It would inspire me to pray for them. Perhaps they need some support. My faith teaches there is a place of atonement some of us reside before getting fully into the beatific vision. At death we are helpless to help ourselves but the prayers of others does help.

Oh to sleep, perchance to dream.

I only got 3 1/2 hrs of sleep last night...it seems to be getting worse.

Not good. Hope I do better tonight.

I don't remember my dreams often, but when I do they can feature people who have passed, as that's where all of my family and DH's family are...beyond the grave.

Annie....remember when Hamlet said this....when thinking of his suicide (to sleep).

Sorry...this quote always bothers me.

Certain meds will induce vivid dreams.

Some time ago, I read an article that said you can cause yourself to wake up from dreams and re-direct them. I will see I can find it.

Sometimes I feel as though I am having other peoples' dreams. I probably have too many novels and TV series cluttering my brain!

Deceased family and friends often visit me, too, in my dreams. Most of the time they are fairly pleasant dreams, sometimes not so much. I read an explanation once, somewhere, that it is our subconscious mind remembering them. I don't remember where I read that, or how reliable a source it might have been, but it seemed like a logical enough explanation that I've remembered it. I have no idea why sometimes the dreams are good and sometimes not. And sometimes people appear in the same dream that would never have been together in real life. Weird.

Rusty

Interesting question on All Souls Day :-)

I also dream of people I've lost, but they're always pretty positive.

OTOH, other dreams I have can be about as senseless and crazy as it gets...seemingly. Dream analogy can be very interesting.

While on a trip and out of the blue, I recently had a dream about my long-deceased dad. He was so very happy and hale and hearty. My mother (second death anniversary yesterday,) and sister passed much more recently so in my dream they were only sort of there, and in very bad health. Yes, dreams are interesting!

My sister is a therapist and can make some sense of even the strangest dreams. Sometimes the message from the dream is clear and obvious based on what's going on in our lives. Other times it's just so convoluted but still a message.

This month has been particularly active with the dreams.

We had two phone calls on 10/15. Within an hour of each other. My Aunt (my father’s sister, now there is only one of thirteen left) and a woman from my husband’s side. She was like an aunt to my husband. We had attended her 100th birthday party last year.

Now there is a third wake we’re attending today. Someone on his side.

I hope this counts as the third and we don’t have to have three on each side. But the dreams have been very convoluted and full of people who have passed. Never my father though and I wish I would.

When I was younger and used to watch Days of Our Lives all the time, I would occasionally have a dream where I was a character in the show and involved in some action adventure with the other characters...I always thought those dreams were fun.

The dreams I used to have though that I hated were the ones where I'd be dreaming that some men had broken into my house and were coming down the hallway toward my bedroom. In the dream, I'd realize I was dreaming and wake myself up only to find that it wasn't a dream and they were still coming! So I actually dreamed I woke up but didn't. Once I realized that, in my dream, I'd be screaming at myself to WAKE UP! Finally I'd wake up and of course everything was fine. But that was so scary!

When I have bad dreams I write them down. Of course I write down the good dreams as well. If they're really weird and convoluted I do my best to write exactly what happened and try not to read too much into it.

If anybody were mean to me during the dream I write down reminders to myself that it didn't really happen. Writing the dream down seems to lessen it's hold on me.

^Yes, a dream journal is a good idea.

If I take a few minutes to think about a dream, I can usually see *why* I dreamed it.

DH claims to never dream now, although he used to have similar frustrating dreams of the "can't do it/get there/find something" variety. They stopped when he was forty, around the time he discovered he was adopted as an infant -- and learned the family secrets around concealing that. (See? Your subconscious *knows*!)

My dreams whether good or nightmarish are like some crazy mish mosh of themes, places, people.... However, a long time ago when my Dad had passed I had a dream that didn’t seem like a dream. It was remarkable and memorable in that nothing happened. We just were together talking. We didn’t even talk about anything memorable. It was just a peaceful little time spent together. To me, that’s what it was.

"(See? Your subconscious *knows*!)"

It sure does.

A few years ago, I had a dream about a guy who was once one of hubby's best friends, but like often happens, they drifted apart over the years. It was odd that I had a dream about him as I hadn't thought of him in 25 years. I mentioned it to hubby and suggested that he try to get in touch, possibly via Facebook.

Hubby decided to do just that and discovered that his friend had died of cancer a few days before my dream. Even now, it gives me the chills to think about the timing of the dream and his friends passing.

Gray, I have trained myself to alter my dreams if I don't like where they're headed. It's not that hard to do and sure is better than having a nightmare.

Anyone having nightmares on a regular basis could benefit from getting some professional help of the 'talk therapy' variety.

Actually, I think every adult could benefit from talk therapy, if only to address and resolve the 'leftover from childhood' bits lodged in our minds. Things we 'learned' before the age of reason and autonomy can continue to be faulty 'governors' of our adult selves.

Most of the time if I have a dream about someone who has passed, it's not an upsetting dream with the exception of the best friend I had when we were 21 and she got killed in an auto accident. I guess I was just too traumatized about that one because it was so sudden and we were so young. Every time I ever dreamed about her it was where she appeared as if nothing had happened and didn't understand why I was so mad at her for being away and keeping her distance and tricking me into thinking she was dead. How strange is that? You'd think that in my dream I would be elated that she was alive but I guess my sub-conscience still understood that she wasn't alive, she was dead and she was playing a very bad trick on me. I'm glad that I don't dream of the passed very often, especially her.

Here's one of my quirky ones.

Very small door opens to a very long slide. Sound of toilet flushing each time someone goes down the slide. There's a sign at the bottom of the slide..."City of Forgotten Love" with an arrow pointing down a pathway. The pathway looks like the yellow brick road in Wizard of Oz. People start walking down the pathway. End of dream.

Chisue, I couldn’t agree with you more!

I lost my mom 11 years ago and dream of her occasionally. It's so interesting because most of the time, in my dream I am completely unaware that she has died. It's nice that the dreams are just like life was when she was alive, but I wish I could be aware of her passing as there are things I'd like to say and questions I have.

The dreams I've had of people that have passed have been about ordinary stuff or just plain silly. Nothing scary or bizarre.

"...in my dream I'm completely unaware that she has died."

Same with me, Chi. Things seem quite normal.

chloebud -- So...you open a door and 'go down the tubes' (toilet)? Forgotten Love sounds like an invitation to a sad trip down the Road of Might-Have-Been. Then you wake up...Welcome Home!

I've dreamed of my mother, who died many years ago, usually they are nice dreams but one of them she was being crushed by a garage door. I went back and changed that in my dream. I look back and think maybe I dreamed it because I knew she was dying of CHF but couldn't help her, being on the other side of the country from her.

I also have a reoccurring dream of a black, misty demon (like those things in the movie Ghost, only much bigger and scarier and only 1), coming toward me while I lay in bed. It gets on the bottom of the bed and slowly climbs the bed toward me and I try to scream but sometimes can't. It climbs on my chest trying to smother me and I can't breath. Sometimes I do scream out loud. We were in Spain, staying in an apartment a few years ago, my daughter and I shared a bed. Well, one night I had this dream and woke her up screaming. I felt so bad because I scared the crap out of her and wondered how many neighbors heard me, thinking something awful was happening. It's weird too because in my dream I am always in the room that I'm sleeping in at the time. So, that night I wasn't at home in my dream, I was in that room in that apartment.

Then I went for another sleep study this past summer. The many questionnaires I had to fill out before it asked if you have nightmares. I then realized I was probably having this dream because I wasn't breathing at night?!! I'm still have boarder-line sleep apnea, not bad enough for insurance to pay for a machine.

Kathsgrdn, something like that happens to me too, especially when my anxiety is really bad. I will hallucinate and dream something terrible is trying to kill me in my bedroom and I wake up and actually see it in my room for a few seconds until it dissolves. It's also always the bedroom I'm in. It's awful! So many times I've woken up running into the hall thinking I'm about to be murdered until I fully wake up.

It's interesting that it only happens with high stress/anxiety and it only happens within the first hour or two of falling asleep.

In a very sad and stressful time in my life I had a dream that something climbed up on the end of my bed. I reached down to knock it off and it grabbed both of my hands and attempt to pull me over. I was trying all this time to scream at my partner to wake up and help me. He finally did and as soon as he touched me the thing released me and with the tension released I was flung back hitting the back of my head violently. The next morning I had big bruises where I had felt the thing grabbing me and a huge bump on the back of my head. I went to the Dr who gave me sleeping & anxiety pills and said it was a night terror. Apparently injuries can manifest themselves (power of thought). I suffered many more very scary things but not for many years. It scares me just to think of them even now.