About Dreams...

[Domino]

I do not know if other people have this problem, but I can do pretty much do anything I desire while dreaming, but for some reason in my Dreams, I am unable to RUN.

I know this sounds like a stupid post, but in Dreams where I am trying to run, I just seem to stay in place or just walk normal speed.  Hell, I have been able to fly with no problem, but Running is impossible.  I don't know if while sleeping I am kicking my legs back and forth against the wall making it impossible to Run.

When I wake up, I am thinking to myself, why was I running in place? It is a weird feeling. I once dreamt that AGA was trying to kill me, but I could not run away.

Next time, maybe I should just fly away.

Anybody else with weird dream problems?

[m0ds]

Not being able to run is extremely common, especially with nightmares. But if it's just normal dreams, then I'm not entirely sure the connection. I had a thick book on dreams once upon a time, and I'm pretty sure that it said motionless running was really just a reflection of your desire to succeed in life but not being able to achieve it. Don't worry, it doesn't mean you WON'T achieve, it just means you've recognised recently that you're maybe struggling in an area or two, that's all.

I've had a lot of vivid dreams recently. The other day I dreamt I had a motorbike and was able to jump from one tiny ramp to another about 50 feet away. I've had some fantastic dreams lately about driving and sailing ships, too. A couple of nights ago I smoked a spliff in front of Gordon Brown and he didn't care, LOL. But I generally don't strike "problems" in my dreams.

We had a huge discussion here once about lucid dreaming, and I think quite a few people tried it out, myself including. I managed to lucid dream one night, and one night only, for, in dream terms, about 20 seconds, before which it got too much for me and I broke out of it and woke up in a hot sweat. It really is something. It's like a damn good drug without any substance abuse! So I would recommend people to try & give it a go. The sense of power over yourself is also something great.

Here's more thoughts on running in dreams for you, Domino. Good luck

http://en.mimi.hu/dreams/running.html

[Darth Mandarb]

I have a reoccurring dream where I'm being chased and no matter how I try my freakin' legs just don't want to work.

As Mods said, I always interpreted it as my subconscious telling me I'm "running" towards something big, but I'm having trouble achieving it.

I've always been fascinated by dreams.

[TheJBurger]

Whenever you are being chased by someone--that's usually the only time that you are unable to run.

[Moresco]

Yeah when I was a bit younger, I had dreams where I'd be trying to get away from people and would make it to the end of the sidewalk to where I was no longer able to go any further no matter what.  Not able to run, nor walk away, just stuck there all the time.  Weird eh?

But I think it was something to do with freedom and fear, because I don't have those dreams anymore and I think they signified a desire to go somewhere in life but being too young to make my own decisions.  Heh or maybe it means that a little boy was buried underneath that point in the sidewalk, and he was trying to communicate with me from the other side?! =o

[Babar]

I've probably said all this stuff before, but seeing how bad my memory is (or how long ago that was), I'll just say it again.

There have been some occasions when I haven't been able to run, and at the time it made perfect sense. Like this one time I couldn't move while on train tracks with the train coming, then I realised I was actually in a dream, so I checked my pockets for something to save me. I found a toffee, ate it, and woke up. The funny thing is, for some reason, I have to rationalise and explain everything in my dreams. Like even when I 'fly', I realise that I can't really fly, so I end up kind of 'gliding' (running around, and then suddenly lifting up my legs). And it makes perfect sense at the time!

Lucid dreaming is fun, but it only ever happened to me accidentally. I'd realise suddenly that I can do whatever I want, try my best to do it as quick as possible, then wake up. Another weird thing is I've not had a nightmare in years and years. I have the weirdest and most warped dreams, the most absurd and memorable dreams, but not nightmares- what few nightmares I've had, I still sort of remember.

[RickJ]

I've heard that the "not being able to run thing" has something to do with the mechanism that partially paralyzes us will we are sleeping.  Such a mechanism is required else we would go about wreaking havoc in our sleep.

[MrColossal]

I also had heard that a chemical in the brain that paralyzes the body so we don't flail around at night also affects short term memory which is why it's so hard to remember dreams... Pretty fascinating!

Though I should look into that again because it was a while since I last heard that...

[Darth Mandarb]

I've heard that the "not being able to run thing" has something to do with the mechanism that partially paralyzes us will we are sleeping.  Such a mechanism is required else we would go about wreaking havoc in our sleep.

I never thought of that before.  That's very probably true!  I often have sleep paralysis.  I wake up from a dream (partially) but cannot move because my body is still paralyzed.  For those that don't know, what Rick is talking about, is that when you sleep your body excretes some hormone that paralyzes your muscles to prevent you from acting out your dream(s) while sleeping.  Sometimes the mind partially wakes up but the body is still paralyzed and it leads to some interesting (and often terrifying) experiences.

One time I 'awoke' but couldn't move.  I was on my side facing the window.  The window was open and three HUGE dragonflies flew in through the window and hovered over me drooling all over me and glaring menacingly at me with evil intent!!

Another time I awoke, on my back, and there was a little man standing on my chest.  I couldn't lower my head to look directly at him, but I could just see him in my lower peripheral vision.  He didn't talk, but just stood there.  I could even feel his feet on my chest.

This happens to me quite frequently.  I think I'm just prone to it.  I don't have the facts, but I'd wager that sleep-walkers are people who's bodies don't always produce the paralyzing hormone.

[Tuomas]

A tiny man standing on your chest :O That's sounds so utterly awesome. I'm a really easy sleeper myself. Of course at time I too have problems falling asleep or I see nightmares, but usually I just dream my own and wake up and remember the same amount with no pre/post-dream experiences. Though little gnomes on me would really be something I'd like to experience, at least once.

[TerranRich]

I've had sleep paralysis before, but no visions. Instead, I have these terrible feelings of an other-worldly presence, somewhere out of sight. Of course I can't turn my head to look, I just lay there, unable to move, while a loud buzzing sound scares me half to death. I have to literally jerk my body, like "snapping" back to reality.

[Darth Mandarb]

I've had sleep paralysis before, but no visions. Instead, I have these terrible feelings of an other-worldly presence, somewhere out of sight. Of course I can't turn my head to look, I just lay there, unable to move, while a loud buzzing sound scares me half to death. I have to literally jerk my body, like "snapping" back to reality.

Yeah, same thing for me from time to time.

I have a theory (and it's not just my theory) that 'alien abductions' are actually just cases of sleep paralysis.

[MrColossal]

Indeed Darth, there's a nice interview with a lady who did a study on sleep paralysis and ended up talking to people who said they were abducted from aliens. Turns out everything they said happened during their supposed abduction lined up pretty well with common sleep paralysis.

She also goes into [trying to relate this from memory...] how the commonly held image of aliens changes as the years go on and as the television got more popular. It started as demons and then monsters and then humanoid aliens and then the grey aliens we see a lot of now-a-days but in the UK they started with robots and eventually ended up with the greys as information spread and people started to subconsciously change their perception of sleep paralysis... Sure a little off topic but still FASCINATING HOLY CRAP!

I wish I could find the podcast, it was either Radio Lab or Are We Alone by SETI

[Oliwerko]

Strange.

I don't have any unable-to-run dreams.
There are a few things that are common in my dreams:

I don't fly NEVER. I've never flied in my dreams. Instead of that, I do long, very long jumps. But it's not exactly flying. I just kick off the ground and I do a normal step, that is about 15 meters long and about half a metre above the ground. I walk the streets like this. And, sometimes the horrible part comes. I jump and am unable to reach ground again. I keep floating, and when I try to do something, I just jump even higher. That's a perfectly odd feeling. It's difficult to describe, but these long jumps are very comfortable and relaxing, as long as I can reach the ground again.

And one nightmare keeps repeating on me every few years. When I was a kid, I've had a dream that I'm in an elevator going normally down and between second and first floor, the elevator slows down, leans on the right and scratches on the sides of the shaft, sounds of screaping metal are everywhere and I'm slowly going down below the basement level into the shaft. Also some thick metal rod crashes its way into the cabin in the first floor. Horrible.

[Snake]

I have the same problem except it isn't running I can't do, it's punching. Whenever I have a dream I'm fighting, I can't for the life of me punch hard enough.

I also never realize it is infact a dream until I'm awake. It's extremely rare that I know I'm dreaming.

[Domino]

My Dreams are Very Vivid, I can pretty much recall everything that happened in them...Colors, smells, locations, people, etc. I go in to work the next day and tell everybody about my Dreams and they think I am weird.

I have had a few dreams the past few nights where i have met a really nice girl, end up falling in love with her (no sex), then wake up and saying to myself...Damn, why did that have to be a dream.

Probably because I haven't had a serious relationship in 10 years. How sad.  :'(

[Tuomas]

Perhaps, you never know, you're just seeing what's going to happen. Someone's trying to give you a signal to go out there and do your best!

[MonkeySpank]

the damn brakes NEVER work when I drive in my dreams so I always end up swimming out of a river or crashing into a tree or something like that..

running is often a problem too, but when I have those dreams when you know you're dreaming, then I can force myself into a run by bending very low with my torso.. kinda like He-man from the old masters of the universe series.. that way i'm real fast.. dunno why, but it works

[Oliwerko]

Oh, and do you guys see yourself dying/being hurt?

I am never hurt/dead, but when the situation is going to hurt/kill me, I immediately wake up. I can see the moment before I am killed/hurt, but that's it, it ends there.

[Stupot]

The only time I can recall ever running in a dream was when I was young, I had a recurring dream where I was in my bedroom, and I would run out of my bedroom onto the landing and then jump (almost fly) down the stairs and then wake up just before I hit the bottom...

But as far as I can recall I've never had one where I've been trying and failing to run.