text: To embark on a project of writing about dreams proves most difficult. Our dreams are so personal, filled with abstract states, emotions, and imaging. It is like writting a report on channel surfing, where the remote control is flipping with random speed. Then you must record what you saw, and interpret what the scenes meant to you, not to mention what they might mean to others. Yet this is not an attempt to group individual dream experiences into one category. I however hope to shed some light on this nocturnal phenomenon.
  We spend 1/3 of our lives asleep. Researchers agree that we dream each night, and when deprived of our dream state the human body and mind begin to break down. For those who swear no dreaming occurs I offer you this quote, "Psychological tests suggest that people who tend to avoid facing anxieties in daily life, may show a reluctance too remembering their dreams". We may not all believe in a higher power, religion, spirituality, or even have ethics, yet like it or not we all dream. We all share this magical experience, what a wonderful thing to have in common.
  "No amount of skepticism and criticism has yet enabled me to regard dreams as negligible occurrences. Often enough they appear senseless, but it is obviously we who lack the sense and ingenuity to read the enigmatic message from the nocturnal realm of the psyche. Seeing that at least half our psychic existence is passed in that realm, and that consciousness acts upon our nightly life just as much as the unconscious overshadows our daily life, it would seem all the more incumbent on medical psychology to sharpen its senses by a systematic study of dreams. Nobody doubts the importance of conscious experience; why then should we doubt the significance of unconscious happenings? They also are part of our life, and sometimes more truly a part of it for weal or woe than any happenings of the day" Dr. Carl Jung
  Typically, a person will make up for lost sleep by getting more stage 4, or very deep sleep first, then replacing the REM sleep (where we usually dream).
  Sensations of falling are quite common as we drift into sleep. These are known as 'myclonic' or muscular jerks, in which the dreamer has a feeling of falling off a step or a curb. Sometimes such sensations will wake us up, and the expression "nodding off" seems apt.
  Oneirocrittica (The interpretation of Dreams) written in the 2nd century A.D. it ran in five volumes. Published in English for the first time in the 17th Century, very popular by 1777 it has reached 20 editions.
  A night informed King Henry II that the voices of St. Peter and the Archangel Gabriel had told him to present a number of demands foreshadowing the Magna Carta.
  Muhammad: Received his Divine calling in a vision. I the early middle ages he experienced the promptings of the One God, Allah, and from that time seems to have received many revelations, or Visions. The visions involved the Angel Gabriel reading the divine message from a book. They are now preserved in the Qu'ran.
  QUOTED SOURCES: According to Jung, the archetypal images of myths and dream are 'psychic structures' which are common to us all, and form what he calls 'the collective unconscious.' These mythological dreams, drawing upon human experience from time immemorial, he refers to as the 'Great' dreams.
  Dreams are as simple or as complicated as the dreamer is himself, only they are always a little bit ahead of the dreamer's consciousness. I do not understand my own dreams any better than any of you, for they are always somewhat beyond my grasp and I have the same trouble with them as anyone who knows nothing about dream interpretation. Knowledge is no advantage when it is a matter of one's own dreams. Jung
  Dreams that form logically, morally, or aesthetically satisfying wholes are exceptional. Usually a dream is a strange and disconcerting product distinguished by many "bad" qualities, such as lack of logic, questionable morality, uncouth form, and apparent absurdity or nonsense. People are therefore only too glad to dismiss it as stupid, meaningless, and worthless. Jung
  The Christian Bible is full of inspired dreams, one of the most famous being that of "Jacob's Latter." Jacob dreamed of a latter reaching from here to heaven, on which the Angels traveled up and down. Upon awakening he realized the dream was of Divine origin and interpreted it thusly: "This is none other than the house of God; He declared' and this is the gate to heaven; (Gen.28.17).
  Mary Shelly dreamed Frankenstien in a nightmare, or night vision. I saw - -with eyes shut, but with acute mental vision - I saw the student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together." A nightmare usually awakens us, yet she maintains she had not yet fallen asleep. But the 'dream' or vision, it was auspicious, as she, and Byron had each undertaken to wrote a ghost story. "What terrified me will terrify others; and I only need describe the specter that haunted my midnight pillow." The next day she announced she "had thought of a story." and understatement indeed.
  Prospero's philosophy in The Tempest, human life is a moment of wakeful dreaming between two periods of endless sleep.
  Some cultures believe what happens in dreams is just as important as real life. Dreaming is just another side of live, just as real.
  nightmare: In the past, presenting the nightmare as a living entity was not uncommon. It was something referred to as 'night hag' or the 'riding of the witch'. One medieval definition of mare is in fact, 'hag'. The nightmare was originally defines as a feeling of suffocation or great distress during sleep. Many of us will have experienced that sensation of being pressed down upon by something inexplicably frightening, and at the same time being unable to move a muscle.
  It is said the average dreamer experiences blurred black and white images, with sketchy memories of the details of the dream. Then there are those who dream in color, with a remembrance of certain parts of a dream, which can be recalled vividly. Then there are some of us who dream in Technicolor, with intense smells, sounds, emotions and physical sensations. Dreams that can stay with you from the time you wake up, till you go to bed again. Dreams that live and breath.
  Some say dreams are just life on another level. That the occurrences there are as real, or important as the ones in the physical world. There are five different kinds of dreams
  III. Psychic: A psychic dream can be about events that have yet to occur. They may also be messages from a loved one who has or is about to cross over to the other side. In this kind of dream can also receive guidance from "God/Goddess" or Spirit Guides. In some cases people can communicate through dreams, yet this requires psychic ability on both ends.
  IV. Astral: The Astral plane is another name for "The Other Side." This is where we go when our spirit is no longer in our bodies, be that in death or in sleep. Here also you can contact Spirit Guides, and Divine beings. Most who have dreamed about flying have been "out of body."
  Since I can remember I have had nightmares. My mother had them as well until I was born. The thing about our nightmares is very specific. I can tell when I am going to have one when I lay down. they only come about once every two months now a days. I would like to explain to you what happens to my body, and if this is a documented phenomenon.
  This always happens when I have been awake too long. I lay in bed close my eyes, and achieve some comfort. Then my ears begin to ring, and my body would begin to tingle, as if they are falling asleep. This made it so I could not hear anything but the ringing, and could not move my muscles. I am still awake and aware at this point. Then I would feel my body beginning to vibrate, and hum. Sometimes the noise would get so loud, it was deafening. The only way to describe the sound is electricity (Like when you are standing near high power lines). Then the "dream" would start. Most of the time, if not always I knew I was dreaming. The dreams themselves where scarry, yet it was the Emotion of the dreams, the feelings that made them more than average nightmares.
  Thank you very much for your report, it'll be added to our growing database of such nocturnal assaults. Your case is very typical of the type we receive (ringing ears, vibrations, out of body states, fear, paralysis, over tired, waking up groggy, etc.). I again would like to thank you for taking the time out to support our research. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at NARC.