When dreams ebb and flow
Are there weeks where you remember many dreams, and others where they seem to fade altogether? Have you ever had a dream drought, and what can you do to bring back the flow? Do dreams naturally ebb and flow over days, weeks, months, or even years, or is it our ability to recall our dreams that fluctuates? If you’ve been following my work, you’ll know that we all dream, although some conditions such as sleep
Reaching for the moon
I live quite lightly, but I do have some archive boxes where I keep special mementoes, and some things that I have treasured for so long that I can’t throw out. One of these ‘can’t throw out’ items is the first edition of a magazine that I made for my school in February 1966. It was only ever a single copy, because it was handwritten, glued, and stapled, but it was shared around the classes
The best dream ever
It’s a question journalists often ask me. “What’s the most amazing dream you’ve ever had?” It’s a great question, but it floors me every time. There are so many astounding dreams to choose from, and they’re each amazing in their own way. Was my most amazing dream the one I had as a child, where I could lay down at the edge of a lake and, where adults saw only a smooth reflective surface of
Dreaming the same dream
“My wife and I both dreamed that our house was violently broken into. Why did we have the same dream, on the same night, at the same time?” I was on a Breakfast radio show in Perth, Western Australia, and the question came from Pete, one of the presenters. Since our discussion was live, I can share the story with you here. Many people might wake up from this dream and check the house for
Foraging for treasure
I was admiring photos of broken pieces of antique pottery, hand blown glass, a clay pipe, and an inkwell, all mudlarking treasures foraged from English river mud by Carys, a friend on Instagram, and it took me back to childhood expeditions to the gardening allotments near my grandmother’s house in Portsmouth, England. Portsmouth was heavily bombed during World War Two, with some 6,ooo houses destroyed and a greater number severely damaged. Both my maternal and
The silver turquoise goat
Once upon a dream, standing at an open casement window, resting my elbows on the sill, I noticed a silvery shining in the flowerbed below. My heart leapt, for there it was, something very precious to me, a gleaming silver statue of a goat, studded in turquoise gems, half-hidden in the foliage like a discarded child’s toy. I reached through the window and nestled it into my arms. It fitted perfectly, being about as long
Dream interpretation chart
Interpreting dreams is an immersive affair. If you really want to understand and gain helpful insight from a dream, dabbling in the shallow waters around the edges of the dream isn’t going to take you there. Playing with one symbol from your dream isn’t going to take you there. Meditating upon the dream and emerging with an intuitive understanding isn’t going to take you the whole way there. All of these approaches are important, the
Common dreams
“Let’s go back to basics today,” suggested the producer of a television show I’m on from time to time, “and give people some tips about those dreams we all share: teeth falling out, being naked in a public place, falling, being pregnant, being chased.” I thought I’d follow the same cue for today’s blog. Much as I enjoy getting into the nitty-gritty of more complex dreams in my day-to-day work as a dream analyst and
Do drugs affect dreams?
Do drugs, whether medicinal or recreational, affect dreams? Let’s begin with medicinal drugs. If you take any of the following, you may have noticed an increase in vivid or upsetting dreams or nightmares: Anti-depressants (SSRIs), beta-blockers for blood pressure, Alzheimer’s medications such as donepezil and rivastigmine, statins for lowering cholesterol, Parkinson’s medications such as amantadine, steroids such as prednisone & methylprednisolone, and anti-histamines, either over the counter or prescribed, for allergies. Not everyone taking these
Past, present, and future
“Why dig up the past? Isn’t that what you do when you explore your unconscious mind through your dreams?” It’s a common perception that the unconscious mind is a minefield of explosive repressed emotions and bad memories buried in a vault of trash and long discarded mental clutter. To some extent it is, but it’s also a treasure trove, a gold mine. While you may think of your unconscious mind as a dark reservoir of