Kathleen Valenti

Dream On

One reason I decided to double my major—and my fun—by adding psychology to my English literature studies was my fascination with dreams.

Okay, sure, the idea of psychoanalyzing coworkers when I wasn’t diagramming sentences or analyzing Swift (two tasks I was certain I’d perform with my lit degree) had more than a little appeal. But it was the thought of being tasked with interpreting dreams that really brought me to the psych department’s proverbial table.

I imagined myself as some kind of investigator of the psyche, spelunking deep into the subconscious to uncover the hidden meaning of The Dream of the Discarded Coffee Cup. Instead, I have ended up playing amateur dream detective. More Nancy Drew than Sherlock Holmes.

Honestly? I’m good with it.

My dreamscape is a weird and wonderful complement to my sleepwalking. The two go together like Freud and a cigar. My sleepwalking involves (or rather involved since it’s largely abated) me responding to or acting out various dreams. Examples include a dream that I was late to work (not very interesting) and that my bedroom wall was made out of gigantic spiders (not very fun).

The thing is, my dreams have a wide range. I have typical the recurring dreams (e.g. I’m forgot to go to class all semester and have arrived just in time for a test), and a host of dreams that can only be categorized as odd.

I once dreamed that I opened the shower curtain to reveal The Supremes, fully clothed in bedazzled gowns, who began to serenade me. Then I dreamed I had a long conversation with John Travolta about his commitment to Scientology. Lest you think my dreams I are all celebrity-based, I also once dreamed that I was tired. That goes down in history as the most boring. And the most accurate.

I have friends who swear their dreams are precognitive, and their tales are convincing. I have other friends whose dreams so closely and symbolically reflect what’s going on in their lives, they could be entries in a psych text book.

No such luck with my dream states. The most interesting thing about my reveries is that 95% of them occur in my childhood home.

Still, dreams hold sway over me, and I believe in their ability to shine a light—even a penlight—on what our waking minds are working on. Plus, one of my dreams did come true. I became an author. So there’s that.

Dear friends, do you have any interesting dream stories? Recurring dreams? Predictive ones? So silly you woke up laughing? Please share!

30 thoughts on “Dream On”

  1. Brilliant, Kathy! I used to have a recurring dream about a very large tarantula killing itself with a sharp stick as a cowboy and my friend Marsha looked on! I wish all the arachnids in my real life were so easily dispatched. Not sure why other people were there as witnesses. But the cowboy was cute, and Marsha is completely trustworthy!

    I’d love to have the Supremes singing in my shower!

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  2. I can usually remember my dreams, but recently, they’ve been the boring doing-tasks variety. In college, I remember reading about Jungian dream analysis. Back then, I did sometimes have dreams where I lost teeth–renewal?

    The funniest (yet most awkward) dream I heard about was my colleague biting his spouse because he’d been dreaming about eating char siu bao!

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  3. I have fun dreams like sleeping with celebrities. Sadly, I can tell when I’m dreaming if it’s actually the hubbs and just has the celebrity body. What’s that mean, Kathy?

    Most of the other dreams I have are when I’m being chased by evil, or being held down by evil. First time in 12 years with the hubbs was last month when he woke up to hear me moaning desperately, because I don’t scream in my dreams, I moan because I can’t open my mouth.

    Let’s see, I dreamed once our cat was driving a yellow caterpillar contraption, trying to break into the neighbors basement.

    And yes, I do have prediction dreams, but most people don’t believe them.

    Hestia

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    1. Hestia, I’ve had those sleeping with celeb dreams too! I had one recently but I can’t remember who was my lucky partner, lolol! And I also can’t scream in my sleep. I’ve had that same experience – waking up trying to scream. It’s freaky.

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  4. Kathy, this is fascinating! I almost minored in Psychology. I did so well in Intro Psych I was invited to do Honors, which I did. After that, it was going to get all science-y, so I stuck to my theatre degree. But I kept a lot of my psych and theatre textbooks and guess which ones I’ve gone back to over and over again.

    I have those horrible falling dreams, which literally wake me up with a start. This could account for my general fear of heights. I’m sure they’re somehow related. I’ve also had the out-of-body dreams where you’re kind of awake. I had one as a kid that was so strong I swore it was absolutely real and kept trying to recreate it. I never could.

    BTW, when you wrote “Swift,” I was sure you meant Taylor! Sign o’ the times.

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  5. Sounds like you have some lucid dreaming magic, Ellen! And those falling dreams are dreadful.

    I literally laughed out loud at the Swift comment. Taylor’s work would deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeefinitely be more to peruse!

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  6. Kathy, I was a double Psych/English major, too! Wish I could tell you anything at all about my dreams, but…I can never remember them, even when I’ve just woken up. They’re pretty boring, I guess. The only ones that do remain vivid to me were visits bearing present-life announcements from loved ones on the other side (I’ve mentioned before, so won’t repeat here!).

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  7. Like you, Kathy, one of my most common recurring dreams is of taking a test I haven’t studied for because I had no idea I was in the class. I’ve had one or two lucid dreams over the years, but when I told myself to fly–because that’s what we all want to do, right?–it was pretty much of a bust, alas.

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    1. That test dream is a common one, I think, but still feels so unnerving in the dream!! I also had the dream that I didn’t really get my degree (or diploma) and have to repeat school. Pretty sure this was a Drew Barrymore movie.

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  8. i used to have a lot of bad dreams that involved me running. From what, I never remembered, but they would wake my wife up with my legs “running” in bed. Interestingly, at least to me, when I left working for a law firm, those dreams went away. Looking back, I think my brain was telling me to get out of that line of work.

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  9. Beside the usual going to class when I haven’t been there or studied for the test, I used to have dreams where I was trying to hide from someone/something, and they were always nearby searching for me. This is different from the slow motion running and they are about to catch me. This was hiding while they search. Haven’t had one for a while. (No watch, I’ll have one tonight.)

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  10. I don’t usually remember my dreams – except if I fall back asleep early in the morning (e.g., I wake at five, but fall back into a liminal state until 6:30 or 7).

    The oddest one I think I’ve had involved buying tires from my son’s taekwondo instructor at a McDonald’s drive-thru.

    No one has been able to interpret that one – including me!

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  11. Such an interesting discussion between the post and the comments. I’m amazed at how often I have the didn’t-know-I-was-in-the-class-and-now-I’m-taking-the-final dream. Another one I have on the regular is the teeth falling out. I’m chalking them up to stress. All the scariest dreams I’ve ever had take place in the ocean. I have no idea what that means.

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    1. The classroom and teeth dreams seem to be classics! Very interesting about the ocean. I would love that as a premise for a book about someone with gaps in her memory that are filled in by dreams of being adrift at sea!

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  12. I’m not surprised we have similar degrees. English major, Psych minor, and I was chasing an elementary ed. Certificate. At the age of 30-35. I ran the house, made sure our girl-child was doing her homework, and my late wife was taken care of. So, my question is exactly what level of crazy am I?!?! lol! I have Ambien induced dreams for you. A little too embarrassing to admit publicly. And a very interesting one re: my favorite cousin the night she miscarried. We didn’t know the gender, our grandmother “spoke” to me from Heaven, she told me HE was too sick to live and he made it to Heaven just fine. I told my cousin, the fetus was, in fact, a boy.

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  13. I have the weirdest dreams that I do not know where they come from. Nothing in them is recurring or something I have done or read. The only thing that is kind of recurring is that I am still teaching school or in college, but it is not what I taught or majored in. So strange. And they convolute as I am dreaming. If fact, I wake up and turn on the TV to get rid of them and then fall asleep again and dream a different dream. Sometimes I remember them but mostly they are like at the edge of my memory.

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