Dream Themes–What’s Your Sleep “Legacy”?

Remember–August’s Scavenger Hunt Dark Legacy prizes are up for grabs. For more details, see:

The August Dark Legacy Contest post

But, even more importantly, let’s talk Dreams ;o)

No, I don’t remember all my dreams. But I do react to them. Every day. Without fail. It was only a  matter of time before I wrote something that allowed me to study dreams more closely, and them play with them in wicked ways, LOL! My Legacy series launches with psychic twins whose abilities are being manipulated to use dreams/nightmares/psychotic daydreams as remote-triggered, direct-strike weapons. Bwahahahaha…

No, that’s not at all what my dreams are like. No spooky darkness or evil sinister images that start to bleed into my everyday life. But my moods change as my dream cycles do, that much I know. Or is it my dreams shifting to reflect the energy and challenges in my waking world? I’ve learned to focus on relaxing as I slip into sleep, if my life has been particularly stressful. It’s second-nature for me to remember when I’m waking mid-dream and to let the almost-there images flow back through me, so I can listen and understand what my mind’s working through while I sleep.

Because just as Maddie Temple struggles with the mystical battle of good vs. evil (dark vs. light, hate vs. forgiveness, past mistakes vs. future success…You know I love a good theme ;o) fighting for her dreams and her very life, I struggle with my own needs and fears and joys and, well, dreams…  As do you, I suspect. And just like Maddie and her twin sister Sarah, who have to believe not just in the power of their dreams but in their ability to use them to make their dark world better, you and I can go far–if we just listen a little closer to what our minds, and our hearts, are telling us while we sleep.

Maddie finds her soul mate when she lets her innermost desires lead. What will you find?

In the comment section, tell us about your current dream themes. What are you feeling when you wake? What do you remember and how do you think it reflects what’s going on in your waking life? Is your subconscious mind lighting your way???

Tell us about it and be in the running for great Dark Legacy Prizes ;o)

More dream discussion to come, plus pics of many of the scavenger hung prizes… So, keep checking back!

30 Responses to “Dream Themes–What’s Your Sleep “Legacy”?”

  1. RobynL says:

    I believe my subconscious mind is lighting the way for my dreams.
    I am very afraid of heights and water and quite often dream of being in a hay loft where I am laying on my stomach and the loft has many holes(square ones)all around me. I have to keep trying to stay where I am so I won’t fall down the hole. I dreaded, as a teenager, to climb the ladder up to the hay loft and then have to step over the hole to get my feet on the ladder rungs so I could go down.

    The water dreams are always about someone drowning in a swimming pool and I have to decide if I’m going to jump in to save that person. I’m walking around a pool in my dream and just before I know what I decide I wake up. I don’t find out if I save someone. I can not swim and am terrified of water.

    I’m not sure why I still dream this so many years later.

    • Anna says:

      Robyn, I love when we get to face our fears in our dreams. Even if we don’t “conquer” them as our asleep selves, sometimes just consistently facing what frightens us makes all the difference. That’s why I think it’s so key to remember what we can, when we can, so we can see a little of what our brains are working on for us.

      And it’s interesting that you mention water. I’ve been researching a lot for the second book in my Legacy series–Secret Legacy. And I chose early on for water to be a key dream component of this sequel to Dark Legacy. I needed a dream real that was consistent with what Sara Temple experiences in her sister’s book, Dark Legacy, but one that was totally her own, too. So far, I’ve come up with a lot of images and themes (tunnels and hidden rooms and an empty house…). The most striking thing for me, though, has been water. It will become key to understanding what’s happening to Sarah in Secret Legacy–a sequel with a VERY strong hook at the end of the first book, but one that must stand on its own in plot, suspense, character AND dream imagry.

      Why water? It’s a strong dream symbol. It suggests depth and obscurity, but also healing and life source (we swim in liquid the first 9 months of our lives). And from research, I’ve learned that the condition of the water in your dreams (depth, clarity, color, motion, etc.)can tell you so much about what your subconscious is working through while you sleep. And when there are other people involved in the water image, you have to ask yourself are they really others–or do they represent parts of yourself/your personality? What is the water hiding? What keeps you from seeing/knowing more? Is it drawing you closer to what you need, or keeping you safe from what will hurt you? These are all the questions I’m asking about my Secret Legacy heroine…

      But most of all, what I’ve learned from the last two years or so of dream study is not to be afraid of your dreams. Not to take them too literally. The falling and the heights and the water and the drowning and being paralyzed–often these things are your mind compartmentalizing totally unrelated situations that spark familiar emotions that call up images of what you fear and avoid. Dreaming of familiar or spooky things doesn’t make them real. It’s simply our our memory and emotions work while our minds sleep. Really… ;o)

  2. Lexie C. says:

    In the last month or so I’ve been having dreams of indecision. Or rather they reflect my indecision over my current relationship and my growing feelings for a close friend.

    I dream about seeing my current boyfriend and its more or less a normal night for us but when I lay down so we can cuddle, its my friend and he’s holding me and I feel warm and protected. Then I when I turn away and back again its my boyfriend and I feel…stressed. I must get really violent or something because I’ve almost always ended up on the floor or smashed up against the wall (there’s a spot that won’t come out of the paint from where I’ve bloodied my nose that many times).

    Its not even that I want to be with my friend romantically–he’s cute and certainly a good ‘catch’ as they say and we have a lot in common, but he’s not…right. Its weird. When I think of kissing him I feel like I’m about to kiss my brother (I’ve only known my friend for a year tho). My current boyfriend is stressing me out though, over a variety of topics (including my friend) and I think that stress has leaked into my usually crazy fun dreams (or alternately my heart attack inducing nightmares).

    • Anna says:

      See, this is EXACTLY what I was talking about above…that the emotions in our dreams are more important than the actualy dream scenerios. It’s what I learned early on in my research and really explored heavily in Dark Legacy. That you can be dealing with stress and a partner’s jealosy perhaps and maybe even your own sense of guilt in some way, and that will leak into your dreams through images and situations that don’t reflect reality.

      I believe what our subconscious is trying to tell us in our dreams (unless we’re psychic like my twins in Dark Legacy, and that’s a whole other kettle if fish ;o) is the unfinished emotional business we still need to work on. The things that aren’t resolved in our waking lives, so the mind keeps working through them (often cycling over and over and over through them) while we sleep–and sometimes don’t sleep all that well.

      The challenge, it would seem? Recongnizing the trends and themes in our dream worlds and what is left undone emotionally, so we can intentionally face those things most troubling us when we’re awake. Seeing your emotional fears, accepting their source is a key first step. But then we need to develop a plan and physically act on what’s troubling us. That’s the basis for great suspense and thriller-like scenes in a work of fiction, but it gets much harder in our own lives (where we’re not promised a Happily Ever After ending), right?

  3. Anna says:

    I’m still dreaming about the craziness of July…I was back at a conference hotel, with my family and some of my best writing friends (many of whom weren’t even at RWA Nationals this year). In restaurants. Even at amusement parks! Actually that part of last nights dreams was about being on a roller coaster, which my world still feels like even though I’m back home for a while and things are supposed to be settling down.

    The interesting thing is that people and places and things from my past were there, too. My mother, even. Yikes! ;o) Images and relationships and important parts if other times when I’ve had to deal with similar craziness and unexpected challenges. Other moments in my life when maybe it’s felt as if outside forces were threatening the good things coming my way.

    I went to sleep last night, telling myself to be aware of the dreams (I haven’t been able to remember them for a few weeks now, as things have gotten more and more chaotic around here). To let the stress I’ve noticed in my waking life go long enough to “see” what my mind’s telling me while I sleep. And basically, I think it’s telling me that I’m too focused still on what’s gone out of kilter in my schedule over the last month, and not focused enough on the people and the adventure and the exciting, positive things coming my way.

    Yeah, I’m still a little shell shocked by all I suddenly had to get done in July in addition to the full schedule we already had planned. And some of the new things were very challenging, I’ll admit. But,we did it. It’s August now, and we got all of it done. We rode the coaster and touched down safely on the other side. And the people I care about most are still with me, cheering me on and getting me ready for the good stuff waiting for me at the end of THIS month. This month should be my focus, right? So, “let it go,” the dreams seem to be telling me. In fact, they’re insisting.

    I think I’ve been riding the same coaster for several nights in a row… Now, all I have to do is work my way back into the dreams and step off ;o)

  4. Annarkie says:

    My dreams are always so realistic that I never know that they are dreams. I can see, hear, smell, touch, and sometimes even taste. I’m always trying to go somewhere and do something, but there’s the dreams always shift to keep me from my goal. They are always an adventure.
    Two good ones that have been recurring, however. The first is my mother visiting me (she died on Valentine’s day this year). We spend the dream hanging out and shopping like the best friends we were.
    The second is getting an agent for my book. The agent has very shiny dark hair and eyes and a bright smiloe to go along with a voice like velvet. She sends me a huge list of page numbered corrections, but I face the task with glee, for finally my characters are real to someone else.

    • Anna says:

      You sound so brave and excited about challenges in your dreams. Even the ones of your mother, who you clearly miss. You’re not regretting having cared for her so deeply (which leaves you missing her when she’s gone). You’re celebrating the great times you had. What a wonderful thing. And keep staying positive and excited about selling and finding your dream agent! The momentum will swing your way, and you’ll be ready for your “luck” to find you!

  5. Judy Cox says:

    I am a person that dreams weird!! I dream about everything and nothing. When I wake in the mornings to go to the bathroom, I know I am dreaming and what it is. When I go back to bed, my dream continues from where it left off. I usually know what I am dreaming (don’t always make sense), but I can remember it for days. I also wake up some nights because I hear someone calling me (by name) or just an extremely loud noise. When I was younger it would scare me, but I am so use to it I go back to sleep now. Like I said, my dreams are weird. I don’t have scary dreams, just really odd.

    • Anna says:

      Remembering your dreams, from what I’ve read, has lot to do with how relaxed and excepting you are about the reality of your dream world. If you don’t find dreaming threatening, no matter how altered or wacky the dream images may be, you’re much more likely to remember thim. The more receptive you are to this “other” place where you mind works after you consciousness turns off, the more likely you are to easily slip back and forth between waking and sleeping states. What’s scary for one person might just be weird/odd for another. Our emotions and whether we can harness them have everything to do with how we might embrace and even harness our dreams’ powers to entertain and even help us.

  6. Fannie Wiggins says:

    My husband passed away 19 yrs. ago and my Momma 18 yrs. ago. For several nights in a row, I dreamed of them.We were always in a car traveling. Now we never traveled together while they were living, so I knew there was a hidden meaning there. I have been planning a trip for about a month to NY. I had planned to go by bus since it was much cheaper.I finally figured out that I was being told not to do that. So a couple of days ago I bought an airline ticket. The dreams stopped. As i told you a while back, I learned a long time ago to look for hidden meanings in my dreams and listen to what I find. I hope everyone has a great evening and pleasant dreams tonight. Hugs.

    • Anna says:

      What a great story, Fannie! I’ve tapped into warnings and urgings in my dreams. Things that made me uneasy or even issues I’d forgotten or avoided dealing with that needed my attention. This sort of that happens in my waking world. Intuition that becomes images and scenes and little stories in my dreams. I’ve learned to listen to the little voices, too–why do you think I became a fiction writer for a living ;o)

  7. ThatBrunette says:

    Most of my dreams tend to be ‘day remnant’ dreams. I can usually trace a piece of them to what has happened to me during the day.

    I’m more aware of waking dreams. Something will trigger a thought and my mind will wander. These tend to be more powerful and have more to do with my life than the dreams of my sleep.

    Occasionally, I will work something out in a sleeping dream. It might be something like finding a lost object or tackling a difficult situation. Those usually leave me confused when I wake up. They rarely solve the problem but, I am left with such strong thoughts, I have trouble remembering what really happened and what was only a dream.

    • Anna says:

      “Remnat Dreams.” I’ve never heard it put that way before, but it’s a perfect image. And, yeah, the mind wandering thing. Happens to me ALL the time. A doctor once told me that he thought fiction writers got to dissociate for a living–splitting off to another reality. Even as a child, my mind was never on what I was doing. I was always spinning stories and creating characters that I’d actually talk to then, because I didn’t realize uet that it looked/sounded odd to other people. I talk a little about that in my Romantic Times article. Used to drive my father nuts!

  8. Pat Cochran says:

    Lately, I have not been retaining much of my dreams or dream processes.
    I feel that is due to the fact that I have stopped using medication to
    help me get to sleep. I didn’t like the sleep that I was experiencing.
    I seem to be getting a more restful sleep now.

    Pat Cochran

    • Anna says:

      I’ve heard about the vivid dreams on sleep meds. Also that the sleep you get, though you log the hours, isn’t restorative. From what my research has suggested, it’s probably because you’re not cycling through the different layers of dream state while you’re on them, the way you do with natural sleep rhythms. During natural sleep, you don’t stay perpetually in REM state. You cycle in and out sometimes 7/8 times a night. Dreaming, then resting, then dreaming again. And the dream part is believed by some to be how you mind stores the day’s events and your perspective of it. Also why, if your sleep patterns aren’t natural, some people experience short-term memory disturbance on sleep aids. Glad you’re sleeping better, Pat!

  9. Minna says:

    I hardly ever remember what I’ve dreamed about, but the ones I do remember tend to be on the realistic side, sort of, anyway.

    • Anna says:

      LOL! I feel the same way, Minna, every time I start talking about dreams. “Sort of…” I have to speak on panels at DragonCon in a few weeks, and I have a fear of being up on stage with a lot of fantasy and paranormal authors saying “sort of” over and over again ;o)

      The key thing is that you dream, and that the process of your mind working while you’re sleeping doesn’t freak you out. It’s a good thing, even when you don’t remember it. Especially if you don’t–that’s how it’s supposed to work ;o)

  10. amanda says:

    The other day, I thought I heard someone whisper in my ear and woke up. It was very scary, but no one was there, so must have been a dream. In college, I took a class on dreams–unfortunately, I can’t remember much of what I learned. I do remember that some theorists believe dreams have a compensatory function–making up for what we lack in real life.

    • Anna says:

      Yeah, echoes for your derams spilling into your reality can be spooky. It’s happened to me since I was a child. So much so, that it worked its way into my Dark Legacy novel pretty strongly–the idea of nightmares attacking, and you don’t understand them and can’t seem to control whatever’s almost there. Except in reality, the fear is instinct more than a reflection of what you’ve dreamed. There’s a natural disoriented almost paralyzed state the body/mind exists in between sleep and waking. A near-waking state where you don’t yet have full control over your mind and body.

      This is often what keeps you from reacting phycially to a dream–when this buffer breaks down, people will find themselves sleepwalking or moving in violent ways as they wake. Getting back to my research on sleep aids and how medication can affect dreams (becaus I have to get into that in the book), there are recorded cases of people on the new sleep meds sleep-eating (and gaining significant weight) or even sleep-driving (and causing horrible accidents) while taking some of the drugs–in a forced sleep/dream state, but the mind isn’t dreaming naturally, so the protective barrior that should be there isn’t and the dream becomes reality for the body…

  11. Sabrina says:

    I’ve been having lots of dreams lately and I’m sure they are from what is going on in my life. Within the past year both my mother and father have passed away after years of being sick. I would have expected to dream of them, but that’s not how it’s working. Instead, I feel like my dreams are reflecting the emotions I’ve been through that day – relief, sadness, anger, lonliness, etc.

  12. Anne says:

    Like Minna, I don’t seem to dream much or if I do, I don’t remember them.

    When I was a child though I had two dreams which came true. One was about a passage in a book I was reading and months later I read the book with the passage. Another was shopping for a dress and we went into a store we never went into and there was the dress, which we bought. Gotta get those kind of dreams back and focus on the lottery.

  13. Brenda Rupp says:

    I can never remember my dreams. I thimk some times that I remember them when I wake, but within a couple of minutes the thoughts are gone like dust! Like they never happened.

  14. Patricia Barraclough says:

    Just came back from a weeks vacation, and there wasn’t a lot of dreaming going on. I didn’t get anywhere near enough sleep and didn’t dream much that I remembered. Prior to that, my dreams were reflecting my job and the projects I had going on.

  15. Anna says:

    I think our dreams are quicksilver things, because most often they need to be. If we focus too much on the, the craziness of the images would drive us, well, crazy ;o) Disconnected and unfocused and not always tied to much of anything in the real world, I really do believe that a lot of what’s going on while we REM is encoding/memory storage.

    But it’s the themes and trends of our dreams that have always fascinated me. And yes, the ones that have come true for me–I’ve predeicted some pretty lovely and sometimes awful things in my life, only realizing that a recurring dream had come true after the reality caught up with the fantasy. And I do believe in the the power to work through problems with our sleeping minds. I’ve witnessed this in my own life time and time again (in college, when I’d “finished” a programming or math problem in my sleep and had the answer when I woke; in my writing now, when a plot point or chracter arc solution is waiting for me in the early morning after refusing to be solved the night before).

    Maybe remembering isn’t the goal–accepting and getting comfortable with our sleeping minds is the important first step. Knowing tha a part of us is aware and functioning while we sleep, and embracing that this can be a good thing. Then, when there’s something there to remember and learn from, it will be more availalbe to our waking consciousness. Because it’s all us, right? It’s all a part of who we are. And I for one would be nothing without my dreams…

  16. CrystalGB says:

    I dream about going places that take forever to get there and about being at work and everything is strange. I always wake up thinking how strange my dream was.

  17. Juanita Stender says:

    I lost my husband almost 7 years ago but I still see him sometimes in my dreams – so real like he was still here with me. I find it a comfort and a way to keep remembering that loved one that you lost.

  18. Nathalie says:

    It was interesting reading your post Anna.

    Unfortunately, I don’t remember my dreams very well. One thing I know for sure is that what I am living – stressful situations have a way of coming by in my dreams.

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