Pictures of My Mind - Dreams and Rumination

Here is a story I may include in my memoir, Pictures of My Mind.   I don't pretend to be a rigorous scholar.  What I have in mind here reminds me of what Emmanuel Swedenborg might have recorded in his journal in the 1740's. He was a scholar and a scientist. He was convicted of heresy by the Swedish Lutheran Church for promoting such thoughts.  Here is how my mind thinks.  Here are my experiences of thought and memory functions today.

It is July 13, 2011, 5:10 AM. A robin is on the lawn on the lakeside of our house. I put on my glasses to see the robin that was just a dark object I knew was not usually there on the lawn. I take note that the Sun has not risen.  A week from today will be a month after the Summer Solstice already.  The Sun had risen by 5:10 AM a month ago.

I observe such changes as the rising time of the Sun, the quality of daylight at any moment, what is happening in Nature, and what is happening on the lake.  Any of these observations support my creative writing practice.  Professional writing coaches make money telling you to practice such observations.

Before I pulled back the covers and left the warmth of my bed in our guest room, I think I was in a peculiar state of awareness.  I think I was awake. I think I was ruminating.  I know I had been dreaming.  I congratulated myself for observing so many creative thoughts.  I thought I should allow that flood of creative imagination to flow uninterrupted.

I already had forgotten the dream content by the time I was aware that I had been dreaming.  It did no good to follow lucid dreaming practice, to have a journal at hand to write out the dream. In fact, I had prepared myself for lucid dreaming last night.  I had been writing about it, typing and quoting a lucid dream website into one of my memoir documents on Microsoft Word.

It does not work every time to write out my thoughts immediately after waking up.  I have not recovered the dream content.  I have not recovered the content of the flood of creative thoughts.  I conclude that that hour may have lasted only a few minutes.  The flood of creative thoughts was like a different level of consciousness, still in the dream state.  Not every memory training practice overcomes memory loss.

It may be an accomplishment in training my mind to record such observations.  Awareness of a flood of creative thoughts appears to be a separate function, distinctly different from the dream state function.  Images and stories from the dream state appear to be different from the flood of words coming through rumination.

  Lucid dreaming practices

“Lucid dreaming is the experience of being completely aware within a dream that you are, in fact, in a dream.”

     “First, tell yourself before you go to sleep that you WILL remember your dreams.”

“Sleep cycles are 90 minutes long on average and REM sleep occurs at the end of the cycle. So if you set your alarm for any 90 minute interval after you fall asleep, you will most likely end up waking up during a dream, making it easier to remember.”

I took these quotes from a website called High Existence.  The complete “Lucid Dreaming” topic may appeal to you for memory training.  http://www.highexistence.com/lucid-dreaming/

The 90-minute cycle caught my attention. I followed that cycle during my workday at 3M.  It helped  meet deadlines.  It was essential for me  to take a break while writing user guides, fiscal procedures, and computer programs for data analysis.  I would stop working on a high priority, and do something else to refresh my mind.
For my dream work, I do not set an alarm to wake up.  A thought is enough to pre-program myself to wake up.  I learned from a man who practiced Sufi meditation that we can make use of those middle-of-the-night waking periods to accomplish many things.  Once I bought an Oreck Vacuum Cleaner after watching an infomercial at 2 AM.  Mostly likely, I will be aware that I am dreaming at the end of the first 90-minute cycle around 12:30 AM, and again after 5 AM.

Bedside Journals

Most important for remembering dreams, I keep a journal on my bedside table. Most of my journals are general purpose.  For several years I set aside a plush orange-colored journal specifically for dreams.  The touch and feel of the soft cover makes it easy to find in the dark.  I can always find a pen on my dresser.    Dreams recorded in my general purpose volumes can be detailed, but often are fragmentary.  No matter what kind of journal I use, if I have recurring dream themes or dream images, I make note of them at the end of the dream record.