Dreams - What Are They All About?!

Nowadays you can buy all number of books about dreams, but I'm not so sure they'd be much help interpreting some of my dreams!

Recently, I had three lucid dreams in one night. One involved my ginger cat, Gremlin, being stuck in a concrete drain, running along the ground in next door's garden (it doesn't exist in reality). My late Father was in attendance, and said: "We'll have to wait till that cheetah has gone before we can get her out." The RSPCA* man was getting flustered, but we got her out in the end. At least this dream has some explanation, as Gremlin had been difficult in enticing in the day before, so my anxiety was transplanted into my subconscious a few hours later - the dream experts would say.

As for the other dreams, I'm not sure...

The second involved my being stranded in a foreign country, in the presence of someone who insisted: "I'm like Spencer Tracy, aren't I?" There was an actress there, being difficult, and I ended up unable to get back till the next day.

The final dream was about a man coming round to my home for a survey. I was busy on my computer, but he was insistent: "You'll have a chance to win some prizes."

Then I woke up, so I'll never know!

I guess dream 'experts' will say all three dreams confirm anxiety on my part, but the study of dreams is not an exact science. As a creative type, maybe my subconscious is helping me in trying to give me ideas. I also dream more if I'm up late writing.

Maybe, in a parallel universe, my double is living out my dreams in reality (perish the thought), and my life is my double's dreams (again, perish the thought).

Remembering dreams is also difficult. If you have a disturbed night's sleep, then that is when you'll normally be able to remember your dreams. When you wake up normally, the subconscious will have switched off to let you return to the world of reality!

Sadly, I don't think you can control your dreams. If I'm having a good dream (no prizes for what a man often considers a good dream...), it's inevitable that I'll wake up. Nightmares normally work in a different way. I'll get woken up when the 'mare has done its worst!

Lots of theories persist about dreams, including the theory that dreams were important in early man's existence, and that he or she would actually act out the coming day in his/her dreams, and that'd be preparation for keeping oneself alive when the dangers of the coming day unravelled. But, like life itself, dreams are still a mystery.

* British animal charity, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.