Do you find that your dreams tell you things about your waking life, or do you just think that it's your brain working? Do you ever have psychic dreams, or dream about someone you hadn't seen in a long time, only to hear from that person the next day?

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

Answers

I either have very weird dreams about my teeth falling out (and if anyone knows what that's all about please do tell me...) or nonsensical dreams, or I dream about an utterly boring and pointless event that will, later in the day, happen.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I was once told that dreaming about your teeth falling is good luck. You should play lotto or something. I have had that dream twice but I never won the lottery so I'm not sure if that's true maybe it's just not true for me.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

In psych, we learned that teeth falling out is a subconcious fear of getting old. I have that one all the time. ugh.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I never knew that dreaming about your teeth falling out was such a universal thing. I dream that alot. I used to have recurring nightmares about tornadoes. I used to live in the southeast. Now that I have moved to the northwest I never dream about tornadoes. I did dream once about an evil clown with sharp teeth that had a snake crawling down his pants. What does that mean?

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

The teeth falling out is the only recurring dream I've ever had (aside from a brief period when I was 9 and dreamt for a while that I was a succession of superhero sidekicks to my brother or younger cousin Josh- I WAS NEVER THE HERO and I had to do all of the crime fighting myself- but that's another story)and I trace it to the fact that I had braces and the idea of losing my teeth is horrifying. Because it signifies this big wasted amount of work. I read that dreaming about losing your teeth is a manifestation of anxiety in your life about either losing something or not being good enough for something- I'm not sure which one.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I, too, have had the teeth falling out dream. They also usually star my friend Brett, on whom I used to spend a great deal of time trying to impress. He always tells me that he doesn't care that I'm toothless. Judging from the interpretations on here, I have come to conclude that either the dream means I still want to impress Brett (which, deep down, I think I do) or that he'll love me when I'm sixty-four.

Every time I have a dream that takes place inside my house, it's always my old one. I rarely, if ever, have dreams about my new house. I know it's because I still miss that place more than anything.

I ALWAYS have dreams about my boyfriend from 9th-10th grade dying. I don't know what's up with those. We're still friends and everything, so it's not like I harbor any hard feelings toward him. I'm always driving or walking along, and then I just sort of stumble over his body. I scream and get all hysterical and shit, and I always think, "I have to tell his mom." Anyone care to venture a guess as to what THIS one means???

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

i have two recurring themes in my dreams: either i am naked and in search of my clothing (usually this takes place in an amusement park of some sort. i never, ever want to ride a tilt-a-whirl naked. never. even in dreams it is so not fun), or i am a superhero, with a cape and a sidekick and the whole shebang. sometimes the sidekick is a talking dog (a golden retriever actually) who also has a cape.

i guess i really am a freak.

last night i slept for 16 hours and the entire time i was dreaming about vampires. vampires at the beach, at my work, at my high school, everywhere i travelled, i ran into vampires.

really really weird stuff goes on in my brain.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

Actually when I told someone about the teeth falling out dream (in my dreams they rot out or dissolve in my mouth) she said that basically, that meant you were grinding your teeth in your sleep.

Sometimes when I'm in the falling-asleep stage, I dream that I'm walking, and try to take a step, and "fall" onto the bed. Very disorienting. I also have had dreams about flying. Those are always cool.

Normally my dreams are - erm - surreal. Like the other night, my best friend's older brother (or a better looking version of him) was trying to have sex with me, and then he turned into John Cusack as we were doing it. I mean, literally, one minute he was the brother, next he was Cusack. I've never been sexually interested in either of those guys, either.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

That teeth dream is the WORST. I guess everyone has it. I heard somewhere - this is probably completely made up - that the teeth falling out dream means you are anxious about, and do not enjoy performing oral sex. Or having it performed on you. Or something.

Whatever. I feel pretty confident someone just pulled that one out of the air.

I have only had that dream once but, I often dream anxiety dreams like: I wake up on the day of a final and realize I never attended the class my test is in - because I forgot I had ever enrolled in it - and so, I'm not going to graduate. When I wake up from that one, and this has happened several times, it takes me a while to realize that I actually DID graduate, five years ago. I lie there for a few minutes thinking "Wow. I could have been a college graduate but, I'm such a loser I forgot about that class..."

Isn't that sad? More than once I have gotten up to look at my diploma on the wall, just to be sure...

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I have odd dreams in those hours between dawn and when my bladder awakens me. Last Thursday I was having an affair with David Bowie. But it was okay for some reason, because I lived on a houseboat and that's how I already knew my boyfriend died. Now, I'm not sure what living on a houseboat has to do with David Bowie or my boyfriend being dead. Maybe he'd rather be dead than live on a houseboat?

Only rarely do my dreams have anything to do with my conscious life, unless I'm seriously overstressed. And those are the times when I tend to talk in my sleep. Like, for example, the first year I worked in Retail Hell. My boyfriend at the time swears I would say, "I'm sorry, sir, we're out of stock on that." over and over and over. These dreams would go on every night for weeks.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

That's nothing, Loree. At least you said something that made sense. Once, I turned to the S.O. and said "Isn't it strange how the bathroom is always to most talked-about room in the house?"

Mmm hmm.

I also once complained, vigorously, that my cat, Henry had "spent all his Thanksgiving money."

When asked, "What did he spend it on?" I answered, like that was the dumbest question in the world, "Uhh! FOOD AND STUFF!"

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I had a dream not too long ago that Adam Sandler was making me watch him kill people by slitting their throats. I kept thinking in the dream "I thought this guy was funny?" I have strange dreams all the time. Last night I dreamt that large elephants were trying to find me by using their trunks as guides. They were full of mud and guck, but still they were looking under tables and chairs and at one point there was a man from Africa riding the elephant telling it where to find me. The weird thing is- I love elephants, they don't scare me at all, but these were bad, bad elephants. Usually I just dream about a house with many many rooms and each room is more beautiful than the next and I am delighted to learn that this perfect house with all of these beautiful rooms is actually my house and I have it all to myself. The rooms never end, they just keep appearing. I also dream that I get back with my ex-husband and he is always fixing the sink.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

This is the dream that I woke up giggling about the other morning. I was at some function with a bunch of people in tuxes and formalwear. I myself was in a long flowy opaque purple dress. My date and I were leaving down this long, narrow wooden staircase when this dog came running up to him snarling. He turned around and started running back up the stairs. Of course, I was right behind him, but I didn't have enough time to turn around so I just grabbed my dress in my fists and hightailed it up that staircase backwards. It was truly amazing (I remember thinking, "Damn, I'm good"). Well after everything settles down again, this woman approaches me and begins to compliment me on my amazing agility and flexibilty. She proceeds to tell me that she is the coach for the Denver Bronco's cheerleaders, and that they simply must have me on the team. Much hilarity ensues as I actually join the team, and make a go of it. But all through practice, I never told any of my freinds or family members that I was a Denver Bronco's cheerleader, well, for obvious reasons. However, when the first game of the season started, I thought it would be funny if they could see what I'd been doing with my spare time in the last few months, so I got tickets for everyone I knew. I remember getting more and more excited as halftime approached, and when it finally came, I rushed down to the locker room to put on my uniform (after this dream, I went and looked at a site with the real uniforms, and GOOD GOD are they awful). But just as we were getting ready to go out on the field, one of the other cheerleaders had a heart atack and died, so the rest of us never got to go on with our show. When I woke up, my first thought was, "What the hell???" Talk about random.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I dream entire episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Some of my dreams are even better than the real show.

God, I'm a dork.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

hmmm, i have never had the teeth dream. perhaps because my mom worked in the orthodontic world for 15 years, and my summer job is in an ortho lab... i guess i feel pretty secure that nothing is going to happen to my teeth.

anyway, the dream that i have recurringly, in addition to some very scary ones that wake me up gasping, is one where i am blind and my guide dog is my VERY blond golden retriever. i think this one is because without my glasses or contacts, i can't tell who people are if they are more than a foot and a half away. i once thought that a guy with a wheelbarrow was a walking trash can. and yes, i was dead sober.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I just had the strangest dream last night.

Don't remember the actual premise, but sometime in my dream I saw a wasp untangle itself from a venetian blind string by my head. There was a whole other dream going on but for some reason I noticed this damn wasp and zeroed in on it. It was a very lucid dream - I woke up and performed an Olympic worthy vault off of my bed while simultaneously throwing my blanket off way way over my head and trying not to scream too loud for fear of freaking the non-existent wasp out.

I turned on the lights and shook out my bedding. There was nothing there (of course - the same rule that applies to the holodeck also applies to dreamland) but the dream fueled my "anti-stinging insects" neurosis and I woke up twice more just to re-shake out my blankets and pillows. It took me a while to get back to sleep the first time because (never having been stung before - knock on wood) I couldn't figure out a wasp escape plan. I know bees die after they sting you once, but wasps can sting you all they want. Over and over in my head I ran through possible scenarios and escape routes. Still don't know what I'd do.

So, if you ever see me take off running while swinging my arms above my head and screaming - well, you'll have an idea of what's going on.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I dream that I'm reading. Entire books. Which must mean either:

I have subconsciously memorized entire novels, or

I am subconsciously composing entire novels.

Either way, it's pretty brilliant of me, don't you think? I wish I could just harness that into my waking life.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

aaah. I've had many strange dreams. click here to see all the dreams I've written down and yes, I've had the teeth falling out thing. I usually would look in the mirror when I'd wake up to make sure they were really there!

I think the strangest dream I ever had was that michael jackson kidnapped me and mom and put us in the back of a truck. he then continued to light the house on fire while doing one of those crotch things and going, "owww!" dad came and rescued us and he was wearing a cape. it was odd. very strange.

I also have many dreams about kissing certain guys I know or talk to. I will never have thought of them in that way before but as soon as the dream occurs I have a crush on them...I just guess it's intuition of a sort to show I always did have feelings for them but I was blocking or repressing the feelings.

I once had a dream where someone was singing a whole song which I didn't really know the words to but when I heard it, it was very correct. gee!

ooh I must say about the time that i had a whole online chat in a dream while in the bahamas..that one was strange. it was a whole looong chat about someone getting married and I got mad and angry. I still wonder why I was chatting online when I was in the bahamas! geez.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I have the teeth dream quite frequently, and it still freaks me out each time. When I worked in retail, I used to "merchandise" the store in my sleep, you know, fold sweaters and stuff, much to my then-boyfriend's amusement. I have dreamed about the same person every night for half of my life. Think that's trying to tell me something I don't want to listen to?

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

I dream about the apocalypse. I dream about trying to kill a serial killer before he kills me. I dream that I have to save the world and I don't even get to use a frickin gun.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

oooh...I've dreamt that I was in love with a serial killer [he was angry that I kept grabbing at his arm like a lovesick animal in the museum where he was trying to go and kill someone; I still dunno why he didn't kill me..ooh well] and then later he turned into a fat boy. what the hell?

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

welcome to my world of Random, pamie. my dreams, much like the rest of me, make no sense (except for the one's were i beat 'bad' people up, that's obvious). example of a terrifying nightmare: me and a bunch of aging austin hippies decide it would be good to start a unicycle society (i have never tried to unicycle). we choose two unwilling people to teach the great art of one wheeled bike riding. the guy did not want to participate -he spoke no english, the girl was only doing it to impress her boyfriend. we, the unicyclists, were determined to make these kids pros in the unicycling world. stupid thing was the group refused to ask some one who actually knew how to ride for help. we sucked at everything we tried. it was a horrible stressful dream. and it made more sense than most of them. i fly in my happy dreams

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

Well, first of all, I have lots of dreams that I am trying to reach a certain place but I can't... I just can't move. I heard its based on a feeling of actually NOT being stuck.. of things moving so fast you can't control it.

I also have lots of dreams about people I know and not necessarily like... It's dreams of my class, dreams of my neighbors, etc.

The weird dreams I have are, though, dreams of me dying but NOT dying. Me reaching this place that I am known to be dead but I'm not...

I don't have actual nightmares, but I tend to remember my dreams very strongly when I wake up... It usually takes me an hour to shake from a dream. Last night for example, I had a dream we moved (we're not planning to move) and it was a great place and I had a great room and my best friend lives there (well actually, semi-lives there) but then this guy who owns the house (we rented) says there are vampires lurking... Now, I am not afraid of them. I think they are really cool! lol... It would be neat to see a vamp. But I got really scared and I kept hiding in my room and shut down everything and then I woke up. Whoa.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

Never had the teeth dream, ever. Never even heard of it until now. My most common recurring dream is the classic falling dream. Most of the people I know have this one, and some fall into water, some into grassy hills, etc. I fall face first into cobblestone streets. Every. Damn. Time. Wake up about 3 inches from the pavement. I've heard that if you actually hit the pavement in your dream, it will kill you. Perhaps this inspired the Wachowski Brothers.

For years and years I had a recurring and extremely vivid dream of feeding killer whales that were living in the stone well of a medeival European village in the middle of the woods. This is the fault of my parents, who took me to both Sea World and Busch Gardens Old Country by the age of 3.

Had psychic dreams up through my teens, usually dreaming upcoming school assignments and projects, occassionally something more dramatic, such as knowing that one of my classmates died during summer vacation three weeks before school started and anyone else found out. I've outgrown this, and most of the time I'm glad of it.

These days dreams are either completely surreal, like walking around Dali-esque landscapes with 6-foot talking fish, or completely mundane, like working. Which makes for confusion when I'm ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN I finished writing a recipe or called a supplier, because I vividly remember doing it. Except that I didn't.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2000

Apparently i talk / shout in my sleep, i say things like "It dosen't satisfy the color!" and my personal favorite, "Don't sit on that pot! NO! Einstien sits on that pot!"

Uhm, yeah.

-Nae ( www.quietones.com )

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

I once said something very enlightening when I was sleeping. I hardly ever talk in my sleep now. anyway, I had said:

"now I see the light." when mom turned off my light. now, that's damn scary.

I also said, "just press start!" in a mumbling tone once. it's because mom was playing tetris and she wanted to know how to start or something. she was still in the room when I was saying this..heh.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

In my weirdest dream of the past few months, I was with my boyfriend- of-sorts, John. He grasped my hand and I swam across the Delaware River fully clothed, just behind him. Somehow I got to the other side first, though, and helped him out of the water.

Next thing I know we were in a shopping mall and I was in Victorias Secret looking at bras and cool corsets. We ended up realizing that the store was large and labyrinthine, with many different sections branching out like a cross. Of course, I kept going down the wrong ones and feeling lost, and I knew it was a long way back to the beginning. But I had these cool gymnastic abilities in the dream, and so there I am doing handsprings and backflips and other cool people tricks, all the way to the front of the store.

For some reason a mother (sometimes his and sometimes mine--she alternated), who was driving a minivan, dropped John and I off at some kind of outdoor American-Gladiators type of place. Suddenly there were large and menacing people all around us. We wanted to sneak out because somehow this place was evil, but we couldnt. We therefore had to go through the course.

We had to run across astroturf (which was every colour of the rainbow) and do all these wacky stunts and then leap through a wooden frame with all kinds of ropes strung inside it without touching any of the rope or wood. I did all the stunts amazingly but then I leapt through the frame and I didnt fully qualify to leave the place yet because my foot touched the wooden part as I leapt through. A large black man loomed in my path and told me that since I didnt pass, I couldnt leave. And I wanted out.

I knew that even if I kept trying, it might be several tries before I made it through, and it would take ages. And even if I didnt, I didnt feel like it. So I decide to rebel.

I feel like Im about to just run for the exit, were John is waiting for me, but I hesitate, and turn towards the man, who is standing beside the wooden frame with his muscly black arms folded before him.

How about you DO IT AGAIN, he says, forcefully.

(This is where it gets REALLY wierd--Im warning you...)

I am smirking, feeling strong, feeling empowered, and apparently feeling somewhat obsence. I look into his face and bark:

How about you eat my motherfucking (insert bad genital term here)?

...AND here, have some parmesan cheese! I yell.

Im holding a container of Kraft Grated Parmesan, and I shake it wildly in his direction once, sending the little granules his way.

Okay, he sheepishly replies.

But Ive already turned on my heel, and bolted off like a rabbit, bounding toward my goal, whatever it was.

Proof positive that Im insane, at least subconciously, I tell ya.

Forlaetan

Vain Travails

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

Oh, and in response to Nae and Amber's comments, I must add that I've been known to say some pretty odd things in my sleep as well.

Aparently during Finals week a few years ago, I sat straight up in bed in the midst of a deep sleep, shouted

LET'S GET SOME HEROIN!!!!!

and promptly collapsed back into bed.

Forlaetan

Vain Travails

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

I once slept at lunch time every day and while sleeping I read a book as the person above has. I dreamt that I worked at a giant grain elevator so when I was dropping off a resume near one I dropped one off at the elevator as well and just finished working there for a six month contract. I dreamt about a girl I was best friends with in Junior high school, I hadn't seen her in over twenty years. Her mother died a few days later. I found out from my mother who, I did not realize, bowled with the mother and I went to the funeral. My friend introduced me to her husband as one of her best and oldest friends. It was good to see her. I have incredibly vivid dreams. I wake up tired and sore, I have even jumped out of bed in my sleep. The number one reoccuring theme is that I am serching for someone. I have had completely different lives occuring at different times in history in these dreams. In each dream, sometimes over a week or two every night as a continuing story, I see or meet people from previous dreams and they do not always look the same or are not always the same sex even. I have been a soldier in far to many of these dreams but I think that for much of history it was a profesion that afforded the most travel and therefore the most opportunity for my search. In one of the last dreams I was having a wound treated by a French doctor, I was a soldier (French also) fighting in what I believe was Indo-China or Vietnam, As the doctor looked me in the eyes I realised that he was a friend from a previous dream and he said to me "there are now better ways to search than fighting others wars". I have since then been a policeman in the 1920s but was killed and a priest. In dreams before that I had been a German mercenary, a shepard, a soldier again but in what I think from uniforms and such was about the early 1700s. I have been a knight, a sailor, an American soldier in the 1940s, and many others. Always searching and crossing paths with many of the same people but in diffent bodies. Weird huh.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

Oh yah forgot a good one. When I was in university I was asked to take part in an art show with two others, I had no Idea what I was going to show as most of my work had already been shown. One night I dreamt about the gallery we were going to show in and I saw my work, how it was lit and placed in the gallery, how it interacted with the work of the other two artists and every little detail. The next day I began to build all of the sculptures I saw in the dream. The show was probably one of my most successfull as a student.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

I have always had weird dreams. I swear that I had a prophetic dream about Milli Vanilli before their big scandal. I had dreamed that I was really good friends with them and they lived down the street from me...but one was a boy and one was a girl! Something wasn't right, yo. It was a cool dream. The house turned inside out into a giant amp.

I usually have celebrities in my dreams. Val Kilmer, Ben Folds Five, Oasis, Kevin Spacey (who was an X man and totally trying to pick up Anna Paquin!)

Oh, and if I havent seen the boy Im seeing for a bit, and he pops up in my dream, wearing white (which he doesnt!) and trying to save a dog, does that mean he's subconsiously my hero or whatnot? Or at least that I miss him?

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

the teeth falling out dream, for me, has always been about a feeling of loosing control of my life. i usually get them after an altercation with a family member. haven't had one in awhile.

lately, though, i've been nearly killed or have a knife and am cutting people, trying to escape. lots of escaping dreams.

i could go into this, but i have enough shit to deal with that my shrink knows about. the last time i mentioned nighmares, they changed my medication.

sweet dreams...

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

Ok, I never knew the teeth falling out this was so common, but I've been told that it means you're experiencing important change in your life. Then again, that's only one of several theories posted on here!

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

I had a prophetic dream about Lawrence Welk's death back in 92, or whenever he died. It was about three days before he actually did, and I told my grandparents to prepare themselves (they were big fans).

I dreamed that my grandfather died, and he was diagnosed with cancer the next day. But he lived seven more years, it was just unnerving.

I have never even heard about the teeth-falling-out dream until this, and it freaks me out. If I start dreaming it, I hold all of you responsible.

As for strange things I say in my sleep, they're pretty bizarre. But of note is that whenever my husband wakes me up to tell me to roll over (I snore when the allergies are bad), I'm apparently very polite. I say things like: "Oh, thank you for letting me know honey, I apologize!" In my waking state it would probably be something like, "Oh, cram it."

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

When I used to work in the theatre at school, I often had dreams about the shows, and would call light cues in my sleep. My roommate would throw pillows at me to get me to shut up. It was awful.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

I sometimes dream about my teeth falling out. About needing a toilet and finding LOTs of them but each in some kind of disrepair or in an open room or occupied. About lost luggage and wallets. Sometimes there are large animals not found in nature and they are very abstract, frightening because of their strangeness but not threatening me. I'm often traveling...trying to find the lost luggage all the while. Sometimes I'm driving on what appear to be roads until they abruptly appear to be just concrete parts of buildings. I'm often climbing down stairs that just become un-stairs

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

Every night for years I've had falling dreams. Last night I was climbing something and missed my footing.

It drives me up a wall. Then I miss my footing and I'm back on the floor.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

I can't believe no-one mentioned the obvious link between the dreams of teeth falling out and Stephen King's book, The Tommyknockers.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

Erin, I thought I was the only one who dreamed Buffy dreams. I've had 3 or 4 where I'm in the show.

My weirdest dream as of late had to do with me and friend driving in her truck. She started driving like a mad woman and went through this field where there were a bunch of cars in ditches...she just drove right over them. Eventually we went over a cliff, not exactly like Thelma and Louise but we did fall. For a really long time, I remember thinking geez when the hell are we gonna land. I kept bracing myself for impact and every once in awhile checking out the window to see how much further. Then I closed my eyes one final time and when I opened them I was in my bed...still dreaming though.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

A little dream interpretation book my roommate has says teeth falling out is guilt over masturbation. Then again I think dream interpretation is mostly BS. Yeah, I've had the dream too.

Here is one I had a couple of nights ago: I was wondering around Dream City. That is a place made up from scraps of everywhere you have ever been. It has the 50s hominess of downtown Temple and the sky scrapers of Houston. It has bars from the Austin warehouse district and old shops from The Strand in Galveston. There are a few blocks of jungle with an Aztec temple covered with lizards sunning under the moonlight. The temple resembles a large version of a decoration at the El Toucan hotel in Playa Del Carmen just outside of Cancun.

I step into a bar and start talking to this woman. I can't explain why, but I'm completely drawn to her. She seems both interested and distant. "Don't bother her, pal," says the bar tender. "You ain't her type." I tell the bar tender to fuck off. She can talk to whoever she wants to. Two large men in preppy polo shirts come up to me and say leave her alone. They are big, but I'm not at all afraid of them. I tell them to buzz off or I'll kick their ass.

"Don't mind them," says the woman. "They are lumber jacks. They wear girly lumber jack shirts." The two men slink off with their tail between their legs.

"Go out with me," I ask her.

"I'm not sure," she says. I can tell she wants to, but something is holding her back. What was it? What was I missing? "I'm mostly into girls, but we'll see."

Then it hits me. I'm in a gay bar. She is a lesbian. The bar tender obviously knows it and thinks I'm an ass. The two guys (lumber jacks...I see...working with wood) are a couple. Shit. What is strange about this dream is that the dream is feeding me clues and I was missing all of them. I can see being dense in real life...I've done that...but how can you be dense in your own dream?

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

I'm amazed that so many of you have had the teeth-falling-out dream. I've had that one on several occasions, and I ALWAYS have to check my teeth in the mirror when I wake up. It's extremely traumatic. I've also heard that this is some sort of sexual insecurity thing - I dunno.

Linda's toilet dream is familiar too - I really have to use the bathroom, and I find a place that has lots and lots of toilets, but there are strange things wrong with them, like you have to stand or sit in a weird position to use them, or the bowl is so big that I would fall in, or they're just plain dirty. Very distressing indeed.

My latest "meaningful" dream was that I gave birth to a baby daughter, and I was parading her around town in a stroller, telling everyone I knew how proud and happy I was. It wasn't that I loved the child itself, I didn't even really look at it as a person - it was the fact that I had accomplished this wonderful feat. This was an unsettling and memorable dream for me because I am completely freaked out by the idea of having children, and I've known since I was 11 or so that I didn't EVER want them. I still don't. But a friend of mine said "it sounds to me like this isn't about children at all, it's about accomplishment". It coincides with my coming to terms with being a painter, after being afraid to paint for two long years. Now I am painting again, and rebuilding my identity as an artist after having gone through a period of depression where I truly felt that I had no talent beyond pure mimicry of the natural world. I have found that inner source of pride and joy in my work that keeps me going, and although life is by no means perfect, ever since that dream I've felt a little more at peace.

-- Anonymous, April 26, 2000

this happened when i was around fifteen or so, but my mother still loves the story. these were back in the days that she would wake me up in the morning and make me breakfast. we had been studying sailors or something sailor related in history, and apparently it had more of an effect on me than i realized.

on this particular morning, she came in my room and, as she did every morning, asked me what i wanted for breakfast. i replied,

"nothing, mom. i ate with the sailors."

amused, my mother asked what we had for breakfast.

"limes and oranges, so we wouldn't get scurvy."

she tells this story every time someone even thinks the word "sleep". let it go, mom.

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2000

I'm glad this topic is still up and running... 'cause last night, I dreamed that I called Pamie up, just to chat. She didn't really act like she wanted to talk to me - she was kind of rushing around, talking to herself and I kept having to repeat what I said because I didn't think she heard me the first time. I was trying to ask her about Taylor and Cal and I kept making jokes that she didn't find the least bit funny. I remember thinking, "Wow, she's actually a real person." I don't know, either. Finally, she got tired of me and handed the phone off to Eric. The first thing I said? "I've heard so much about your dimples." He didn't really know how to reply to that, and I thought, "Well, I'm never signing the forum again" right before I woke up.

But here I am.

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2000

I also dream about losing my teeth, very very often. It's the only recurring dream I have. It's comforting to see so many other people have it, because it's a very distressing dream. I'll just be doing something, when they'll all start falling out at once, and I end up with a mouth full of teeth. And every time I dream this, I think, "Oh no, it's happening for real this time, it's not a dream!" I'm so gullible.

Interesting theories. I think whoever said it's just because you're grinding your teeth in your sleep might be right--that's what I seem to be doing in my dream when they start to come loose. On the other hand, I don't think I grind my teeth in my sleep. My ex-girlfriend certainly DID grind hers in her sleep (it was loud and disturbing), but she never had the teeth dream.

Anyway, I've always thought I have the dream simply because I don't brush often enough.

-- Anonymous, April 29, 2000

This may sound like a strange interpretation but since many people ask, here are the 2 cents... I was going thru an old book on dream interpretation - from 8th century - and it says that teeth represent one's relatives and losing one's teeth is actually losing one's relatives. This is actually not too bad a dream since it simply means that one will outlive one's relatives (according to this interpretation).

ashir

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001