I think I dream more than the average person. Or maybe it just seems that way because I remember all my dreams.

Is it true that some people only dream in black and white? And some don’t remember their dreams at all?

My dreams are real and vivid. They are in color. And most of the time I KNOW I am dreaming when I am in a dream. Crazy right?

I’ve had dreams where I experience pain and wake up feeling the pain for a few seconds. I’ve also had dreams where I wake up and have felt the emotions in the dream SO STRONGLY that I feel like I am still experiencing them.

I have happy dreams, but more often than not my dreams are tumultuous, violent, and sometimes really scary. If I had a notepad beside my bed, I’m sure I could pen the next horror flick with Wes Craven just with the ideas from my dreams.

I also have this habit of waking up from a bad dream, and falling asleep only to be sucked back in to the SAME dream. So, naturally, nowadays if I awake from a really bad one, I sit up in bed for 5 or 10 minutes before I lay down again.

As a kid, I remember having a ton of nightmares. Recurring ones as well. Waking up in a cold sweat and wanting nothing but a good night’s sleep. As a young adult, I still had them, but much less. And somewhere along the line I actually figured out that I had the ability to wake myself up from a bad dream as I was dreaming it.

Don’t laugh, I can really do it. My secret is acknowledging that I am dreaming, placing my finger between my eyes and concentrating until I am awake. 90% of the time it works. Less effective when I am being chased by a monster with ten heads.

Lately, I’ve had a rash of nightmares again. Which is amusing in itself because, aside from these I’ve been sleeping a lot more soundly these days. Not even a stitch of insomnia at the moment.

I haven’t cracked open a dream interpretations book in years. But I can usually correlate the previous days events to the dreams. I’m sure if I started a dream journal, I might be surprised though. The thing that totally throws me for a loop is the fact that PEOPLE in my dreams are not often people I know. In fact, sometimes I awake with names in my head, or the strangers in the dream offer up their names. I do write those down… I figure I might make the connection eventually but usually I don’t.

I’ve even Googled some the names I write down, as crazy as that sounds. One ended up a historical figure, and I swear I never heard his name before… but my brain said I did.

I guess I am just a very talented dreamer. lol.

So tell me… how do you dream?