timeshifting in dreams

[tofu]

I have a beeper. If a server at work goes down, the system pages me. This morning around 3:30 the pager went off.

I was having a dream that I had a roommate, and he was one of the mad scientists from MST3K. I was upset with him because he left gadgets all over the house. One of the gadgets was on top of a bookcase and had a bright red light. I asked him to turn it off, and he said it had an alarm that would go off if anyone touched it. I walked over to the bookcase, reached up, and picked it up gadget. The alarm went off, it was a beeping noise.

The sound was my pager. My pager beeps four times. I was wide awake and reaching for it by the third beep.

This is a very strange experience. I remember the dream in "real time" chronological order, and played back that way, it appears that the "plot" was set up to incorporate the sound of my pager - as if the author of the dream (whatever brain system that might be) knew that in a few seconds, there would be a loud beeping noise. I know that's not possible, and that's part of what makes this such a strange experience.

It's possible that this is just a coincidence. I was having a dream and a beeping noise happened to fit into that dream, and at the exact moment that a beeping noise was appropriate to the dream, the outside environment provided one. Sure, maybe. This is the second time (that I can remember) this happening. The first time involved a burglar alarm.

It's also possible that once the beeping started, my brain constructed this entire scenario around it. However, there is only about 2 or 3 seconds between the start of the beeping and when I was awake, holding the pager in my hand, and reading it. It doesn't seem like there would be time for the brain to have put all that together - however, if that is what happened, it's an interesting insight into how dreams work. They aren't chronological, we only remember them that way.

Finally, it's possible that this didn't happened at all, or that I dreamed it. But I should mention, I didn't get back to sleep this morning. I've been awake since it happened.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences?

[Swift]

My similar experience was a dream that I was falling. I awoke when, in the dream, I hit the ground. And I awoke on the floor, next to my bed. Now, in the dream, it seemed like I was falling a long time. Did I have the entire dream in the fraction of a second that I fell from the bed to the floor? Was I on the edge of the bed for a long time, dreaming I was falling, and only awoke when I fell off? I don't know.

[MAPNUT]

Certainly time is distorted in dreams, although my example is not nearly as compressed as yours - I woke up at 7 the other day, went back to sleep and had a long, complicated, multi-story dream that must have spanned several hours of action, and woke up at 7:45. As far as real-world action intruding into a dream, I remember having a nightmare after reading some of the early chapters of "Lord of the Rings"; I thought there were Dark Riders outside, and suddenly there was a knocking at the door. I woke up and there was actual knocking at the door; my dad coming home unexpectedly from a business trip, and needing to be let in. Whew.

[Euniculus]

My understanding is dreams only last a few minutes and most folks dream in black and white.

Maybe we need a poll to see what percentage of us dream color vs b/w.

[tofu]

Did I have the entire dream in the fraction of a second that I fell from the bed to the floor?

That's a great example.

I wonder if the ability of the brain to parallel process might help to explain this. In the fraction of a second that you were actually falling, several areas of memory related to falling were recalled, essentially simultaneously, and all mangled in the way that dreams usually are. Later, (lying on the floor) when you think about what you just experienced, your conscious mind snaps the mangled (thus, apparently new) memories together into a story that now must be many seconds or minutes long.

I have no idea, I'm just guessing. But it's a fascinating subject.

[tofu]

Maybe we need a poll to see what percentage of us dream color vs b/w.

There might be some selection bias caused by the propensity to only remember certain dreams.

I have a recurring dream of being on the bottom of a shallow ocean, and everthing is vividly green.

[Chuck]

Earlier this year I dreamed that I was bicycling and my front tire got stuck in a sewer grating. I fell off the bike and the lower back of my left leg hit the edge of the grating causing a small amount of pain. I woke up at that point to find that I had a minor cramp at that exact same place in my leg.

[geonuc]

It's also possible that once the beeping started, my brain constructed this entire scenario around it. However, there is only about 2 or 3 seconds between the start of the beeping and when I was awake, holding the pager in my hand, and reading it. It doesn't seem like there would be time for the brain to have put all that together - however, if that is what happened, it's an interesting insight into how dreams work. They aren't chronological, we only remember them that way.
I see no obvious reason why that would not be possible. But it's interesting to think about.

[KaiYeves]

I thought there were Dark Riders outside, and suddenly there was a knocking at the door. I woke up and there was actual knocking at the door; my dad coming home unexpectedly from a business trip, and needing to be let in. Whew.
Something similar happened to me:

We were staying at a convention center where my father was taking special classes.

I was sleeping in our room and had a horrible dream that a female ghost with an awful withered face and white hair that stuck out in all directions was chasing me. In the dream, I ran into a room, locked the door, and tried to run farther, but slipped on the floor and hit my head. I lay on the floor, under a table, hearing the ghost's footsteps get closer and closer...

I woke up in shock and took a deep breath because it had just been a dream- until I heard the footsteps outside the door of our hotel room! And they were still getting closer and closer...

The door opened and I screamed. My dad, coming back from a late class, was visibly surprised.

[HenrikOlsen]

Sounds like an indication that memories of dreams are more rationalizing than rational.

Lots of utterly random stuff happens in dreams and what we remember of them is heavily distorted by a need to fit them some kind of narrative to be rational enough to make sense. (for some value of sense)

[Human]

I think sound and hearing is the sense that has the biggest influence in dreams. In REM sleep, the body is actually somewhat paralyzed with sleep paralysis, but it's still possible to pick up real sounds and just project them in to the dream. I would say that most often when this happens, the person is near to wake up. I don't think it happens in very deep sleep.

[raptorthang]

Sounds like an indication that memories of dreams are more rationalizing than rational.

Lots of utterly random stuff happens in dreams and what we remember of them is heavily distorted by a need to fit them some kind of narrative to be rational enough to make sense. (for some value of sense)

True. We have a mishmash of stuff happening in our mind and put a matrix of rationalized patterns on it after we wake up to make sense of it all. Show someone a few random squiggles on a paper and they will see a face in them...the same with a narrative created from random brain activity while sleeping.

Re time: it's been known for years that there is a litle correlation between time passing in the memory of a dream and actual time. Dream sleep is easy to monitor and folks asleep for a couple of minutes will think they had long detailed dreams.

Re responding to external stimuli when asleep. Not a positive. Healthy sleep shuts off most senses. A symptom of possible epilepsy, schizophrenia, etc. are when folks respond physically to their dreams....such as talking, kicking, etc. Everyone does some of these activities now and again, expecially in a strange setting, but those who do it a lot can have medical issues.

[Doodler]

I think sound and hearing is the sense that has the biggest influence in dreams. In REM sleep, the body is actually somewhat paralyzed with sleep paralysis, but it's still possible to pick up real sounds and just project them in to the dream. I would say that most often when this happens, the person is near to wake up. I don't think it happens in very deep sleep.


Been there, done that. Many times I've had a decent dream going only to be interrupted in situ by some frakking noise intergrated into the dream in progress, only to snap awake and scowl hatefully at the alarm clock...

The funny thing is, despite the dream supposedly only lasting "a few minutes", the alarm noise always seems to run in real time with the dream itself, even when I don't immediately wake up to it.

[Salty]

I think that MAPNUT has a good point. It's my impression that 'dream time' is different from regular time.

I dream in vivid colors, at times. Other times, not so vivid colors.

[Jay200MPH]

I've had this a couple times, where in a dream I seemed to "anticipate" a real event that I shouldn't have known about beforehand. I wonder if we actually remember dreams the same way we do day-to-day events? It could be that dreams are "burst-dumped" into short-term memory on the instant of waking up. No real way to tell after the fact.

It's a bit strange when it happens though.

- J

[publiusr]

I had a dream when I was small, where I was seeing an "old timey car" that was white. I remember that I saw the car in the dream at a certain angle.

Later, I was sitting at a curb with a friend, and saw a car very like from that dream pass us.

[pumpkinpie]

Has anyone else had any similar experiences?

Yes. One of the first nights I lived in an apartment in Evanston, IL (north of Chicago) I had the following dream.

I was riding on a subway and someone started mugging a woman. The woman was screaming "Stop that, get away you (very bad words.)

I woke up, and a woman was shouting that in the alley outside my window. There was more happening in the dream before the mugging, I just can't remember it right now. But I had the same sense you did....that the screaming happened to fit in well with the plot of the dream already going on. It was very strange.


In any case, what a great way to start off your first post-college experience living on your own, eh?