What you need to know
Dreams don’t tell you what to do. They shine a light on what you need to know. Uncharacteristically, I’m keeping today’s blog short, sharp, and, I hope, sweet. I enjoy writing as much as I enjoy dreaming and exploring dreams – my own and other people’s – but today I want to get across a key message: dreams don’t tell you what to do; they shine a light on what you need to know. Imagine
Oneirology
“We’re doing a series on the ologies,” the radio producer said, “and we’d like you to talk about oneirology, the scientific study of dreams.” Ah, the ologies, I thought, looking back to my university student days, and the exciting ologies on offer back in the very early 1970s. I had been channelled along the serious science route through grammar school: chemistry and physics, since biology was considered more suitable for arts students. Thankfully I was
Fever dreams
Is there such a thing as a fever dream? Are the dreams we have during a fever significantly different from our usual dreams? While many people report no change in their dreams during a fever, others have noticed specific patterns, and research tends to support some common themes. Let’s explore: A common fever dream theme is spatial distortion: spaces changing size, walls moving, solid objects melting. Pretty scary if you’re caught up in a dream
Does perimenopause cause more vivid dreams?
As if night sweats, broken sleep, middle-of-the-night anxiety, or insomnia aren’t enough to deal with during perimenopause, many women report having more worrying vivid dreams throughout these tumultuous years. Let’s get the definitions out of the way first: Perimenopause refers to the period (pardon the pun) of time when a woman’s levels of oestrogen and progesterone fluctuate wildly in the lead up to menopause. It usually lasts for several years, and, although symptoms vary from
The road ahead
When I was a young adult, I had a recurring dream where my car windscreen would mist up and I couldn’t see the road ahead. The complication was that I was the driver, and the mist would often descend when I was driving along a highway or through a complex series of narrow winding pot-holed streets. I’m not sure which was worse, they each involved me trying to get off the road safely without melting
Why are dreams weird?
We dream to process our waking life experiences, so why are so many of our dreams completely weird, apparently nothing like waking life? You might think that processing a relationship breakup while you sleep might manifest as a dream about your ex, or some recognisable scenarios from the final days. Instead, you have a dream that seems totally unrelated, a dog with wings jumping off a cliff, or finding a rare delicate flower growing in
Sleep Tracking with a Garmin
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks sleeping with a Garmin watch strapped to my wrist to monitor my sleep patterns and the amount of time I spend dreaming. What have I learned? I successfully resisted playing with sleep technology until now, but curiosity got the better of me. I thought about getting an Oura ring, as I’m a dedicated analogue watch wearer, and didn’t really want to wear two watches, but then I didn’t
What’s your dream-flying style?
How do you fly in your dreams? Do you flap your arms like a bird taking off, stretch your arms to each side like a gliding eagle, do a kind of swimming breaststroke, point a determined finger skyward and launch like Superman, hover just above the treeline, get trapped in the powerlines, or do little run-hop-skip-jumps with the occasional airborne balletic Grand Plié? What’s your flying style? And how often do you dream of flying
Dreaming of a deceased relative giving a death date
“A dead relative came to me in a dream and gave me the date of my death, please help!” Several times a year, people reach out to ask me this exact question. More often, people tell me about dreams where they’ve previewed their death date, or the age at which they will die, or the dateless scenario or location of their death. If you know my work well, you’ll know that all dreams are symbolic,
Sleeping with strangers
Last November we flew to England to visit my family. The trip from Australia to the UK is tediously long, and especially arduous when you travel economy class, as we do, with very little room to move, snoozing shoulder-to-shoulder with complete strangers. The last leg of our journey was from Doha, Qatar, a mere 7.5 hours following the 14.5 hour flight from Melbourne to Doha and a quick run from one end of the airport