the sound of my alarm.........

do you dream after you die?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/health/offering-support-to-one-family-and-hope-to-others.html?pagewanted=1&moc.semityn.www&ref=todayspaper
For our assignment, I had to choose an article that relates to my blog, and write about it.  It was difficult to find an article about dreams, but I found one that I think dreams can relate to.  I read an article about a family making the decision to donate organs from their dying father.  Of course this decision would be difficult for any family to make, but if your father's death could give life to another, the satisfaction would be grand.  There would be life after death in a sense.  Curtis Kelley, the man on life support, is dying from a severe stroke with no brain activity.  He was not an official organ donor, but his family knew that he wanted to donate his organs to save someone's life.  The doctors needed a long list of organs to be donated.  They needed a heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, intestines, blood vessels, and even some skin.  His son, Kello Brown, said, "I just want him to look nice," for the funeral, of course.  The doctors would use prosthetics to restore his body to look normal for the funeral.  This is a great story of sacrifice, love, and compassion.  The family did the right thing, in choosing to donate those organs to unselfishly save multiple people's lives.  So you are probably asking yourself, what does this have to do with dreams?  I was very curious about what kind of dream state one would be in if they were in a coma, life support, or near death.  People say that while dreaming, or near death experiences, or even right before you are dead, large amounts of chemicals like serotonin and endorphins are being released in your brain.  It is also said that in the dream world, time in not the same as time in the real world. You can move from point A to point B in a split second, which cannot be accomplished in reality.  It is difficult to prove that the times are different, but your imagination is much more complex and has no boundaries compared to reality.  So could you be dreaming for years in your mind only minutes before you die?  They say that when you die your life flashes before your eyes, could this be a dream?  Or when people claim to have died, gone up to heaven, then come back to life, maybe this was just a dream.  It is interesting to research and read about different people's experiences.  We will never know the whole truth about dreams, but through this dream blog, we can both learn more and more about our dreams.  Our ultimate goal is to have the ability to control our dreams or lucid dream...good luck...

golf cart dream

I finally remembered my dream last night!! I have been having so much trouble remembering my dreams, even when I first wake up.  You know that feeling when you remember being in a dream and parts of the dream but you cannot recall simple details? That has been my dream cycle lately.  I have had lots of dream activity, just terrible memory.  Last night, I had the same thing happen, but I remembered the ending of my dream....
I was driving down a winding road in a golf cart.  At first, the dream just felt like a leisurely golf cart drive down a potentially dangerous hill.  It was very pleasing and relaxing until a large figure jumped in the middle of the road.  The figure was a man dressed in all black about the same height as Kevin Durant.  He was huge.  I knew that I had to avoid him because he was trying to kill me. You know that feeling you get in your dream when you know exactly what is happening even though there is no way of knowing what is happening?  That was the exact feeling that I had.  I had no idea what the figure was, all I knew was that the figure was bad and trying to hurt me.  As I road down this steep hill in the golf cart, I had to swerve out of the way to barely dodge the figure.  After passing him the first time,  a little farther down the road, he appeared again, and I dodged again.  This continued to happen as the figure got closer and closer with every turn and twist that I made to avoid being captured.  Near the end of the hill, I was gaining much speed, too much to control.  As I saw the figure again, I swerved, then over corrected, and flipped the golf cart down the hill.  I knew that the figure would be there waiting for me to stand up from the golf cart wreckage, however the wreck scared me in my sleep therefore waking me up.
This dream was completely strange but who knows, it could be a metaphor for something in the future.  I am so glad that I remembered this dream though because my blog is looking pretty lame with no dream posts.  If you had a crazy dream lately, tell me about it...Until then, Dream well my friends.

bad memory at night

I have been having trouble lately remembering my dreams.  Do you ever wake up in the morning after a crazy night of dreaming and have trouble remembering what happened in real life or what happened in the dream?  This happens to me very often.  My dreams have been on and off throughout the night, more like 5 smaller dreams than one long, vivid dream.  This is my challenge to myself.  I am going to get a pen and notebook and set it right by my bed while I am sleeping at night.  Right when I wake up out of a dream, I will write as much as I can remember on my notebook.  I also challenge you to do this.  This is the hardest part of keeping up with your dreams or lucid dreaming.  The hardest part is actually getting out of bed while your half asleep and having the energy to write down your dreams.  Once I start doing this, I can post my dreams in detail, and we can try to decode my dreams into real life meanings. Although it may not be true, I am not a dream expert, but it will be a fun way to look at our dreams. Until next time.....prepare to lucid dream......

assignment journal record

After searching through different blogs on Journal Record, I saw that many of the blogs have similarities and differences.  The blogs that I enjoyed were the ones with an adequate, but not overwhelming amount of information.  The more interactive the blog was, the more I enjoyed being on the page.  Pictures help give the blog a visual for the reader instead of just reading text.  Posting very often is also another way that my blog can be improved.  If I have more visuals, and keep up with my dream journal, I think I can make my blog much more interesting.

another assignment

Referring to my blog...

Questions...
1. What area of your blog do you need to work on to improve?
2. What would make your blog more interesting?
3. Be prepared to have your blog projected and discussed
4. Be prepared to show the blog you're following, and list one strength and one place it could be improved, with a one-sentence explanation.

Answers...
1. I think I need to make people more aware that my blog exists.  I could make more interesting content and spend more time making my blog better.
2. I think my blog would be more interesting if I had more content and was more organized with my blog.
3. I am ready to have my blog discussed.
4. I think my blog has a great subject to be discussed.  Almost everyone dreams at night and people love talking about their dreams.  I could improve my blog by generating more ideas to gain readers and be more creative.

Assignment for class

Blogging is something that I have started to become familiar with day to day.  I have known what it is for some time now, but have not looked much into it.  The only time that I do read blogs, is when I ask Google a question and it sends me to a blog website.  After researching and seeing other blogs, I am starting to learn more about the formats, ideas, and ways to communicate to the reader.  I have learned that the more interactive the blog, the more interest the reader would have on that blog.  Keeping statistics about your blog, in my case my dream journal, is also important to the reader or potential readers.  My blog is simple right now, but others that I have seen have many more options yet with a simple structure.  It is not too complicated for first time readers and easy to navigate through the blog.  That is my goal.  To make an easy to navigate, simplistic blog with many options and applications for the reader to interact with my blog.

How to Lucid Dream

My dream journal was put on hold for the holiday weekend because the lake is more important.  Just kidding, I only had one dream that is worth posting.  I have been attempting to lucid dream by using different techniques listed on the internet.  Lucid dreaming is when a person is completely aware that they are dreaming, and has the possibility to control those dreams.  If anyone is interesting in lucid dreaming, here are a few tips...

1. Mind Meditation - The first and easiest technique to try is mental night-time meditation.  The best times to lucid dream are once you have had 4-5 hours of sleep and your mind is in a half asleep state.  Keep repeating to yourself, "I will lucid dream tonight, I will lucid dream tonight," and that helps trick the brain into believing it IS possible to lucid dream.
2. Reality Checks - During the day, write a number on your hand or try to push your hand through each door you walk through or do some sort of real life interaction.  If one does this throughout the day, it makes our mind remember associations, which can then follow us into our dreams.  If there is no number on your hand, or you can push your hand through the door, then you are lucid dreaming.  It helps the mind go from reality to dream.
3. Dream Journal - Creating a dream journal and writing in it daily can bring about similar aspects of each of your dreams.  This will help you become more acquainted with how you dream.  It can help regulate your dreams and understand them more clearly.
4. Visualize and Day Dream - All of us could do a little bit of day dreaming during our class or bored at work.  Visualize what your dream may be, or what you would want to do IF you do lucid dream.  If you create a strong dream scenario or wish in your mind, your subconscious mind could take that wish and create a dream based on the images your mind has created.

If you just read this,  try to lucid dream with me tonight or throughout the week.  If you really give it a shot, your results may not be immediate, but you will feel some sort of progress.  Remember, your mind is very powerful and deep, and lucid dreaming is a way to explore the depth. Have fun!

First post

This will be my first post in Every Night Im Dreaming.  Last night, I had very low activity of dreams, I only slept for about six hours and was very tired.  I think that when I am very tired, I have a low activity of dreams.  However, I have had very vivid, even lucid dreams when I have been most tired and sleep deprived.  It is either a hit or miss.  Two nights ago, I had short, strange dreams that I could not decipher from reality and dream state.  I kept feeling myself fall asleep and in my dream, I was entering through two doors opening towards me, with bright lights shining through the opening.  It honestly scared me, you know how they say, "Don't go into the light!"  I did not get very good sleep but I tried a lucid dreaming technique.  If you repeat to yourself, I am in a lucid dream, I am in a lucid dream, than it is possible to lucid dream.  There are many techniques to lucid dreaming and for those of your who don't know what it is...Lucid dreaming is when you are completely aware that you are dreaming, and you have the ability to control your dreams.  You could fly, run, travel, whatever your mind can allow you.  There are many different techniques to attempt a lucid dream and sometimes it will just happen naturally.  An average person has 5-10 lucid dreams in their life, except the ones who are practicing every night.  It is a skill, just like playing a sport, the more you practice, the better you can get at lucid dreaming.  This blog will be a journal of my dreams and explaining my attempts to lucid dream.