Drama in your sleep

Drama in your sleep

‘Dream is not that which you see while sleeping, it is something that does not let you sleep,’ so said Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, a scientist and one of everyone’s favourite Presidents of India.

By this, he meant dreams which motivate, spur you on, give you a purpose in life.

That must apply to good, positive dreams.

But have you ever had a bizarre or scary dream that drives you into an agonized search for information if what you saw had a meaning or was a premonition?

Sant Tulsidas wrote jyon sapne sir kaate koyi, bin jaage na door dukh hoyi. (If somebody cuts off the head in a dream, the pain does not go away without waking up).

That is sound logic, but Tulsidas was a saint who had reached great spiritual heights and probably had God on speed dial. Perhaps he did not give a bad dream much thought unlike us humans who ruin our next day and many days after that worrying over the reason we had that dream.

Dreams can be like art films with one story, or Bollywood masala films with a confusing plot replete with random incidents. The disturbing thing is that we forget the good, happy dreams as soon we open our eyes but often remember that rotten one which haunts us for a long time. I am not talking of people who are going through a stressful time, or often have bad dreams or nightmares due to unfortunate incidents in the past or disease, but merely one odd horror film that the mind chose out of all the genres available.     

Psychologists have theories about why we dream and I, a layperson, just wonder.

While we are asleep, our brain sorts out, processes and rearranges all the information it received during the day. My question is why does it have to make and show a graphic video about it? Can’t it just quietly store it in mega or giga bytes or whatever it is that a computer is supposed to do?

Another theory is that dreams are expressions of our unconscious desires. What kind of desires and wishes are these and how masochistic can one be that he/she wants no physical mental or spiritual pleasures and longs only for bad experiences?

If they are glimpses of what our daily life or that day/time in particular is, why use surreal metaphors in for it? We are all very well aware of it in our waking hours, anyway. Why does our mind have to behave like an enemy at night?

Some people, however, find explanations for dreams, especially unpleasant ones, in mythology or superstition. How do you decide? Do you say it warns you of something bad to happen or is it only because you watched television news late into the night?

My father’s doctor friend often said one has bad dreams when the stomach is unhappy. A consoling thought after you have eaten radish leaves at dinner and dream of nodding a vehement ‘no’ to going up a grey ship in a sea of frothy black waters during your mind’s nightly ventures into the world unknown.  

After watching a ghastly dream one night early this year, I spent days hoping that scene was not a premonition, or an other-worldly experience, or my mind trying to solve a puzzle in a very unconventional way.

To help me solve this puzzle, I am waiting for a dear friend’s daughter to complete her Ph.D. in psychology, so that I can seek some educated information from an expert.

As this year ends and the new year comes in, I have a novel wish for you, dear readers. May your brain produce comedies with happy endings every night! Let your days be filled with smiles, laughter, joy! If one odd bad dream does try to disturb your mind’s happy gallivanting, blame it on what you had for dinner the night before and never have it again.

Happy new year!

                                                                                                - Anupama S Mani