Dreamwork, what they call working with your dreams, can be tricky.
You can go for a period where you think you’re not having any dreams.
When that happens, dreamwork is hard. If you’re not having any dreams, you’re not able to work with anything.
Yet you are. EEGs and the techs at a sleep lab don’t habitually lie. It’s relatively common in sleep labs to have people who insist that they’re not sleeping at night. The scanner that they’ve attached to their head tells otherwise. They just don’t recognize their dreamstate for what it is.
We’ve all had slice of life dreams like that. They come off as so close to our daily life that we can’t tell the difference. Instead of a dream, they pass themselves off as a memory if we realize that we’re in bed. Instead of dreaming, we think we’re thinking about things.
What do you about dreamless night(s)?
While you’re sleeping, consider trying to perceive the dream (or thought) closely. In the real world, we can come upon a scene with other people. They can see things that we miss and vice versa. In our dreams, it can be harder. We only have ourselves to rely upon. With your mind’s eye, you’re going to pick up on subtle differences between the real world and your dream.
Dreams can be incredibly simple, just as at the same time, they can be very complicated with numerous characters and twists and turns in the “plot.” Simple dreams can be easily mistaken for “thinking about something.” For example, thinking about a road you drive up and down to go to work every day. Because it’s tied to you working and your job, it can easily come to mean something to you.
Because the dream is so simple, you might not even see it as a dream.
In this dream from 2019, I was dreaming about a gathering of my extended family. Above the dinner table, an ectoplasm floated. I was unsure if my subconscious perceived something that my conscious mind missed or if it was just a reflection of the idea that if everyone was going to get together for a dinner, some of the deceased members of the family might like to join in and be part of it.
Upon reflection, either could be true.
If you’re not able to pick up on an obvious tell that you’re having a dream, you can always write a few lines about what topics were occupying your mind. It’s worthwhile because there’s always a reason why you were thinking (dreaming) what you were.
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