I’ve been dreaming a lot lately.

I’ve always dreamt a lot, vivid, colorful, bizarre dreams, in vibrant color, and rarely nightmares. Most of my dreams are pleasant, although sometimes I have frustration dreams, where I’m trying to get something to work and can’t quite pull it off. I used to get them a lot when I was programming. I swear, I used to dream in Fortran!

Most of my dreams are totally off the wall, although I occasionally have some of the traditional dreams other people frequently report; like flying, being in a fight and not being able to land a good punch on your opponent, being chased by a monster, losing your teeth, being naked in a public place, and the classic: not being prepared for class! But most of my dreams have elaborate plots, and are often quite pleasant.

This pattern has picked up quite drastically over the last few years, I am certain of that. That might be due to the fact I quit smoking 3 and a half years ago, but it has been a gradual change in my dreaming so its hard for me to put my finger on why.

Another factor is that I’m retired, I’m no longer working, my job was quite stressful and I feel very relaxed and at peace with myself now. I also go to bed and wake up whenever I want, no more alarm clock tyranny for me, so my sleep cycle is not being interrupted artificially. I usually sleep 6 or 7 hours a night, and sometimes take a half-hour nap in the afternoon. I fall asleep immediately, sleep straight through the night, and wake up refreshed, with a memory of a dream in my head.

I believe dreams are physiologically necessary, a form of brain maintenance the body performs periodically. I don’t think the content of dreams offers any deep insight into a person’s psychological health or personal problems, at least not for most people. I know shrinks believe severely mentally disturbed folks often have predictable dream patterns, but even if that’s true, I don’t think studying one’s dreams can reveal anything about the average person’s mental state. They are, in my opinion, random collections of manufactured experience which are a by-product of a purely physical process.

Another thing I have noticed is that when I wake up from a dream, I can quickly re-enter it at will, although it usually loses some coherence after I go back in. Even if I awake, if the dream was particularly vivid I can almost feel it “running in the background” for a few minutes as I wake up. This is something new for me, its like a very vivid daydream, I can see events unfolding, but I know its just a dream and I can stop it any time I like. Is this one of those “lucid dreams” I’ve been hearing about? And if so, why now at his time in my life?

And one other thing. I always dream in English.