Waking Dreams

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had a strange uptick in waking dreams, or at least dreams that seem to center on me in my actual room or in my actual bed.

- In a portion of one such dream, a giant dragonfly/wasp creature was flying towards me. It wasn't going particularly fast, but I smothered it in my comforter. Then I woke up, and rushed over to the light switch so I could get a better look at it. It was about 2:30am. I realized that it was dark in my room at night, so how could I have seen the bug flying towards me so clearly? I went back to sleep.


- In the second dream a couple of days later, I dreamed a sprite was peeking at me around my curtain above my bed. I am not sure if I fully awoke for this to check, or if I dreamed that I checked. Because the dream was contained over my pillow, it's possible that dream-me checked or awake-me checked and I would not have been able to tell the difference.


- In the third dream, last night, I woke up believing that someone had magicked my pants to the ceiling above my fan. I stared hard at the fan, in complete disbelief. I decided I should take a picture since no one would ever believe me. Then I turned on my light, and saw that it was, in fact, just my fan. It was only 11:45 pm - I had barely been asleep for half an hour.


I haven't been making any grand changes in my life style lately. I haven't switched coffee, or started drinking wine at night. My sleep times have not altered. According to my sleep cycle app, my sleep patterns are a little erratic. I wonder what has been causing all this.

It would make a good short story, now that I see all three dreams written down. A progressively invasive sprite making mischief in an honest sleeper's mind...

Dreams of Dinosaurs

This is not so much about one dream I've had, but about a recurring image over the past three days - giant lizards.


April 12/13: I remember very little, except for a moment towards the end. I was walking a long a big lake. I could see all the lake, but it was still pretty big - and reminded me of Lake Banet (no image to accompany) - sort of like a giant kidney bean. I walked to the edge, down a sort of steep incline, to a puddle of water which was all slimy and black, which I understood to be the "beach/tide" area. Out on the water, giant creatures were breaching the surface, like whales coming up to breathe. Giant snapping turtles with thick, armor plating, and ankylosaurus (plural: anklyosauri? - see image below) which did not seem to have legs. I did not go in the water, because I was uneasy with just how many giant reptiles were in the water.


April 13/14: Again, I remember only the end. I was running through a very hilly place - the hills were large and sloping, and there were always twists and bends, deep ravines, but climbable. I was part of some sort of war party, and we were fighting these giant snakes that emerged from the hills. The snakes were covered in moss and clay - they looked like they were made of earth. Sometimes they looked like dragons, with massive jaws and sinuous bodies. Then there was a woman, of sorts - she had human legs, but she had a thousand arms that whipped around her like tentacles. She had a large head and black eyes, and she laughed whenever we tried to hit her with...whatever it was we were using. She too was made of moss and mud. We ran all through the hills, hitting things and fighting, but it never felt like we were actually doing anything - not dying, not winning, not losing. Just fighting and running.


I wonder why reptiles seem to play such a large role in my dreams of late, and why I'm more neutral about them than frightened. Unease is the worst I feel, but never real fear. And even with the fighting dream, it felt strangely harmless despite all the action. Hmm....