From: fofp@castle.ed.ac.uk (M Holmes)
Newsgroups: alt.dreams
Subject: Re: Problem with acting out dreams
Date: 19 Aug 92 16:19:50 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

charlieb@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Nihil) writes:

>My sleepmate asked me to seek help for this, so I turn to y'all first.
>I dream VERY lucidly and very much.  I also talk coherently while dreaming
> if the dream is one where I talk (don't tell me any secrets).
>I often have self-defense dreams: where I have to defend myself from
> violent attack or save a friend or be a hero.
>Anyway, about two months ago, I was trading punches with a friend, in
> a dream, and I rolled over and bopped my sleepmate as hard as I
> could on the arm.  As I hit my sleepmate, I woke up.  I was embarrassed.
> My sleepmate was angry, sore, and kinda worried.
>The other night, Sunday I guess, I was having a dream where I was defending
> my parents house from some idiot burgular.  He wouldn't give in, so I
> figured that I ought to knock him out with a couple of elbows to the
> head.  Guess what happened?  Yes, I elbowed my sleepmate, but luckily I
> woke up in time to pull the blow a little.

Hmmmm, yeah, I can sympathise with this. I've been told by SO's that I
talk in my sleep. I've had dreams where I wake up chuckling or laughing,
though the only time I was persuaded to explain the joke and had it
explained back next day, it made no send (sorta like the green cupcakes
story).

I've once (to my knowledge) woken up crying (no idea what about). I've
woken up screaming two or three times - I vaguely remember that these
were caused by "trapped and paralysed" type dreams.

Actions have happened a lot less. I've woken up kissing the pillow
(embarrassed grin :-) somewhat disappointedly I might add :-)

A couple of nights ago though I was having a dream that someone was
attacking me on a Tube train with something sharp. I started to thrash
out at them. I woke up banging my elbow into my SO. She thinks it's
kinda funny, but I can see that if it happened again it might warrant a
little more discussion.

I've never sleepwalked (as far as I know) although I had an officemate
who did. I'm working on the hypothesis that my "action" dreams happen
when my muscles become unfrozen before my mind has completely woken up.
It's not a big leap to wonder if sleepwalking is just a longer version
of the same thing. Anyone have any actual knowledge on this one?


>Well, my sleepmate was not only seriously hurt (I hit the chest not the head)
> but my sleepmate told me to immeadiately remove the knives I have
> around the bed area and for me to unload our gun: which I believe is
> prudent behavior.  (please let's not talk about guns)

Yeah, I think that might be a good idea. Guns aren't legal in this
country and I've had gunfight dreams. Personally, I blame Hollywood :-)

>Anyway, my sleepmate believes that I should seek counseling about my acting 
> out my dreams.  I distrust counselors and I don't want to diminish my
> dream world.  It is a VERY integral part of my life.  Can counselors
> get one to focus on controlling the body while in a dream?

Well, I'm no expert unless just having these dreams qualifies me, but I
seriously doubt that there's much a counsellor could do. Unless you're
having a lucid dream, the dream is by definition beyond your ability to
control. There's been research that shows that signals are sent to
muscles to act out movements in your dreams, it's just that other
systems paralyse the muscles to stop you doing this. The only point of
attack for a "cure" would seem to be the point at which the
dream/paralysis systems get out of phase and I don't know if enough is
known about this to even make a start at that.

I wonder how unusual this is. How many folks out there have experienced
any of the above?

>-- 
>                 "Nothing is true.  Everything is permissible"
>                               Hassan I. Sabbah  
>_______________________________________________________________________________ 
>Charlie J. Blake  | University of Texas at Austin | charlieb@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu  


FoFP