Atelier discussion en anglais n°2: Can you control what you dream?

[Waukesha.]

Bonjour à toutes!

On change de thème aujourd'hui; vous avez donc exactement une semaine pour le commenter suite à quoi celui-ci sera changé.

Le thème de cette semaine est en rapport avec le rêve, il se compose d'un article et d'un podcast de 6 minute English, tous deux de la BBC:

BBC News | Can you control what you dream?​

6 minute English | Dream Apps (Text is available here)​

La question est donc: What do you think of that sort of application? Would you like to use it? Why? Do you think it contains limits?

PS: si vous avez des propositions de thèmes, des envies particulières, des sujets qui vous tiennent à coeur et dont vous souhaitez qu'on parle, n'hésitez pas à les partager ici pour qu'on en tienne compte pour les prochaines semaines

 

[Waukesha.]

Well, to my point of view, I think that it is a fun application actually I agree to John McManus (reminds me of Oz lol) when he said it could help in cases of depression and stress because I imagine easily that to be woke up with birds or sorts of nature songs could be really pleasant
What concerns control of dreaming, I don't know what to think. I understand what you mean by refusing to control your dreams, and to let our subconscious act. But, on the other hand, I remember having lots of nightmares when I was yougner; I actually had nightmares periods (I could have one nightmare a night during a whole week), and this was pretty stressful and exhausting. So I guess that if I had the opportunity to enhance having dream instead of nightmare (does it make sense? I'm not sure I wrote this sentence correctly ), I would definitely have tried! By the way, what consequences has this app on nightmare? I mean does it help to reduce it by enhancing dreaming?

 

[endorph1ne]

Dreams are also the expression of bodily needs - for instance a psychologist once told me that if a woman has a repetitive dream about being pregnant when she's around 18, it means that her body is actually sending signals to her brain that more or less mean "hey bud, we're ready to have a cake in the oven!"

I've never dreamt of being pregnant (I'm 23). Is this because I hate children ? ^^


I can understand that the app is willing to awake you in a less stresful way, but I'm not sure it really can affect the way I dream. Plus, dreaming is the solution for my brain to deal with all the inormations I carried all day. My conciousness and my unconciousness NEED the dreams to stay "in good health", and controling this process doesn't seem right to me. Dreams are our last space of entire freedom, leave it alone

In an other hand, when I was like 7, my elder brother had me watch "Thriller" by M.J. From this day, and for many years, I had awful nightmares of my family being transformed in horrible warewolves, about monsters waiting for me under my bed ... Always the same dream, again and again.
And then one night, in my nightmare, I knew I was in a nightmare. I don't know how it was possible, it just stroke me in that moment that, when I was having a nightmare, it was always in perfect silence and in black and white.
After that, I always knew when I was in a nightmare, and I made fun of my monsters : I called them, jumping on my bed or, when I was tired of dreaming, I only slapped my face to force me to wake up
I know it sounds crazy, but, by this time, I can stand beside my bed again without fear

 

[Waukesha.]

I found out there's a way for me to control what I don't want to dream about. I just have to think really intensely about what I don't want to dream about and then I'm sure it will never creep into my dreams. It has worked every time!

And then one night, in my nightmare, I knew I was in a nightmare. I don't know how it was possible, it just stroke me in that moment that, when I was having a nightmare, it was always in perfect silence and in black and white.
After that, I always knew when I was in a nightmare, and I made fun of my monsters : I called them, jumping on my bed or, when I was tired of dreaming, I only slapped my face to force me to wake up
I know it sounds crazy, but, by this time, I can stand beside my bed again without fear

You girls are so lucky to be able to control your nightmares! I would love to, but I can't. I'm always feeling so much in my dreams, and when I wake up I need time to realize this wasn't the real life. I often need to tell my boyfriend about my nightmare so he can reassure me. I realized that most of my "key" dreams and nightmares occured in my primary school, that's really curious. I would love to decode and analyze my dreams, I think it could be fascinating. Besides I should get knowledge about that.

 

[endorph1ne]

@Hellagood I could only control that particular nightmare, not the others. And only because I made it so much times that my body knew at the end that it wasn't real. I guess. But I'm glad I could do that, though, my worst nightmares became my best laughing dreams

And you can find a lot of books dealing with the signification of dreams. Freud analysed them in "l'interprétation des rêves" (you can find it easily on Amazon)

 

[Lenehän]

Interesting subject !
This reminds me of a book I recently read. It talked about a woman who learned how to control her dreams in the mid 80's. To her, it was very easy. She starded when she was 18 (my age ! Unfortunately, I haven't succeed doing the same thing yet ). First of all, she would let herself dream freely. Then, once the dream was over, she would "rewind" her dream to the beggining and start it over, but this time, while changing things. After a while, she could control her dreams and a really weird thing happened ; she left her body and starded floating in the air. She could see her body sleeping on her bed. At the beggining she could'nt move, but then she started to explore her neighborhood. Once, she even went to see her fiancé at the front.
This wasn't fiction, but I'm still not totally convinced she said the truth. You'll have to admit it seems pretty unbelievable ! However, it makes me want to try controling my dreams.

(this woman even published a book that explained her "method")

Also, about the"pregnant" dreams, I already dreamed I was giving birth to a baby doll. This was an awful dream , because, in my dream, I imagined this baby was dead at birth because it wasn't moving (of course, it was a doll

). Brr !

 

[kaitnm]

This is a cool topic! I think dreams are really interesting. In fact, it's not too difficult to learn how to control your dreams. I can do this most nights without much effort and it makes dreaming SO much more fun. The key is knowing when you're dreaming while you're still asleep and in the dream. Someone mentioned Inception...it's a lot like that! There are little signs you can look for that will make you aware that you're dreaming. A lot of people try to pinch themselves in their dreams to see if it hurts (obviously you don't feel pain the same while you're dreaming). In my dreams, there are several little "tells". One is if I see a book or newspaper...I can't read it. I look at the page and it either doesn't make sense (complete gibberish) or the words continually change as soon as I look away. If I look at a clock or a watch and check it again one second later, the time is totally different or sometimes instead of numbers I see random symbols.

It's strange, but useful because I check the time often throughout the day while I'm awake thus I often do the same in my dreams. When I do, I know I'm dreaming. Also, keeping a dream journal is extremely helpful (and interesting!). After a few days of recording your dreams, you'll find that you not only remember many more details, but that you dream more vividly as well.

Anyway...knowing that you're dreaming and influencing your dream while you're asleep is called "lucid dreaming". The phenomenon that Lila-Rose mentioned where you can see yourself sleeping and explore places is called "astral projection". Personally, I don't believe in the latter (that you can actually explore the REAL world while you're asleep), but a lot of people do! You'll find a lot of books about it if you do a quick search.

 

[Rocky Raccoon]

We listened to those podcasts in class this year

I find dreams fascinating, I love telling mine and hearing other people's dreams.
I don't like the idea of actually controlling your dreams. Not knowing what's going to happen when I dream is part of the "fun", in my opinion.
It reminds me of that one nightmare I had after watching an episode of Doctor Who called "Blink". In short, I knew I was dreaming and I was absolutely terrified but there was no way to wake up or to move. So I just waited for it to be over.
I love dreaming. Maybe because I find real life pretty boring, I don't know. When I dream I can be whoever I want and I often find myself to be much more brave or resourceful than I can be in real life.
I see dreams as sometimes funny, sometimes scary but always surprising adventures inside my mind that I don't want to control or change. So it would kind of spoil the whole experience for me. But I understand that some things might be so exhausting or depressing that you want to get rid of them while you're asleep.

And I totally agree on your daily life influencing your dreams. Whenever I read, hear or watch something there's a 87% chance I'm going to dream about that.

And thanks for the book tips

 

[Hodor]

I wouldn't like to use any app to "control" my brain by forcing him to make a happy dream. I think if I do that, the meaning of the dream is not as powerful as it can be.
Our subconscient is full of memories, freaks, happiness, it is normal if we want to search its secret because it's such an amazing part of our brain !

Regarding productivity and well-being, yes, I think a happy dream can make you happier for the day when you remind it but that's all, if you don't remind it, I don't understand how you can feel better...?

I love dreaming and waking up and remind all the details of my dreams. I laugh when they're funny (most of the time) and I'm afraid of my nightmares, but I always like to tell my dreams, positive or negative, for me it's fun to see how my subconscient can create those weird stories !

I have a blog in which I used to write my dreams, they are my part of madness ! I'd like to be able to find out their meaning, but it's difficult. Sometimes they are so "nonsense" I don't know if they all have a meaning...

So, I would like to test this app once for the fun and have an idea of its power on dreams, but I definitely would not use it. I like too much my dreams the way they come.


Sorry if my english is difficult to read, I have to practise it ^^

 

[Alizuko]

I heard about it in "the magazine de la santé" tv show couple of weeks ago.
I'd say i agree and disagree with the question. I mean music, sounds can help you to dream or influence what you dream but not necessarily make what you dream. Lots of people use music to fall asleep or just relax and then they fall asleep but they don't always dream or have romantic dream because they listen to romantic music or imagine they are cowboys because they listen to country music. In my case i listen to music practically 24/7 because it helps me to imagine things i want to draw or create. But when i'm going to sleep i don't because it would disturb me more than anything. So it's kind of hard to answer that question because yeah it might influence your dreams but to be influenced you need a basic and i don't think music or sounds is the first part of it. I think it's what you live, think an go through everyday which make what you dream of for sure.

 

[Waukesha.]

Je vous rappelle qu'il vous reste encore une journée pour commenter. On change de sujet demain soir