The World Ends - Again

What is it with those "repeater" dreams, always the same, the scenery, symbolism, people ... I have a few that return again and again, as if my sub-conscious is frantic to tell me (warn me?) of something.  Watch out.  Open your eyes.   

Did you know every time we sleep, we "rewire" our brains and wake up with a completely different brain pattern?  True.  We have to sleep it seems.  All animals sleep, even flies.  I saw an experiment about it.  And if deprived of sleep, we must make up for that time and I suspect we're definitely dreaming whether we remember or not.  I don't remember the Battle of Seville but it doesn't mean it didn't happen.  So we all dream.  All animals experience REM or rapid eye movement during sleep, especially the human animal.  It signifies active dreaming and occurs usually in the early hours before we wake - so that's when we dream.  What happens?  Why do some continuously repeat?

Scientists know that the hypothalamus is the center of basic memory retention.  Guess what part of the brain is most active during REM sleep?  Right, the hypothalamus now doesn't that speak to something?  Like, we dream about things that happened that day, or that month, or last year, all directly connected with the memory center.  Why is the brain trying to reinforce a memory of a past event?  And in such a symbolic way!  Some are pretty obvious.  And what about precognitive dreams?  How can the brain possibly process a memory of something that hasn't happened yet?  Could be that the space-time continuum is directly related and whatever we think of as past, present and future may be meaningless in the big picture.    

In one that I have regularly, the world is a wasteland where predators reign.  Something catastrophic happened.  Good people exist in small pockets of fright yet retain their values.  I'm always being chased, constantly, I'm never caught but I sense my predator is there, sense the threat, never ceasing for a second to- what?  Stop me?  Kill me?  I savor these dreams, I want to learn from them.  Yet every "expert" has a different explanation.  Whatever they mean, I know I'd be less self-aware without them. 

I like to program my dreams, too.  They call it "lucid" dreaming.  It's not always exact, sometimes the symbolism is very intense, but the dream invariably contains remnants of the program I set.  Does anyone else do this?  

Those "repeaters" come unbidden and many times not so welcome, but I truly feel I need every dream I have.  Whatever the reason, I just sense it must be important.