I died
I dreamt I died. I rarely dream. When I do dream, I’m usually being chased by tigers or jumping into the stratosphere. Great heights. Wild animals. I don’t know what it means, if anything.
Thursday night I died. Most of the dream, which was vivid upon my awakening, has faded.
I remember running and dodging, but I don’t remember why I was running. I remember being shot at. The gun was not normal. It was long and U-shaped, and it didn’t shoot bullets. I remember the feeling of utter terror and astonishment at being hit (I just assumed I wouldn’t be). I remember falling to the ground and then being thrown into a third-person perspective. My body fell apart and was no more – I died. And then I woke up. Weird is what it was.
My question: is dying in a dream commonplace? What does it mean, if anything, besides being extremely sleep deprived?
Dreaming that you’ve died has a very special and important meaning:
If you want to get Freudian, some people say it means change is coming.
Some people say it means you feel like you’ve failed at something that you didn’t think it was possible to fail at.
Some people say it means you’re taking on too much and that your fear isn’t so much of death, but of not being able to fulfill the responsibilities that fill your life.
Me? I think it means you ate too much oregano before you went to sleep.
I’ve died in my dreams several times. I’m convinced that remembering what happened while you were in REM stage (period) is nothing more than a blend of coincidence, whatever is in your system before you go to sleep (ie – oregano *grins*), and whatever happened right before sleep (did you watch “The Hills Have Eyes” right before bed time? or did you watch “Bambi”? Watch both and I’d pay money to see your dreams).
Anyway, I’m sorry to hear that you died. You were a fine professor and a fine philosopher. You shall be missed.
I’ve always avoided thinking about dreams – precisely for the reasons you lay out (everyone has an opinion and they’re seemingly unimportant).
And, with few exceptions, most literature on dreams is written by people who are less than reputable.
So, I have begun to read Freud’s classic work on Dreams (there’s a link to it via the Freud picture).
Because the question, it seems, isn’t can dreams mean something innocuous (that seems clear), but rather, can dreams mean something else as well?
-another dead philosopher
The food factor proved true scientifically for my dad. He was having nightmare after nightmare every night, waking up with cold sweats- either from dreaming of dying himself, or me, my brother or mom dying, car accidents, shootings…you name it, he had a nightmare about it.
His doctor did a study about it and tested my dad’s food intake and sleep patterns and how they related. Whenever he’d eat spicy food or indegestion-causing foods, like Mexican food, jalapenos, pepperocinis, or anything southwest in nature close to the time he was gonna go to sleep, he’d have nightmares that night. With neutral foods, like Japanese food, a steak, or anything not heavily spicy, his dreams were “normal,” and he didn’t wake up every night with a puddle of sweat on his pillow and went through his entire REM cycle.
It might just be my dad, but he’s been sleeping like a log ever since he cut back the spicy stuff near bed time.