Thread: Do you tell people?

I only tell them when the dream was really interesting, or if it was lucid. My parents listen to me and they act like they are interested, but I know that they aren't. My friends on the other hand don't even seem to hear me when I tell them.

It's something that's come to mind a few times, RB. It's never an issue with close friends being that they're aware of my interest in dreaming, but I seldom mention a dream I had to friends I don't speak to often. I really feel it does give that 'stalker' vibe, and it can be easy for the other to misunderstand. But then, I usually don't care enough about distant friends (or acquaintances, it feels like) to bring much of anything to their attention. Unless the dream is being shared with someone close to you, it often ends up as being just another smalltalk conversation, and I think a good dream deserves more consideration than that. That's why members of the forum are an exception to the rule, as dreams here are considered a serious topic.

I only tell the people I'm closest to. This mostly being my dad, my grandmother, and my best friend.

I guess my concerns are always with the distant friends. People you don't speak with often. I don't really tell my close friends or my girlfriend about random dreams. It seems obvious that they would play a role in my dreams, since I see them frequently.

When I have a dream about someone I haven't seen or heard from in a while, I tend to call them or email them. I don't always tell them I had a dream about them. I normally just say, "You were on my mind this morning," or "I was thinking about you." I'm always a little flattered when someone from the past calls me for no reason. It feels good to know I've burned some memories into their grey matter somehow. It's a good reminder that we do have lasting effects on the lives of people we come in contact with.

I only discuss dreams I have them in with family. With friends they might find it strange that I dream about them.

Matter of fact the same can go with family...but I guess becuase my sister and I discuss our dreams it doesn't really matter.

I don't tell people I don't know particularly well. I told someone like this once and they were really freaked out. I tell my friends and my family though, or anyone else I know who talks to me about their dreams.

I think it depends on how you word it. If you say "I dreamt about you", it sounds 'worse' than "You were in my dream".

If I really have the urge to tell someone I didn't really know very well, I'd probably spend most of the time reassuring them that I often have 'really random dreams with random people for no particular reason'.

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Do you tell people when you have dreams about them? I never know if I should mention it, or not. On the one hand, it is a good opportunity to let someone know they're on your mind. It is a good reminder that they have influenced your life, and are not forgotten.

On the other hand, some people get creeped out by dreams. Many people only remember their shocking, violent, or sexual dreams. They seem to assume you're infatuated or a stalker if you dream of them.

Obviously, here on DV, we tell each other all the time. With my other friends, I'm always a little hesitant.

Funny you should ask, as I've just started a thread on MM about that.

The answer is yes, and recently, for the first time. It was a sexual dream and the person in question responded positively. I suspect that will usually be the case even though we fear as you say, being labelled a creep or a stalker. I guess it depends on how we communicate the dream.

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

I guess my concerns are always with the distant friends. People you don't speak with often. I don't really tell my close friends or my girlfriend about random dreams. It seems obvious that they would play a role in my dreams, since I see them frequently.

When I have a dream about someone I haven't seen or heard from in a while, I tend to call them or email them. I don't always tell them I had a dream about them. I normally just say, "You were on my mind this morning," or "I was thinking about you." I'm always a little flattered when someone from the past calls me for no reason. It feels good to know I've burned some memories into their grey matter somehow. It's a good reminder that we do have lasting effects on the lives of people we come in contact with.

That was my situation - emailing someone I hadn't seen for several months. My main worry is that she may one day tell my wife! But that's a different thread.

Well, I only tell interesting dreams I had about them...

Only with people that I really know that are open with their dreams, and who I've told about lucid dreaming and this site. (Which amounts to about 3 or 4 people...)

If it was a weurd/funny dream. yes

if it was serious, like if i killed him/her, no.

Sometimes dreams seem so taboo to discuss with other people on certain occasions.
Society also conditions and makes most of us feel this way. Hidden feelings, and wants that allow us to be free to play out in our dream scenes, are not what we are taught to act or behave through our "social conditioning"
It's nice when you find someone with an open enough mind to discuss such things.

It is nice to tell or think that “A Dream Is A Wish The Heart Makes”
However, it's also hard to tell your mom, straight out, "hey, Mom I was dreaming we had sex last night."

This could help dream recall.

Most of my friends are in to 'inner' stuff anyway, so quite often a dream with them in makes a good conversation. Obviously I won't tell a dream to someone if I think it will creep them out.
Years ago I had a dream that a close female friend of mine was in this room with all these pickled aborted feotuses (or however you spell it - reality check!). She was going through a hard time in RL so there is no way I would have told her that one.
I think that it could help with recall and lucidity if I had some friends who were actually into the same lucid dreaming techniques as me, but then again if you don't do this sort of 'reality bridgeing' right then it harms lucidity by making dream-like appearances more acceptable in a dream (I get this a lot).
I find this forum very uselful for this although I am new here and haven't really established a connection with anyone in particular yet.

I talk about my dreams all the times, its easy enough to tell them to the people I work with, but I chose to only tell the dreams strictly work related, and even then I skip some bits. For example, in one I tickled my boss, this is weird, and could be interpreted as sexual, so it seemed wise to me to skip telling that to her.

I can see your issue with this, but people are usually comprehensive, as long a you tell your dream right after. In this way you ease their mind, allowing them to discard the unwanted dream possibilities (sex/murder/plain inappropriate).

Overall, I highly value discussing about dreams, since I found it tends to make people remember their dreams more often. At my part-time job, my co-worker told me I was weird for ALWAYS dreaming about the job. So I asked them what they dreamed about. The answer was obviously, I dont remember my dreams. The weeks following, I started to get accounts of my co-workers dreams, since they started to pay attention I guess.

Yeah I do, depending on the dream content though.

I rarely ever do, I dunno why, it jus seems....weird. I dunno, I always think people dont wanna be talking about stuff like dreams (obviously there are some exceptions, like this entire forum.) I do sometimes tell people though, usually just my close friends, never really my family or distant people.
But one example I'm thinking of was just last week, I had a dream with someone I hadn't seen in a long while, and the scene with them in quickly became sexually explicit. The next day IRL, out of the blue it turned out I saw them that night and spent the majority of the night sitting with em, thinking '....I can't tell you what I dreamt we did last night' just because I was kinda worried it would freak em out a bit. Mighta been cool though.

I tend to tell my dreams only to my close friends and other people that I know that are interested in lucid dreaming like I am.
Of course I would share my dreams with you guys, there might be one or two I would keep to myself, but other than that I would share them all with you people.
I don't tend to share my dreams with my parents due to the fact they don't listen to me. When I first told them about lucid dreams they sarcastically said that I was "crazy". They just didn't know a lot about it, so I just keep my dreams to myself, my friends, and you guys.

No.

It depends on who it is. I've told some friends and they act like they felt violated, so obviously I never mentioned it again. While with some others, it can be fun to mention.
For some reason I allways feel the urge to tell it if I dream about a girl I like.

Of course! Unless I hate them <.<

Yea, I tell them unless I don't really know them... like say they're an acquaintance... or the content might get them the wrong idea. Heck, close friends I can tell them any dream on Earth though.

So yea, not if it'll so make someone (i.e.) make a move on me or they're just people I vaguely know.

Generally speaking I tell them, unless I know that the dream will freak them out. Most of the time, people who know me will start edging away, "So is this I should be worried about? What did you dream?" So I tell them and set them at ease. Most of the time. I'm known among my friends for crazy dreams though.
~5x5wolf~

It depends on who the person is. It's mostly my friends, and most of my friends are very understanding and open, so they're unlikely to get creeped out no matter what happened. It's actually quite amusing most of the time, and they ask me for more details.

well...
it really depends on the context of the dream, I do it only if it was brought into the conversation by someone other than myself. I remember me and a friend talking about dreaming about each other, they had dreams with me in it, but I could honestly say I had never had a dream about them.