minutia press.

I am wondering how many people out there have some control of their dreams? I just looked on the web and there are lots of hits for this, including pages that cite studies.

When I was a kid and would have bad dreams, I discovered that if I could wink in my dream, that the dream would change to something else. I had no control then of how it would change, but at least I could escape from a bad dream if I had the presence of mind to know I was dreaming and it wasn't real.

Lately, over the past 5 years or so, for reasons I can't really explain, I've had almost total control over my dreams. It's not that I think about what I will dream before I go to sleep, but once I dream, I realize that I am dreaming, and I take over the controls and try to go places or see things.

Most of these involve flying, and when I do fly I get the sensation in my stomach of rising and falling, and I feel the wind in my face. I always dream in color (and the ressolution isn't bad either).

I wonder if I could try to go back in time, or try to visit somebody who died. It's not something I've tried, but I hope to think of it next time I have control.

I also have those dreams sometimes, when you know you're dreaming (and in color - why would it be in black and white?). The problem is that the second I realize I'm dreaming, the dream either stops or does the opposite of what I want it to do. It's probably all psychological. Aside from flying dreams, I sometimes have dreams of driving (I guess I don't have a very active imagination). I am a very bad dream driver, because the brakes never seem to work. I wonder if this reoccurring theme is symbolic of something? I guess I need to do more research. Good night.

When I would have recurring nightmares as a kid I always found that if I thought about them right as I was going to sleep that I could stop myself from dreaming them. I always attributed this to those thoughts being in the conscious mind as I was falling asleep rather than the unconscious mind where dreams came from (hey, I was a really weird kid, ok), but it seemed to work. Unfortunately I never found a good way to control what I *did* dream about, only what I *didn't* dream about.

I heard once that guys dream in black and white, predominantly, and women dream in color.

I cannot imagine why anybody would dream in black and white, so I think the aforementioned is bad folklore.