nightmare

Open Heart Surgery:
I'm on a surgery table in what looks like a sunroom. I'm having open heart surgery and I am awake for it.
Doctor is a younger guy and I am terrified. He seems very casual about what he is doing.
At one point there is a break, and I'm told to go walk around.
I emerge from the room into a Kohl's clothing store.
My Dad, sister, and brother are there waiting for me.
I feel a pain in my chest, it feels real.

Burden:
I'm on a hockey team and I know I am the worst player.
My hockey stick wont stay together. There is some mechanism to put it together that I can't get my mind around.
There is a warmup the team is doing that required eggs.
My entire carton was busted, eggs cracked and leaking inside.
Then the was an issue with my skates. The coach had to ask another player to help me.
I feel useless and like a burden.
We eventually make it to the pre-game huddle.
The coach calls me out for my bad mobility on the ice.
According to him, I struggle to turn around and keep my balance while doing so. I know it is true.
I contemplate leaving the team so that I don't drag the team down anymore.
Maybe I will practice on my own to reach base level, return, and get my honor back.
I wake up feeling defeated.

Horror:
I'm intimate with a woman with long curly black hair.
...
I false awake into my bed and see the bedroom door slowly creek open.
A little girl who looks straight out of a horror movie quietly slides into the room.
She approaches the bed. Her mouth isn't moving but I hear crying.
My girlfriend wakes me up. The crying I heard was my mouth making noise through sleep paralysis.

North Korea:
I’m driving with my brother on an expressway.
I miss a turn and he starts to berate me.
I get upset and leave the car.
I'm in a sort of parking structure.
I have some basketball gear and am now looking for somewhere to change into my shorts.
I see a security woman and she approaches me.
She tells me I shouldn't be here, but I communicate that I'm looking for the Basketball room.
She begrudgingly lets me go, and directs me to an elevator off to the left. It’s a big furniture-moving elevator.
I get in the elevator, and notice there are a bunch of Asian-looking teens.
When the elevator gets to the bottom, off to the side, there is an exit for a “breast reduction center”.
The main entrance up ahead though, is into a hotel with red carpeting. It seems like a lobby.
The teens are speaking another language and are interested in me, getting all up in my face to the point where I am worried for my safety.
I realize that I am in North Korea.
We exit the elevator together, and I start trying to communicate.
I bounce the basketball, hoping that we could play a game and maybe form a bond of sorts.
The ball bounces far too high (but I accept this).
The teens seem friendly. I go to grab my phone and try to find a translator, but all I can find is text to text translation.


North Korea is Best Korea.

Rollercoaster:
I'm in my local downtown area, inside a restaurant. It looks like an Oregano's Pizza.
I'm looking out the front door. I see my girlfriend with another guy. His hair looks big.
I remember (within the story of the dream) that me and girlfriend had recently agreed to "take a break."
The pain of seeing her with somebody else is immense. It feels like the real thing.
...
I'm in a hallway that looks like one from my highschool. My girlfriend is there.
I tell her I want to get back together, and she agrees. Happy embrace.
...
I'm with her at a hotel pool. We are doing naughty things.

Sneaky Crabs:
I'm at a party at somebody's apartment, sitting at a desk with a laptop in front of me.
My coworker J from the lab is here. I noticed that I'm not wearing pants and feel nervous.
...
I'm at my second Arizona apartment, and there is a group crowded around the TV playing a game.
I watch the screen for a bit. It is a dark area, with tiny crab monsters all around.
The player needs to navigate a dark pathway forward while avoiding the crabs.
I brag that it looks easy. Somebody calls my bluff and hands me a strange controller.

Fragment:
Something about my coworker G.

Fragment:
A nightmare about shitting my pants.

Miles to Meters With Grandpa:

I'm on vacation with my girlfriend's family. Mostly her's, but a few representatives from mine are there too. We are all staying at a large ranch-style home.
Recently I have woken up from a dream and I have my phone out ready to record audio for it.
The dream within a dream I am remembering is apparently a lucid dream, where I noticed my girlfriend sleeping next to me.
She is twitching and making quiet pained sounds. From experience I know this is a nightmare.
After a few tries I successfully wake her up.
So, I want to find somewhere private to record this dream, but there are people everywhere I go.
I walk from the living room, to a hallway, to a den that looks like a room from my ex's Dad's house.
All crowded with people. I make my way outside eventually into the yard.
It's vibrant green, summertime, as typical for my dreams, with some yellow shine effects.
...
I'm in the garage now with somebody that the dream indicates is my girlfriend's Grandpa, but he doesn't look like him.
We're in a car together and parking it by pulling forward into the garage.
He wants me to measure some distance from where we are to the parking spot, so he hits some big square buttons on the dashboard.
There is a digital indicator with a two digit number followed by an "m" for the units that comes onto the dash after he has hit the buttons.
I say outloud that "Ah! That must be miles...oh wait that doesn't make sense...meters!"
I'm worried that I look stupid in front of him...not wanting to embarrass myself in front of my girlfriend's Grandpa.
I ask him why we are measuring this in the first place and he excitedly says "So that we get to hit the buttons!"
This strikes me as odd, so I do a nose reality-check.
I can breathe. This is a dream.
I tell the Grandpa that this is a dream, and he gives me a strange look. Like an "oh shit, you've figured it out" look.
I attempt to transform him for certain experimental purposes, but it doesn't work.


Fragment:

I'm in a mall-like building, in a large diner similar to something like a Coney Island restaurant.
There is a clothing store nearby that, within the story of the dream, I am very familiar with.
It seems that I have worked at this mall for a long time.


Fragment:

I'm with my brother and my girlfriend in the living room. My brother hits my girlfriend. I'm enraged.
I catch her, and then within seconds I've knocked my brother down, without thinking about it.
He tried to defend his action, but I'm not listening. In my mind, he has no excuse.

I didn't get the WILD or dream control I was hoping for, but there is a lot of recall here...so that's a plus!

Before WBTB

Sci-Fi Feeding Time
It's dark, night-time at a stable on a farm.
There are horse-like creatures and other monsters in sci-fi fleshy body bags.
Some of the horse-creatures are sitting on their backsides...and have huge upright dongs.
Like straight up into the air, 3ft diameter and 5ft high...
Someone is showing me how they care for the creatures.
They have one mature creature chew up food and spit it out.
Then they collect the mush and feed it to the younger ones.
The whole situation is very strange and I kinda wish I would've forgotten this one.

Fireshots and Frogskins
I'm in a team at Hogwarts and we are in the middle of magic combat with another group.
They are Slytherins or otherwise dark magic users.
It isn't a friendly duel, they are trying to hurt us.
I shoot some fire attacks at one of them and set their robes on fire.
I remark that the spell was meant for aesthetic uses, but very useful here.
I shoot off some stupefies and experlliarmises, and notice that I have multiples wands and they break as I'm shooting.
They sort of snap like twigs.
It feels similar to how durability works in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Later I'm in a downstairs living space or maybe a lab.
Mr. Weasley is there. He has a big frog creature. About 1ft tall.
I'm wanting the frog's shed-skin shell from him.
There is also information I'm needing. There was another person I was planning to bribe with the skin-shell.
But I realize that Mr. Weasley has the same info.
The room looks like my childhood kitchen now, with Mr. Weasley standing near the sink.
I ask him for the info, and indicate my understanding that I don't need to bribe him.
He pauses, gives me a look, sarcastically pauses...maybe a bribe IS needed...
But then gives me the info.

Cave Battle
JM from work and I are planning a dangerous trip to get treasure.
Later we arrive at the site.
I'm in an underground cave with a large rock blocking the entrance above.
Similar to a bombable wall from Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
There is a horde of orcs/goblin creatures above the wall chasing me. JM is above as well.
I'm searching the cave for the treasure. The monsters are getting closer to opening the rock.
I start to look for a weapon instead. I find a bow, but the arrows with it are dull.
They break through. I try to hide.
3 goblins make their way to the back cave chamber where I am at.
They chase me around the room and shoot arrows at me, I try to grab fallen arrows to fight back desperately.
J!!! HELP!!! I scream.
He shows up and helps me fight.

After WBTB
I head back to bed and focus on the forest I want to WILD into. I wait a long time, and multiple alarms go off interrupting my attempt. I eventually slip off to sleep without a WILD.

False Awakenings
I'm in my bedroom, thinking that I've wasted my time for the last day of comp.
Crap. I do a half-hearted nose reality-check just to be sure...
And I'm dreaming! But it fades quickly into another false awakening.
This happens a few times, but I never get real control of the dreams.
Only counting it as one dream because it all was sort of a blur.

Hey, You, You're Finally Awake
I have metal chains binding my arms together and I'm riding a cart through some valley.
I'm a prisoner, similar to the opening of Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
My right eye is bound shut somehow and I can't find a way to move my body to free it.
I think about how maybe I'm sleeping with my eye covered...
I must be dreaming!
Despite being lucid, I can't do anything to free my eye.
When I woke up, I confirm that my right eye was, in fact, lodged into my pillow. Go figure.

Carpet Shower
I'm at my Grandma P's old house (the one with the big upstairs area and Jack/Jill bathroom).
My dad owns it now. He's talking to his friend about how great blowjobs are. I mean, I can't argue with the man.
There is a stuffed animal on a chair alone in one of the rooms. I don't see the significance of it, if any.
I'm searching for a shower and I find one in the middle of one of the big bedrooms over the carpeting.
It doesn't strike me as strange that a faucet is right in the middle of the bedroom wall.
I start to shower up, but my Dad interrupts me and I have to leave the room.

Unexpected Assist
I'm in an apartment similar to H and A's from a few years back.
We're down some stairs. H is giving me a strange look and I feel like she is into me.
Her and my girlfriend S are aware of my WBTB and WILD attempts, and are trying to help.
They set up a bed for me with a stuffed animal to help me sleep.

Panther Dinner Time
I'm in a fancy restaurant sitting outside. It reminds me of where we sat and got ice cream in Disneyland/California Adventure.
There is a large panther approaching the seating area.
It's aggressive and the crowd freaks out.
Then a man appears from out of the crowd and seems to know the panther.
He commands it, and manages to get it to jump onto a nearby brick wall and hang there.
The situation is resolved.

Conditions
Medium workout
Light dinner
Bed on time
6hr/30m WBTB
Yuschak Primary Trigger (8Mg Galantamine, 250Mg Choline Bitartrate)

Notes
So I still didn't get the result I was hoping for. There were some alarms my girlfriend had go off during the attempt, but I'm not sure I can 100% blame those for the failure. I think that given the challenge of falling asleep once again, 30m might be too long of a wake period. Intent was 20m, but by the time I had taken the supplements, recorded my dreams, used the bathroom, and reviewed my goals 30m had passed. I'm undecided if I want to test 6hr/30m WBTB one more time, or move on and try 6hr/20m in earnest.

Before WBTB

Russian Ride
I'm traveling internationally and I don't speak the language where I am at. I'm getting off a train or bus looking for the airport. I see another bus leaving and I wave my arms and chase it, yelling for it to stop. It does. I try to ask the driver where the airport is and he tells me (in English) that the bus is full. It clearly isn't. I wonder if there is some law saying there must be X number of open seats. Regardless, I stay on the bus and he doesn't kick me off. I make my way to the back of the bus. It resembles the CATA bus system from back home. In the back car is a girl with one leg. Short hair, kinda "bad-girl type". She has khaki pants on, and the missing leg has it tied to cover the stump. I sit next to her and ask for help. She's friendly.

Some time later we are back at her apartment. It's a big studio, kinda messy with paint and art all over the place. I realize that I'm a girl, and that she may be gay. I get the impression she might have been coming onto me.

Later I'm running from Russian agents. I'm running through an apartment complex, entering and leaving through doors/windows. I'm really high up. When I go outside I'm sidling on just-big-enough edges to not fall. I don't know why they are chasing me. I eventually make my way down from the tall complex and make it to the ground but I haven't shook them.

I'm in a down-town Chinatown type area at night. There is a big crowd of people and I'm trying to use them to escape from the Russian agents. I'm at a bar with two floors open to the outside. There are some TVs running with couches set in front of them. There are some dark corners I can hide in. I try out a few and crouch down, but I decide that none of them are good enough and keep moving. Then I stand up face-to-face with one of the agents. He looks like Dr. Brenner from Stranger Things.

Running again. This time it was short. I ended up in a stone building on a grassy hill, hiding underground. But they've just found me. There is the leader (Dr. Brenner) and two thug-types. They are going to torture me for information. I tell them I've only killed one time, and I wasn't sure if it was me or my uncle who pulled them trigger. I guess I was trying to intimidate them. It doesn't work. They casually talk to me about something and then without warning Dr. Brenner shoots my right ear off with a pistol.

I cry out in pain (S hears me and tries to shake me awake). It doesn't hurt as much as I expected it would. They tell me that they will shoot off the other ear if I don't comply.

I wake up and tell S I am OK.

After WBTB

W Aged Up
I'm at my Grandma P's house in the bedroom sleeping on the bed. I've slept in later than everybody else. I roll over and see some old drawings I made in my childhood on the wall. My grandma will have decided to have kept them. They are hyper realistic and drawn in pencil. Somehow, they are holographic. I think to myself that maybe I should get back into art.

W, my brother's son who is due in September, bursts into the room with his friend, Ian. He's four years old. I can't tell who is who and I feel bad about it. But now I know it is because W isn't born yet. One of them has buck teeth. I follow them around the house and then one kid is missing. I find W/Ian eating dish cleaning tablets under sink. Standard kid behavior I guess

Lucid Fragment
I'm in a large mall, reminiscent of one from an old marching band trip from high school. I do a nose reality check and realize I'm dreaming. I double take...crap! I was dreaming that whole time before with W! I think to myself that step one is to find my DG...but my lucidity slips and I wander off.

Conditions
Medium workout early in day
Big dinner
2 drinks of alcohol
Stayed up late
6hr/30m WBTB
Yuschak Primary Trigger (8Mg Galantamine, 250Mg Choline Bitartrate)

Notes
My theory on what happened here...sleep cycle issues. Instead of jumping into the same sleep cycle I was just in, I jumped into the beginning of a later one. I stayed up until about 2:30am playing Zelda and then set an alarm for 8:30am...so about 6 hours after sleep. I know that 5h45m has been a good target for me, so I was experimenting with a larger time to test and see if it can be improved. One problem though is that I didn't have an established wake-sleep rhythm. Plus, I stayed up longer than the typical 15m during the WBTB. I planned slightly longer at 20m but it was more like 30m. I don't think the alcohol will have mattered much because of the later timing, but it could have played a part. Lesson learned: Next time, have an established sleep rhythm. Gonna say data inconclusive about 6h/20m WBTB setup.

Woods Mansion Nightmare
I'm walking in a heavily wooded area at night. Grass is above my ankles and wet. I come across my best friend D. He has a bed just outside the window of a mansion with lights shining on the grass below. We talk for a bit and then decide to go into the mansion.

I'm running sideways and side jump through an open window in the mansion. It is well-lit and makes me think an older person might live there. Meticulously clean, lots of furniture we wouldn't be allowed to sit on, bookshelves all over. Then a woman with big 80's hair appears. It is blonde and straight up. Her face reminds me of older photos of my Mom (rest in peace). The woman runs into the room frantically.

"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!?!" the woman yells at me.

I don't reply. At this point I'm in fight or flight mode. I'm running sideways again, and I do a side jump out a window. I fell as if I'm being chased but I don't look back to check. My escape route takes me back into the mansion. I'm running inside it again. I tried to change my path and leave through a window I previously came in from, but now there is a wall there.

I had a thought as I stared at the ceiling, since I couldn't sleep after this dream. The way she said "Do you remember me?" was aggresive in the context of the dream (nightmare) but the actual content of what she said wasn't. I was thinking that if my mom was actually in some kind of collective unconscious in the afterlife, maybe she was trying to reach out and the message got scrambled by the context of the dream? I'm not normally so much the "hand wavy" type of guy. But I still find stuff like this interesting to think about.

Fragment
I'm in a more casual setting now. It reminds me of Grandma P's bathroom from a few houses ago. My mom is there, but her skin looks older. I don't recognize/recall that she passed some years ago. We spent some time together but I can't recall much.

I've had some similar dreams with her showing up like this. We were close when she was alive, so I like to think she is just dropping by to say hi.

I'm checking doors to make sure they're locked. It's cold and rainy outside. I realize that I might have forgotten to lock the backdoor after I took the trash out earlier. I go over and confirm it isn't locked. Suddenly, it bursts open, rainfall flooding in. My brother is there with a knife, stabbing at me. I slam the door shut and try to hold it but he is pushing back and stabbing wildly at the openings of the door. I hear myself making moaning sounds. I'm trying to scream through sleep paralysis. I heard myself because GF is waking me up.

I'm in band class. My GF and I are near the front of the room, surrounded by a bunch of percussion instruments. There's a stack of symbols, and I carefully try to maneuver out of the center of them, and I dodge the first bunch. I sarcastically brag about it and then knock over a different one on accident. GF sighs. I make my way to my instrument case. I'm wanting to go warm up and get past being embarrassed.
Some time later, I'm eating some sugary chocolate ice cream drink while wading through a pool. Apparently I'm on the Jungle Cruise in Disneyland, but in pool form. The group of band people is on the other side of a bar sitting and watching me wade across this pool expectantly. It seems like a positive experience, where the staff is encouraging me. The ice cream was actually pretty tasty. I make it to the end, and everybody cheers.

I get up about 4:30AM and perform a WBTB (planned this time, no supplements). I stayed up for about 20-30 minutes. I fail to perform a WILD, and I don't have any recall after the WBTB. I'm thinking this may have been too long to stay awake for me.

I'm on a vacation with my family. We are at a beach, but the sky is gray. There is a pool nearby the beach and it has multiple "floors" under the water. My sister tries to show me a deep dive area, but I can't hold my breath and I have to go up for air.

I'm cleaning my childhood house with my brother A. I'm annoyed because he keeps assigning me chores to do. At one point I had moved my bed mattress into the garage, but then had to carry it back because I misunderstood what he was asking for. We're outside now, on the east side of the house. I'm playing some game with my brother. Maybe we are doing more chores. The grass is super green, like the way it looks in old pictures. A fighter jet flies very close over us. It does a cool flip trick and I give it a salute. The fighter jet drops two bombs down near us. They sit there a second before exploding. It doesn't hurt, but I feel the heat rapidly go up. I say "I love you, S" and then die.