So, I woke up from a compelling dream this morning. Of course, any details not committed to memory have since fled, but I’m left wondering: this dream felt like I was just about to enter the final chapter of a relatively complete story, but I woke up before I got there. This has happened several times before, enough that I’m suspecting it’s a trend. I will note that many times I will have dreams that seem emotionally relevant or interesting, but then on waking don’t survive analysis, but what I could remember of this one did actually seem interesting.
Hypotheses:
I’m underestimating the dream’s ability to twist away from completion. Yeah, we were about to reach the Ancient Destination that we’ve been trying to get into for most of the story, but why would that be the end of the story? We could keep going, just like other obstacles had derailed success before now.
I’m only remembering the dreams that seemed compelling after being awake that I woke up during- if the dream finishes and I stay asleep, it won’t get recorded. The longer a dream’s been going on, the more likely it is to be compelling, and so most of these events that I notice should fit this category due to selection effects.
I’m only remembering the dreams that fit this description when wondering if this is a trend (i.e. confirmation bias).
My dreams are writing themselves into a corner- “how do I resolve this? I know, wake him up!”
Thoughts?
added: 5. The sense of “almost completed” is an artifact of the dream.
I think you’re excluding ‘the dream is distorting my attitudes’ and it’s not that if you were about to reach completion a distortion would set in per #1, but that the distortion was always there (like how a Shephard tone or a barber pole keeps ascending). Ever had a dream that seems to last years or longer? Of course it didn’t, it was essentially just a montage with a feeling of great duration ‘this is taking years and years’ attached.
Good point; that exclusion was accidental, since I was thinking about it when I linked to Wondermark, but then must have mentally crossed it off my list as mentioned.
Edit: actually, one issue with that is that the sense of completion (in this dream) was backed up by the story- it did seem like the story was coming to a close- and unfortunately my memory is too corrupted now to tell how much of the sense came after I woke and how much was there beforehand.
So, I woke up from a compelling dream this morning. Of course, any details not committed to memory have since fled, but I’m left wondering: this dream felt like I was just about to enter the final chapter of a relatively complete story, but I woke up before I got there. This has happened several times before, enough that I’m suspecting it’s a trend. I will note that many times I will have dreams that seem emotionally relevant or interesting, but then on waking don’t survive analysis, but what I could remember of this one did actually seem interesting.
Hypotheses:
I’m underestimating the dream’s ability to twist away from completion. Yeah, we were about to reach the Ancient Destination that we’ve been trying to get into for most of the story, but why would that be the end of the story? We could keep going, just like other obstacles had derailed success before now.
I’m only remembering the dreams that seemed compelling after being awake that I woke up during- if the dream finishes and I stay asleep, it won’t get recorded. The longer a dream’s been going on, the more likely it is to be compelling, and so most of these events that I notice should fit this category due to selection effects.
I’m only remembering the dreams that fit this description when wondering if this is a trend (i.e. confirmation bias).
My dreams are writing themselves into a corner- “how do I resolve this? I know, wake him up!”
Thoughts?
added: 5. The sense of “almost completed” is an artifact of the dream.
I think you’re excluding ‘the dream is distorting my attitudes’ and it’s not that if you were about to reach completion a distortion would set in per #1, but that the distortion was always there (like how a Shephard tone or a barber pole keeps ascending). Ever had a dream that seems to last years or longer? Of course it didn’t, it was essentially just a montage with a feeling of great duration ‘this is taking years and years’ attached.
Good point; that exclusion was accidental, since I was thinking about it when I linked to Wondermark, but then must have mentally crossed it off my list as mentioned.
Edit: actually, one issue with that is that the sense of completion (in this dream) was backed up by the story- it did seem like the story was coming to a close- and unfortunately my memory is too corrupted now to tell how much of the sense came after I woke and how much was there beforehand.