Why is this???

[Idolfan]

One thing I have noticed over the course of a long period of time, is that no matter what mental disturbances I get during the day such as hunches, these do not repeat themselves in dreams. I remember a year ago when I was totally paranoid all day long, as soon as I fell asleep and started dreaming this COMPLETELY stopped, like it was hidden from me. Don't you think this is a bit strange, because I thought that if you dwell over something obsessively in your waking life you will dream about it as well? It makes good evolutionary sense. But although every day for me was a psychotic hell my dreams carried on as normal. Often through my daily life I experience powerful hunches and 'feelings' that I just have to ignore, but when I dream, none of this happens! Ever! This is bizzare. Your brain waves when you dream are supposed to be nearly identical to real life, so how come none of this ever happens until I wake up?

[AURON]

Don't you think this is a bit strange, because I thought that if you dwell over something obsessively in your waking life you will dream about it as well? Not always in my history. I know I've had negative things in my head all day and they didn't occur in my dreams; in fact, I've noticed the opposite. If I've had a really bad day, or a lot of things on my mind, normally I'll have some type of positive dream. I haven't done any research on it, but some dreams may be forms of coping mechanisms.

[TheUncanny]

There are some in the scientific community that believe dreams can be a way for the human mind to run "trials" of various scenarios to help prepare ourselves for an event, should it ever happen to us. As I understand it, it is almost like a drill (or practice) for the real deal. As for what determines what scenarios we dream about, I too rarely dream about the same things I think about during the day. Perhaps this is because those scenarios have already been "sufficiently" played out in one's mind while awake. The things I dream about tend to be issues that I would normally worry about but simply do not think about all that often. For example, I will sometimes have dreams about my teeth falling out. This is not something I often think about, but my teeth falling out is a pretty big fear of mine...so it makes sense why I would have this dream every now and then. I will also sometimes have dreams about wrecking my car...again, car accidents not being something I think about everyday, but surely something that I am concerned about on some unconscious level. Maybe what we dream about are things that concern us on a level deeper than that which is right on the surface of our minds, the things that perhaps do not get enough attention from our consciousness.

[Zhaylin]

Great replies Ethen and Akono. Such has been my experience as well, for the most part. I agree that our waking thoughts, fantasies, paranoia's etc can often be a manifestation of our anxieties and can be used as a coping mechanism. All throughout my life, I would have extremely morbid fantasies (daydreams): my school bus would drive off the bridge and into the gulf and I'd help save the people on it; or everyone would die and I'd be left alone; or _____. As I got older, the daydreams became worse: I would be raped, beaten, left for dead by persons sometimes known, sometimes unknown. Various scenarios would play out- some rational, others magickal. Most had a recurring theme: I would be battered, humiliated, left to tend to my wounds on my own, but I'd come out victorious. Before I was disfellowshipped from my Congregation (I believe you already know THAT story), such obsessions vanished. It took a lot of effort to banquish them, but I did. For almost 6 years or so, I was free. But now I'm smoking again, piercing myself, giving myself tattoos, and the morbid thoughts have also returned (and I've welcomed them). I lost my pillar of strength so I returned to self-destructive behavior. My dreams rarely ever match the horror show I imagine for my life. Yeah, I have some weird and disturbing dreams, but I have novels worth of daydreams with every detail covered and those don't show up in my dreams. As Ethen said, I think it's because I play them out so often while I'm awake, my brain doesn't need to go over it. Now... killing zombies, flying, rescuing people from death and dismemberment... those are scenarios my brain wants to fill me in on My dreams also play back seemingly obscure and unimportant info like what I've read or watched on TV etc or conversation bits and pieces. Sorry this is so long, and doubly sorry if I'm a million miles away from what you're thinking. If I recall correctly, you have problems with anxiety? That's why I wrote the essay above to show the contrast between waking and dreaming thought processes of someone (me ) with considerable anxiety problems.