It's been years since I've had a flying dream, a naked in public dream, a chased by a monster dream or any of the standard cliché dream archetypes. I do dream in recurring motifs and re-experience certain things that seem dead obvious to me (more than once on waking I've had the thought "okay, okay I get it!") but do not fall under the usual common dream tropes. They are part of personal mythology, not one shared with others.
I notice at work we don't discuss our dreams except on the rarest of occasions. We do, however, talk about our sleep and how well or poorly we are sleeping. We discuss our slumbering lives the way others talk about their sex lives.
Last night I had a stereotypical dream. I was taking part in a talent show and most of the dream took place in the backstage chaos, as the other actor and I made sure that sets, costumes and the like would be ready. By the time everything was and it was time to take my place on stage before the curtain rose, playing Linus from "Peanuts," I realized I wasn't sure I knew my lines. Part of me felt panic, another part of me felt confident I could just wing it. I woke before the curtain rose, ending my dream of being onstage and not knowing the lines, which seems a variation on "taking a test in school that you are not prepared for."
I woke in a position that immediately made me think of the joke "last night I dreamed I ate a giant marshmallow and when I woke up, my pillow was gone!" Because of the streetlights outside my bedroom is never completely dark. I will sometimes sleep with a black tshirt over my eyes to block as much of the light as possible. This morning I woke clutching the tshirt as if it were Linus's security blanket.
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