How my dreams used to end...

[CuriousIdent]

This kind of spins out of a conversation I was having with my girlfriend a few weeks back, which I meant to post, but didn't get around to at the time.

We were exchanging dreams which we had when we were kids. Dreams which repeated, and the like. And I mentioned that as a child all my dreams always ended the same way.

She asked me what I meant.

And so I told her. Back when I was growing up, I would know when my dream was coming to an end because I would see like a camera's eye view panning up from the front door of my parents' house, through the hall, up the stairs, around onto the landing (with view of the window in the wall) and through into my bedroom.

At that point I would wake up.

I cannot say for any surety that this was EVERY single night. But certainly the majority of the time. I recall it quite vividly. It doesn't happen any more. In part possibly because I moved out of my parents' house about 7 years ago. And I was away at University most of the year for the years before that.

But I guess this standard sequence of ending a dream started to disappear in my late teens. I started becoming deeply insomniac for a good few years, and during that period I really don't recall many dreams at all. It's never happened in any other place I've lived in either.

When I was telling my girlfriend this she said, "Whoa! You know that's really bad, right?"

I asked her why, and she seemed to think that was really dodgy. That I could have been projecting or something. I dunno about that. I had some weird ass dreams as a kid. I honestly don't think that I was like travelling around reality whilst dreaming, or similar.

Anybody else every experienced something similar? Maybe it was just my brain's odd little way of 'directing' my dreams, but I'd be interested to know if anybody had experienced similar.

 

[tamyu]

I know exactly what you mean with the same endings.
I would always dream of balancing on the very tip top of a tower, in a small box... And then the box would shift, and I would slip and "fall". I would float and before I knew it I would be above the chimney of my house, and then come back into the house through a specific corner, run from that room into my bedroom, jump onto my bed - then wake with a jerk.
This always repeated, and in my dreams I would actually think that morning was close and be disappointed when the tower came along. I thought that was how dreams ended - you`d fly back into your house and wake up.

The corner I`d come back in at was above a window that was always closed - curtains drawn, never open. (I assume because it faced the neighboring house, and my grandmother was very private - always worried about who would look in.) But in my dream it was always open and bright morning light was shining in.

I have no idea when dreams stopped ending that way.

 

[CuriousIdent]

Hi Tamyu.

Glad I'm not alone. So, the same sequence of events each time? Obviously, we've slightly different routes of actually getting back to our respective beds, but yes, it is the same principle.

Although yours sounds way cooler, if I'm honest.

Anybody else have a similar experience?

 

[sciotofloods]

My dreams used to end with credits crawling across the scene, just like at the end of a movie.
Funny, I could never actually read them, though.
Would have been nice to know who the director was.

 

[Ringo]

I had a recurring dream ending which always left me feeling really strange.

The "camera" would back out of a door and then backing away all the time, would lift into the air. The door would close. As the view widened, it would show a row of red doors with brass knockers all set into one brick wall. Instead of numbers on the doors, they all had a spinning teardrop or a flashing coin.

Usually, the dream ended there but sometimes the "camera" would rise further to reveal a huge rubbish tip behind the wall which was strangely out of focus. The rubbish tip was cartoonish and looked like stage scenery with flat cutouts layered in front of one another to give the perception of depth.

I haven't got the foggiest what that it was all about but I would wake feeling uneasy with knots in my stomach.

 

[SHAYBARSABE]

Well, this all proves that children watch far too much television!

:lol:

 

[tamyu]

Hi Tamyu.

Glad I'm not alone. So, the same sequence of events each time? Obviously, we've slightly different routes of actually getting back to our respective beds, but yes, it is the same principle.

Although yours sounds way cooler, if I'm honest.

Anybody else have a similar experience?

It pretty much always was the exact same sequence. I always thought the tower must have been the Empire State Building, as it was the biggest building I knew of at the time - plus where I balanced was on top of a spire sort of thing at the top. The balancing itself was in the box for my blocks... The sort with a string and wheels that you could pull along. I`d be very cold, and it would be windy, and I`d watch the sun rise - then somewhere while being amazed at it I would slip and "fall" to where my house was.
I have no idea of what was between the fall and the house, I don`t remember any of that part - Just that I would arrive back by the chimney then enter through the upper corner of the room.

I would say it ended sometime during elementary school, as it was over by the time I moved from that house.

I doubt there was much television influence in my case, as my grandmother was very strict on that too - If I was awake, the television was off. Virtually no exceptions. I used to listen in awe when she`d turn it on once I was in bed... I could just barely hear the audio. (And used the cessation of sound to know when she was coming up to bed so I could pretend to be asleep and not get in to trouble if I hadn`t fallen asleep by then!)
I had tons of books though - so lots of varied info and stories to draw from for a dream.

 

[CuriousIdent]

My dreams used to end with credits crawling across the scene, just like at the end of a movie.
Funny, I could never actually read them, though.
Would have been nice to know who the director was.

Okay, now THAT is cool. Most interesting. In dreams you tend not be able to read the finer points of anything with a lot of text. Headers and signs, sometimes, or passages from books which you have read before, but large amounts of text, not so much.

I had a recurring dream ending which always left me feeling really strange.

The "camera" would back out of a door and then backing away all the time, would lift into the air. The door would close. As the view widened, it would show a row of red doors with brass knockers all set into one brick wall. Instead of numbers on the doors, they all had a spinning teardrop or a flashing coin.

Usually, the dream ended there but sometimes the "camera" would rise further to reveal a huge rubbish tip behind the wall which was strangely out of focus. The rubbish tip was cartoonish and looked like stage scenery with flat cutouts layered in front of one another to give the perception of depth.

I haven't got the foggiest what that it was all about but I would wake feeling uneasy with knots in my stomach.

Most odd. But did the camera ever find a way back to you, where you were actually sleeping, though? Did you feel a connection to where you physically woke up? And, man, I really hope you never woke up in rubbish dump...

It pretty much always was the exact same sequence. I always thought the tower must have been the Empire State Building, as it was the biggest building I knew of at the time - plus where I balanced was on top of a spire sort of thing at the top. The balancing itself was in the box for my blocks... The sort with a string and wheels that you could pull along. I`d be very cold, and it would be windy, and I`d watch the sun rise - then somewhere while being amazed at it I would slip and "fall" to where my house was.

That really is curious. I mean a lot of kids had those kind of boxes of blocks, but it's kind of odd that that stayed with you, as a motif in the dream, for so many years.

I have no idea of what was between the fall and the house, I don`t remember any of that part - Just that I would arrive back by the chimney then enter through the upper corner of the room.

And that's what fascinates me. In your dream, could you see your body on the bed from that corner? Or was the bed empty until you reached it?

I never saw myself at the end of my dreams. It was like I was the camera panning back to my bed and THEN I'd wake up.

I would say it ended sometime during elementary school, as it was over by the time I moved from that house.

I'm not when mine ended, either, in any definite sense. But I'm thinking mid-teens, because it was at that point I started experiencing insomnia and all dreams kind of stopped for most of the rest of my teens.

I doubt there was much television influence in my case, as my grandmother was very strict on that too - If I was awake, the television was off. Virtually no exceptions. I used to listen in awe when she`d turn it on once I was in bed... I could just barely hear the audio. (And used the cessation of sound to know when she was coming up to bed so I could pretend to be asleep and not get in to trouble if I hadn`t fallen asleep by then!)
I had tons of books though - so lots of varied info and stories to draw from for a dream.

I know I'm talking in terms of camera pans in the first post here folks, but only for want of a better phrasing. I supposed saying a first person view would be better. It certainly never felt like I was watching a TV show or Movie. When my dreams came to an end it was very much like I was seeing myself walking through the front door and back up to my bedroom, in first person. I never saw any other part of my body, at any point. But it definitely felt like it was me moving back to my room.

Surely Tamyu and I can't be the only people to have experienced this quite specific phenomenon?

 

[tamyu]

That really is curious. I mean a lot of kids had those kind of boxes of blocks, but it's kind of odd that that stayed with you, as a motif in the dream, for so many years.

I haven`t the slightest idea why it did. I`m thinking the dream probably started when it was a precious toy.

And that's what fascinates me. In your dream, could you see your body on the bed from that corner? Or was the bed empty until you reached it?

I never saw myself at the end of my dreams. It was like I was the camera panning back to my bed and THEN I'd wake up.

I don`t really remember if I saw myself, but I don`t think I did. The room I`d "re-enter" through was not my room for most of the time. I only slept in that room for about 6 months before moving into sleep in the same room with my grandmother. My grandfather switched work hours and it was easiest to move me into what had once been his bed than for him to come home and wake my grandmother at a weird time... Or her wake him when she went to bed. I can`t remember much of when I slept in that room beyond the fact that I did at one time sleep in there.
I am guessing that the dreams probably started when I slept in there, as one of the few memories I actually have of sleeping in there is having the dream then waking up in a start and staring at the corner and watching it shimmer and shine... Then fade away. (I really really doubt it was anything fortean, more like a waking hallucination.)

The strongest memories of that dream really are coming back in through the corner, and sort of float-running back to the bed where I slept then waking up when I jumped onto the bed. I don`t think I was visibly sleeping in it, or if I was it wasn`t exciting enough or strange enough in the dream to merit remembering.

I'm not when mine ended, either, in any definite sense. But I'm thinking mid-teens, because it was at that point I started experiencing insomnia and all dreams kind of stopped for most of the rest of my teens.

I suppose I should correct what I said as my dreams didn`t ALWAYS end this way - it was just common enough that I`d always notice it and think that it ended again the same way.

Then again, maybe they did all end the exact same way and I just didn`t remember the other times. I never remembered my dreams when someone woke me, but I`d always remember when I woke up myself.

Somewhere along the line the "ending" became a memory, and one of those things that I only really noticed was gone once it was gone for quite some time.

 

[Gyruss]

Not really a dream ending but sometimes I have real epic type dreams complete with full orchestral soundtrack :lol:

 

[tilly50]

My childhood dreams usually ended with me going down a tunnel, rather like the tiled one in the old underground, which got smaller and smaller until it came to a tiny door. I shrank as the tunnel did in a rather "Alice in Wonderland" fashion.

When I pushed the door open the dream ended, so I never got to find out what was on the other side.

Now, as an adult I have a "series" of dreams that always end with me getting on a coach which goes along a coast road with the sun setting out at sea. This ends when it gets totally dark.

 

[staticgirl]

In books I've read the house could be seen as you with the different rooms meaning different things to you. Perhaps the drams ended by you going back to one of the earliest 'selves' is the room you slept in in your earliest memories. If you felt safe and secure there it's a nice way of rounding your dream off, really.

 

[CuriousIdent]

In books I've read the house could be seen as you with the different rooms meaning different things to you. Perhaps the drams ended by you going back to one of the earliest 'selves' is the room you slept in in your earliest memories. If you felt safe and secure there it's a nice way of rounding your dream off, really.

You may have a point there. I certainly felt safest in that room. It was mine from Birth, and right up until I left for University at 19.

 

[Iris]

As a child I often had a dream where i would be playing and suddenly I would fall into a large hole that opened up. I would be afraid but there would be another world and I would play there until the same thing would happen.
After about 5 fallings I would end in a place with dark water and be very afraid when a large fish swallowed me but it was quite comfortable in there and I remember thinking that it wasn't so bad after all, and there were others sitting in there with me. It was always the same and after awhile I was used to the sequence and was not so afraid.

 

[TwoHeadedBoy]

What I've noticed about my dreams is that they all seem to take place in the same fictional (as far as I know) city. The streets all have steep inclines, and the outsides of most of the buildings are a creamy yellow.

"Private" buildings (as in, people's houses) have lots of oak panelling on the inside, with high beams across the ceiling. The bedrooms tend to be just a bed, tucked behind one of these beams.

"Public" buildings, be they hotels, museums, zoos or whatever all have marble interiors, and the floors are VERY bumpy. Like miniature hills indoors, made out of marble.