Help with Recurrent Dream Please

I need some help with a dream. I'll get right to it. I woke up this morning and was bothered by this dream which I immediately realized was a dream I had experienced many times.

I have always loved to sleep because I can interact, or I guess "direct" my dreams. I can wake up, go to the bathroom and go back to bed continuing where I left off in my dream.
I don't know if there's a name for that or not.

Anyway, to make it short, I dreamed that I sent my husband out to get 3 new dead bolt locks for the doors and was very concerned because I kept going from window to window and room to room yet couldn't get the windows to lock properly. I was very anxious like something was going to get me if I didn't get the windows and doors secured. It seemed like I tried over and over again with no luck.

This dream has happened many times along with another dream about being in some dark house in which I go from room to room in search of something but never find whatever I'm looking for.

I have even woke up and my eyelids were sore and I remember in my dream trying to open my eyes because I was aware they were closed so I could see better yet no matter how I tried to open them they wouldn't open.

Any idea why I keep having these two dreams.

I don't know if this helps but I have had sort of a series of recuring dreams. Now they aren't exactly reaccuring dreams but they are always at the same place and the same feel, just different things happen each time. In them I am always in this old, abandonded I would assume, house out in the woods. The house is sort of victorian style I guess, and dark green. It is sort of boarded up. There is never any owner in the house but everytime I am in it I have this very overwhelming fear that something evil is there watching me. If there are others with me in my dream they start ending up missing but I never see what happens. Now for me this is the only real nightmare I have I am 30 now and havent had a nightmare other than these since I was around 8, 9 ish. And I am not easily scared so it always bugs me that the feeling I get from these dreams are so strong. Let me know if any of this sounds familiar with your dreams you spoke of.

[edit on 9-7-2008 by 1Veritas]

reply to post by Bachrk


Well, you asked - it's quite likely your (and everyone's) dreams are the result of the build up of memories and experiences stored within your mind over your entire lifetime.

As such, the older and/or more experienced you get, the more likely you are to have a dream with a meaning behind it - More Experience = More sensory data with which to correlate with the imagination (which is essentially the concious dream).

The meanings can be important and they can be meaningless - meaningless meanings are all around us, of course, it just depends on your perspective.

It can involve you personally, perhaps contradicting your personality, and it can involve other people too - a whisper or a slight change in a person's eyes, for example.

It's up to you to decide whether it's worth investigating your dreams for meanings.

One peice of advice however; You are directing your own dreams - be very careful about any perceived meanings you may find.

Often there is... an existential question... when i do things like that.

reply to post by Anti-Tyrant


"One peice of advice however; You are directing your own dreams - be very careful about any perceived meanings you may find.

Often there is... an existential question... when i do things like that. "

Can you explain further what you mean. I have always intercepted dreams and directed them. I thought everyone could do this until my husband and I were talking and he said he couldn't do this and it didn't seem normal?

It seems you have a native gift for lucid dreaming. But clearly the dream you're talking about wasn't a lucid one, because you were in a stressful situation and couldn't manipulate the dream scenario to get out of it.

As to the meaning of your dream, I should it was pretty obvious.

You feel your security threatened and are trying to reinforce it. It could be your ego, your life or your marriage that you perceive as threatened. You regard your husband as partly responsible for protecting you from the threat. You fear or believe that he isn't playing his part as well as he should.

(Edited to fix typo)

[edit on 9-7-2008 by Astyanax]

reply to post by Astyanax


Well that is an interesting theory!
Maybe I am a sucker for being miserable or anxious as I know while dreaming that the dream is unsettling but it's like I make that decision to stay anyway because I really feel like I'm looking for something and if I stay and let it play out without interference I might find what I'm looking for. Does that make sense?

I just get the impression I'm looking for something and can't stop until I figure out what it is.

reply to post by Bachrk

I really feel like I'm looking for something and if I stay and let it play out without interference I might find what I'm looking for. Does that make sense?

It sounds plausible, but the psychology of lucid dreaming is very poorly understood. It is claimed that lucid dreaming can have therapeutic benefits, but I don't think that has really been proved one way or another; you're in terra incognita here, carrying out your own personal experiment. I would suggest learning more about lucid dreaming and obtaining some professional advice if you plan to go that route.

If you're an experienced and frequent lucid dreamer, the Lucidity Institute, which carries out research into lucid dreams, may be interested in you. And maybe they can help you in your quest. Its founder, Stephen LaBerge, is generally considered the pioneer of scientific lucid dream research. You can read more about him (and lucid dreaming in general) in a well-written, unbiased and (dare I say it) lucid article here.

As to the interpretation of dreams, I find it very hard to interpret my own and rarely try to. Other people's dreams are usually much easier, though. Not to say that my interpretation of yours is necessarily correct, of course.

reply to post by Bachrk


my 1st impression was that you felt insecure about something

and that you have some unresolved issues with some kind of fear.

but only you can answer what that could be.

I think you are going to have to take action inside the dream. Tell yourself what you are going to do different before you go to bed, think about it during the day too. Basically I would stop trying to pry the eyelids open, that has never worked for me. If you are in your house, you should be able to stop for a second and make yourself sit down, look at the floor or close your eyes and just try to figure out how you are feeling and what the problem in the dream is. Also, if you are looking for something think positive. Think "I will find what I am looking for" Doesn't matter what it is. You don't have to be fully lucid to do these sorts of things, and like you said you have some experience in guiding your dreams.

And if you are serious about this, then I would jot down notes of any details or anything that stood out with a pen and paper when you wake up from the dream. And write down ideas for next time. I think if you do this you will be past this recurring dream in no time and able to go on to other dreams. I think your dream is all about anxiety and not much more meaning to it, nothing worth worrying over, just my hunch. These really are a headache and annoying knowing that your dreams were wasted on something so unsavory. I'd make every effort to just get past it.

I agree there is a security issue in play here. I also think the fact that you know your eyes are closed and are trying to open them is relevant. It could be that there is an element of denial involved. I think you know what you are looking for, and you know where it is, but you are subconsciously avoiding locating and confronting whatever the threat is.

Only you can answer the question of what it is you are avoiding finding and why you don't want to find it. Something to do with your husband may be part of the answer, as you are tasking him with going to get the locks you need.

If, as you have said you can direct your dreams, then empower yourself in your dream to determine the threat and overcome it.

If this happens you will have energized your psyche to take action in your waking life and deal with the threat which you are apparently in denial of.

Work out the scenario for a satisfactory conclusion in advance, contemplate the scenario just before sleeping to strengthen it.

In many ways sleeping is like reducing the scale of a three dimensional map. Events learned too strongly are reduced in significance to make room for new significant events.

This is why recurring dreams are ofter related to traumas. The significance of the trauma is gradually diminished during the recurrant dreaming. This is natural and good, unless the intensity of the recurrant dream is so great that it reinforces the memory of the trauma. If you can reduce the significance of your stress reaction during the dreaming you are facilitating the process.

A failure to remap during dreaming would lead to a catastrophic simultaneous loss of all learning when the number of datapoints exceed the number of neural connections. This is a known threshold problem in Neural Network computing.

You may ask yourself why you did not do this on your own. The answer is simple, you are in denial of the waking threat, and do not have the current strength of psychy to face it. I hope you have the strength to take this advice.

Sweet Dreams!

[edit on 10-7-2008 by Cyberbian]

[edit on 10-7-2008 by Cyberbian]

I mean that my mind is jumping around the truth(s) like a metaphorical kangaroo.

Ever get the feeling that there is always this nagging feeling that you can't see all that you should be able to in your dreams?

This in Reply to Cyberian (I must have clicked the wrong part)

Are you saying that a person should allow the recurring dreams to happen as many times as neccessary, until they are over it? Or are you saying they should try to get over it by taking control in the dream? To say it's just strength of psyche seems somewhat like it's out of the persons control, but does conciousness itself not trump all?

I am not challenging you but I found what you were saying interesting. If you read my post are you and I not speaking on similar levels?

These sorts of things happen to me from time to time. Dreams where I wonder: should I experience more with this dream, or move on?

[edit on 10-7-2008 by Novise]