Nobody Panic - How to interpret your dreams

Episode Date: May 29, 2018

What are dreams and how can you interpret them? Stevie and Tessa talk about what you can learn from your dreams, how to lucid dream and how to wake up from a nightmare.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The date is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace. It's coming to London. True on Saturday the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September at King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. to nobody panic. Sort of soon we'll stop doing that, but we're not sure when. Thank you for joining us. Here we are. How have you been sleeping, guys? Ooh, what a good question.

Well, good. I've been sleeping well, thank you. I was going to do like, I'm not just asking them. I know. I was going to be like, are you asleep now? Maybe this is a dream.

Oh, it's a dream. You fall in the sleep listening to the podcast. Are you awake or no? Oh. This podcast is about DIY. No, this podcast episode is about dreams. It was a podcast that was suggested to us. Please.

By my mom. Was it? Yeah. She loves dreaming. And she was like, what are you doing a podcast and dreaming? I mean... Does she love it?

She bloody loves it. She often has quite terrifying dreams. But I think if you have terrifying dreams, then you also have excellent dreams too. Oh, yes. It's the up and down. It's the classic. The highs and lows.

The highs and lows of dreaming. Tom, ever had a recurring dream? Tom, tell us about your dreams. I do have a recurring one, and it's when I'm stuck in a situation I want to get out very quickly, and I go to run, but my legs go to concrete.

That's such a classic. I can't move. It is a classic. What kind of situations are you in? Just uncomfortable ones. Okay, are you like, are they ever magical? Like, are the people you're hiding from? Wizards?

No. I'll be honest, that's going to come up a lot for us. They are more human situations of, I don't want to be. here, I want to get myself away. And then you can't run. And I can't run. God, that's unbearable. That physical feeling is because your brain is running but your body

physically isn't. Because you are paralys. You are paralysed. More about that later. Coming up. More on paralysis. If you keep on listening to the podcast. So stay tuned for that bit, guys. Before we dive in, what have we pop our pillows on and drift off? Into the podcast land? Yes.

What adult thing have I done this week? I'm going to ask me. Yes, I do. Did you just ask me? I think so. Stevie, what I don't think have you done this week? Thanks so much for asking. You're welcome.

I've gone bald. I'm bald. I've had my hair cut off and I went and got it done at Chop Chop London and they've not sponsored. They don't even know. I do a podcast. They're this cool app

which I think an app. Yes, I think it's, I think it is only in London. I'm very sorry. But I think it will, they are expanding and they're going to be in festivals and stuff as well.

It's an app that you download. And you basically just go through, pick a style you want. It's very simple, like layered cut, short cut, trim, fringe or whatever, or like dialing, if you want like a blow dryer or something. And then you pick the time slot you want. And then you pay £20 and it's done in 20 minutes. And the reason it's done in 20 minutes is all fully dry. I saw that.

Are they just one place? Yes, they're in Old Street. Yes, I walk past. And I did a real, like, comedy double take. The cartoon, like, what? Yeah. 20 styles in 20 minutes. were 20 pounds.

Amazing. And they were excellent. They were really nice, really, like, accommodating. The guy did my hair. Basically, I've got a very short bob guys. And I was very frightened that it would make me look like a mum. And it does sometimes, but not in other occasions.

They basically, it's all dry, so they don't... They don't wash your hair? No. So he just got a razor out immediately. And I was like, okay! And he was like, no, no, I'm just going to cut it with a razor. That's the quickest way to do it. Oh, wow.

But when they're doing it, you're like, why doesn't everyone do this? Having a haircut can be like, 50 quid, 60 quid, 70 quid, and it takes like three hours. I always thought, well, that's just how it is. But it's not. It doesn't have to be. So if you ever see Chop Chop, I think they're just called Chop, but they're in London. If you ever see them go in and have it done, like consider it.

And if they do kind of like branch out and they're like festivals and stuff and you're like, that can't be real. It is real. And it's amazing. Oh my God. I'm going to go and get a platt or something. I don't know if I'd do it. I don't think it's worth paying some 20 pounds of your platt.

I mean, I'll do it now. Yeah, but I was like, I was immediately. jealous and I wanted like a... What do you get a hairstyle? Like what? A bit of a burn, wasn't it? Didn't mean that to be a burden? And I announced it was a burden.

Why, you get a hair instead of that shitty? No, but like, no, you have lovely hair, but it's like, you know, long, nice girl hair, you get fringe. You get a fringe on eBay? Yep. That looked good, didn't it? Maybe get an actual one. See what that looks like.

You'd look good with a fringe or like a layered cut or something. Guys, my style icon is Michelle Pfeiffer in Greece 2. Okay. Reference for you? Yeah? Yeah? Tom knows about it. Do you...

Yeah? Do you know it? Do you know it? What, so has it? Has it permed? No, it's just a really... Do you actually know it? I've seen the film, yeah.

And do you think, whoa, we, Michelle Pfeiffer? Everyone does with Michelle Pfeiffer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But she has this cool, amazing fringe and it's all up, and I doubt you, you know, specifically... I've seen it once, about 25 years ago. God! Your hair's lovely.

Thank you. Now, your adult thing. Please. Business. My business is that I gave my sister her Christmas present. Now, would we say that's adult, or would we say that is weird? It's weird.

I gave us some other stuff at Christmas, but I had started making this thing in November. It didn't finish it in time. Okay. I've been trotting along. It's this art print I made. Oh, lovely. I can't say I made it really. I just did some photoshopping.

It's all right. Yeah, you've made it. Also, I think the adult thing, where in the area wherein the adult thing lies in that story, for me personally, is that you didn't give up. You didn't go like, well, I've missed Christmas, that's like literally what I would have done. Whereas you were like, no, I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep going. That's like a very good attitude to have.

Thank you so much. That actually wasn't the adult thing. That was just the... I have lent in too quickly. Thank you for leaving him back out. That's what happens when you get a bob. You're just leaning in really quickly. You're so supportive of any...

Anything right now. Everything. My neck is... My neck is so bald. Is it cool? Is it cool? Delicious. Is it really?

Yes. Holy moly. And also, I got up this morning. I didn't have to brush it or anything. Anyway, I finished this thing months later. Okay. And I was just going to print it out on my home printer. And then I was like, no, come on.

We've come this far. Send it to the printers down the road. Yeah. So I paid the money, sent it to the printers down the road. They printed on exactly the right size. I put it in the frame that I'd had living under the sofa for months. Wow, this is actually very good. And then, but then this is the real bit that I thought, holy, whoa.

When I took it home, I wrapped it in cling film. Okay. Now, can you imagine, like, a... grown up walking along with an art print in a frame. Is that a thing? Do people wrap frame? I've never seen that.

No. So that's the adult thing you've chosen to. Okay. It was the bit where I... You've cling film to frame. Just because I thought... Okay. Just because I thought, oh, that's really good.

Because normally I would have just... It would have got bashed on the way or... Right. I'm trying to... Because the cling film obviously is for food not going off to the air doesn't get in. But like a bubble wrap. Like a protective...

Oh, you... It was bubble wrap. No. It was clean... But it did loads of times. I see the intention. It looked like a real grown-up had done it. Where the adult thing lies in that story, I think, is the intention.

Oh, thank you. Yes, thank you. Not the actual execution. No. I think if I saw someone walking down the road with a frame that was cling film, I'd be like, why? No, you wouldn't. When you saw it, you would have been like, oh, a professional. My mum said, did they do that for you in the print shop?

Oh, yes. Okay, I'll take it all back. It just, I'll tell you, it looked, it looked good. I really, as I was talking along with it. I was actually more proud of the cling film than I was the art. Yeah. All I can think of being cling filmed is a sandwich. So then it's so difficult for me to transfer that to a print.

Do several layers and suddenly it looks like... You've ordered some furniture online. Oh, I've seen it now. Yeah, okay. Now you're visualising. That is strong. I see now, if you imagine just one layer, that's... It's bizarre.

It's weird. You're not in my head, but it's bizarre, yeah, yeah. That's great. Well done. Well done. Thank you so much. Now, Dreaming. Here we go.

Let's talk about dreaming. I suppose I don't want to start by being like, what do you dream? But I am fairly interested. So I think maybe we should start just, do you have like a recurring dream? Do you have a dream that you're like, what does that mean? Yes. My recurring dreams are if I'm about to do something or definitely if I'm about to go away. I really hope these are like haunting and like so terrifying.

I know. So my categories are anxiety about the time. Oh, that makes sense. So missing the plane, missing something, not being on time for something. Those happen all the time, which I'm like, but how is it four o'clock? Yes, yes. What an earth was I doing? Why am I here? I'm supposed to be at this thing.

A lot of reading something in a meeting and just not being able to find the thing I'm supposed to read and so confident that it definitely was here, but not being able to find my place in the pages. Oh, yes, yes, I understand, yes. And then... Very relatable to these dreams. Yes. You just wait until you're mine. Well, then I'll do a more of a curveball

and then back for a fourth one. Right. Curveball, remember when I was always very upset about a goat man. So we were a sketch group with three people and Tessa just, she had his dream that there was a fourth called Goatman? No, no. I constantly... I think it's too mad even to talk about Goatman.

But I used to have this recurring dream that we were about to go on stage and there would be a fourth person. And it wasn't Goatman? It was various people, but on more than one occasion it was Goatman. And Goatman... What about what I said was wrong? It wasn't, it just made it sound so weird. We were about to go on and I'd be trying to say to you guys, like...

We have to wait for Goatman. No, no, no, no, no, he was there. It was a him. Yeah, he's a him. Oh, interesting. And... Of course, Goat Man. Yeah, goat man.

That's the clue. But I'm saying to you guys, like, guys, I don't think we've written any words for Goatman. She's going to come out and stand there. Like, what's he going to do? And everyone was always like so, it was very much like, oh, I'm the only one who thinks this is wrong. Yeah. Oh my goodness, there are too many people here. Yeah.

That was a real big one. Which would freak you out. It would. He would genuinely quite upset about him because he really came up a lot in the dreams. Do you ever see Goatman? He was more of a presence. He was more of a sense. Like, he was the idea of him.

I don't think I ever saw him. The concept of Goatman. He was the concept of Goatman. And everyone being like so chilled with that and me being like, what will he say? Like, what sketch is he going to be in? I love that in dreams, the thing that you focus on is often not the thing that you would focus on in real life. If there was a fourth person that none of us had ever spoken to called Goatman,

surely the first thing would be like, so why is he called Goatman? Right, no, I wasn't. But no, of course not. It's like, what will Goatman say? Yeah, it was really. I think it is that moment, if you've ever been on the stage, you know, in your school play or whatever. Tread the boards. Tread the old boards.

And you're in the play and then you suddenly think, oh my God. God, I need this prop in 10 minutes. I don't have that prop. And it's that moment of really like nothing is actually bad going to happen. It's just that sense of, oh no. And I think it's that. And then my last one is a nightmare I had when I was six and I never forgot it.

I was a lovely day in my dream. And I come home and my parents are both cooking with their back to me in the kitchen. And I say, it smells amazing, what's for dinner? Oh, yeah. And they both turn around as one and say, you are. And I never really recovered.

God, that's quite intense. What are your dreams about? I was thinking about this. I do have all of those ones that you said. Got man. Especially Goatman. And your parents eating me. They're the two obvious ones.

Of course. Don't we all have them? All the listeners, generalised anxiety dreams of like being late. Not weirdly, not being able to find something to wear, which is not only a thing that happens in my life. But I understand. understand that one? Yeah, and not being able to find my way, like, I'm on, like, the tube or a train,

and I can't, and I'm at a stop that I've never heard of, and I don't know how to get to the UK. Wow, yeah. And I think that they're, like, very common. And then I also have a lot of apocalyptic dreams when the world is ending, and it's often a massive tidal waves that are, like, so huge, or huge amounts of tornadoes. There's been a few, like, oh, the sun's going to hit the earth. That's another one. That's mainly because I actually really like those sorts of films, and I find them really exciting. And there's never like that much fear. There's more like a, we've got to run, we've got to run,

but there's this weird acceptance of what's happening. And isn't this actually quite incredible? Which is bizarre. I've got superpowers, that's the other one. And then the third one is, and I have it all the time. Insects, wasps, things on me, snakes, things in a room, and I can't get away from them. And I think that's very clearly I don't like insects on me.

Do you know I've never had that one? That's interesting. But you're fine with wasp. You can sit there and have lunch outside and have four wasps just, like, buzzing around you. you're fine. Whereas I have to... I'm sharing my snacks.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I'm not going to place at the table. Yes, I never had that one. So I'm sure there are... People will be like, oh, I've had that. I've never had that, yeah. But I've never had that.

Yeah. So yeah, I've never had was. I have had dreams that I am in a dream prison. Oh, interesting. Some of my ones have like a real narrative arc to them. Yes, is yes. Like, almost like an applaudable, like, oh, good twist. And some will be like, I'm in a dream prison.

And my dreams, I'm serving. a sentence and every time I go to sleep I'll be, I have to like live it out in a... I mean, yeah, like really intense shit. Those are when I'm very stressed out. Yes, it's just some dream facts. Apparently, you dream at least four to six times per night. Normally in the REM stage of sleep.

So if you look at someone and it looks like their eyes are moving underneath their eyelids, that's when the REM sort of sleep. It's kind of a lighter, that's like a lighter level of sleep. Yes. In the very deep sleep that you have, you don't often dream in that sleep. Your dreams will be.

longer as the night goes on, your body cycles, your body goes on a bike, your body's in this like dream cycle, and in order to stop you acting out your dreams, your body goes locks into sleep paralysis during REM, which is why sleepwalking is a kind of a disorder in a way, because that shouldn't be happening. And why sometimes when you, I don't know if anyone listening has had this, I've had it. And it's one of those things that when it happens in the middle of the night, you don't think about it the next morning. And then when someone, five years later goes, have you had this?

you're like, oh my God, yes. You wake up and you can't move and you're paralyzed. Oh, sleep paralysis is terrifying. And I don't have it very much, but I have definitely had it. And that's why they often think where paranormal stories have come from of the devil and of in the old days. Demons holding you down in your sleep. Yes, a witch has cast a spell on you and you can't.

Because it feels like there's something holding you. Holding you down. It's very frightening. And also you can, in that state as well, some people will be able to hallucinate and see elements of their dream in the room or something. And it can be very, very frightening. but there's nothing wrong. That's just you, something, a noise has occurred

or something has woken you before your body was ready to, like, wake up. Yeah, and it might feel like it's lasted a really long time. It's such a fraction of a second. Yeah, like, five seconds, I'm like something... No, it's even less than that. It might even... Yeah, it's like such a tiny amount.

I'm sorry. But it's just like... Five minutes. It's one of those things where you feel it's gone on for so long. But really your body's been like, whoops, quick. And it's fixed it really quickly,

but it feels, obviously, like, an eternity inside. And what I find interesting is, like, you know, you get people like, I don't dream. Anyone is seeing who doesn't dream, there's nothing wrong with you. You actually are dreaming, you just forget it the next day. And I think, quite frankly, you're very lucky. Do you?

Because I... It depends, doesn't it? It depends whether you're someone who has really bad nightmares a lot. But I quite... Dreaming is one of, like, the main attractions of going to sleep for me. When I'm definitely, when I'm very stressed and I'm having this dream prison, oh, I can control the birds, I'm king of the birds. I've been king of the birds.

Yes. That's interesting. Those ones are a bit darker. bit much. Yeah. And when I'm in a phase of having those ones, I would trade out dreaming for anything. I'm just like, it makes me so scared.

The trapped dreams often happen. If you're ill as well. But definitely when I've been, when dreams are nice, you're like, oh, it's lovely. It's a pleasant experience. And they used to be this beautiful Calvin and Hobbs cartoon. Joe Calvin and Hobbs,

the boy and the tiger. The boy on the tiger. They were like, good night, good night. And they were like rushing to go to sleep. And then in their like dream thing, they both were like settling down with some popcorn. And they were like, what's it going to be tonight?

And like, it was a really lovely. idea of what dreams are, what are you're going to watch tonight? What's it going to be? And I thought, lovely, I wish they were all like that. I wish they were all an adventure. Yeah, yeah. Something really weird that I read was that if someone doesn't dream, that means that they are forgetting them. So the way to make yourself dream, if you don't dream, is to think about dreaming a lot in your waking life.

And talk to other people about dreams, read about dreams, because your brain will then jump into a dream gear. And you will remember your dreams. Yeah, so they definitely are there. If you've never had a dream, you absolutely can go and get. them, you're just forgetting them. Yeah. Also, I thought what was interesting was what people have thought dreams were.

Yes. And so now we know so much about stuff and we know about science and our brains. Imagine if you didn't realize, because there was a period of time where people didn't even realize what a brain was. Yes. You go to sleep and then all of the stuff happens.

Yeah, so no wonder there's so many sort of fantasy stories or scary things or witchcraft or demons or... Thinking it's a prediction and thinking... Though actually, like, even though we understand it's so much better now, I do think in the future, I think sort of neuroscience and all sort of dream stuff will be the thing.

You know how we look at medieval digestive understanding? And we think, and then they put leeches on and then drilled a hole in the brain to get the bad thoughts out. And at the time everyone was like, seems like a good idea. Seems legit. We know so little about dreaming.

Yeah. That we are pretty much at the moment in the sort of seems legit phase. And it's perfectly possible in the future they'll be like, and they thought dreaming was REM. And they thought dreaming was the brain trying to process this.

And they thought... Actually, it was all this woman It was all Carol. It was all Carol. And we're all just watching her life, weirdly. Yeah, exactly. I'm sure we will make a real turning point in the discovery of what dreams are.

How exciting all that. I haven't a lie for that because I want to know about it so much. But the ancient Egyptians thought, which you can completely understand that it was obviously a different form of seeing. So they would have trained dreamers to be there to plan battles and to plan wars.

And they were like a crucial part of, strategy. Yeah. But then imagine if you were one of those dreamers and you just like, last night you dreamt about a dog and then you have to be like, oh. Yeah, and you'd have to make stuff up. Yeah, you would, wouldn't you? Like, oh, it's probably, um, Joseph's brother loves his father all his life.

Are you doing technical dream color? He's there. He does that dream. He goes and meets the king and then he does that Elvis song. Yes. When he dreams about there was seven fat cows. The whole premise of Joseph and his technicolor dream coat is the guy gets out of prison. because you can interpret dreams.

Oh my God, it's so true. So that was a real thing to, that was your currency back then. I also, I've been in a production of Joseph and Tony. Oh, I'm so jealous. As a child. And I played The Moon in the Dream. Wowie! And that was it.

I wasn't allowed in, so. Come on into the building. Then the thing that came later, which I find interesting about dreams, Freud is such a... Yes. He's just so sex-based. Yeah. So he believed that dreams were all repressed,

desires, which is terrifying when you think of some of the dreams. Because I had this period of time. Well, actually, I was doing AS-level psychology, and we'd been learning about Freud. And I would have these, like, very violent dreams that I thought I was a psychopath, which I'd come on to in a minute. Not me being a psychopath, like, what psychopath's dream? But I had this horrible dream once where I basically, I killed my dog. And it was a horrible dream, and I felt so bad afterwards, and I didn't know why I'd done it. And then I read all about this, it's repressed desires. I was like, oh, my God! Like, I'm a monster. And I got really up. upset. And I remember my parents being like, it's not like, shut up. So I think Freud was quite

dangerous because I think... Yes, definitely. If you did have a scary one, it made you interpret in a way that you were like, okay, so I want to kill the dog. I want to be chased by a ghost. Yeah, I want to have sex with my mother and kill the dog. Yeah. Because I've definitely had like ex-boyfriends crop up in dreams. And I'd be like, I don't know why. Like, in my waking life, I don't think about them if I dream about my ex, because I mean, I fancy them. And it just doesn't. It's just about you may be yearning for like that time. You may be wanting some security again? Like it could mean anything

because your brain is just sorting through things. Yeah, the general... And again, like, we don't know yet. No, no, no. We're in the leeches phase of this science. But the general theory is that your brain is going to sleep. It's trying to process everything it's seen that day. And also in your life.

You are. Exactly, your whole life. It's taking the whole day thoughts that you don't even remember having that have gone into your short-term memory and they've just disappeared. And it's trying to process them all. And it's storing like, which ones should we keep? Which ones can we put in the bin? How let's put it all together.

Plus, it's taking all your like, your worries and your stress and your excitement and your hopes, and it's putting everything in a big... Yeah, everything's like shot through with that as well. And so there's loads to take away of, okay, the dog killing thing, like probably it was a very... You were stressed and you were worried about your exams, had nothing to do with the dog.

Yeah, that was just a dog. I'd seen a dog. Yeah, and that was just a representation of that. And so your ex, you know, when it pops up, it is just maybe somewhere in your... Yes. I could have done anything. I could have been anything. Yeah, that thing you said about the sorting through data because I was looking at what they think it literally is,

and they've done, sometimes they're like mice. Although all them always with them. But I would say if you're going to be a mouse, be a dream mouse. Be a dream mouse. Yeah, yeah. But they found that in mice, the hippocampus in your brain,

which controls memory, and then the neocortex, which governs like ordered thought. There's a study in 2007, which in mice, which showed that the ordered thought part of your brain would signal areas of the hippocampus, the memory part of your brain,

to upload whatever's being held in short-term storage over the night. And then as it's going through, you decide, your brain decides what to transfer to long-term memory, what to forget. So this is quite nice theory that we dream to forget, which say if an ex does pop up that you don't really want to think about, it could be your brain is trying to get rid of it, get it out of your system, which is a, you know, a final theory than any. Why not? Why not? Which is kind of nice. So, yeah.

No, no, I was just going to agree. Yes. And support you. Woman to woman. But I was saying, like, no, what a nice idea that it's dreaming to forget it? because I was like, excuse me, I didn't forget that one where I was king of the birds, but we probably...

But not always. It wouldn't... Every dream isn't to do that, yeah. If we really listed all our dreams here, we maybe could come up with like 50, but we've had so many nights sleep. You know, there are so many dreams that are gone. There's only a couple that we've woken up from

or that were particularly, you know, haunting or nice or whatever. Such a small number that we've remembered in comparison to how many dreams we've had. Yeah. Oh, I think this is important. So, have you ever had it when someone's been like, oh, I'm going...

kayaking and you go oh my god I had a dream about kayaking last night and you would never have remembered that if someone had not given you that flag for you to open up that memory box where the memory team are like we're busy in here you don't need this memory whatever and you would never have had that

if you hadn't been reminded in the day and so you didn't remember that of your own accord you had to be reminded of it well yeah there's definitely research showing that so I've had dreams where I've been like that is an amazing sketch idea and I've written it down and I can still remember those dreams now because you have transferred them

into another part of your brain by heavily recalling them. Whereas if you wake up and you go, oh, that was interesting. And then suddenly you feel like the dream is disappearing and you've kind of forgotten, it's not as vivid anymore an hour later after breakfast. Whereas if you write it down, it will remain that vivid because you've remembered it,

which is why often we will remember nightmares and bad dreams because they've had such a bad impact on us. Yeah, I still remember my childhood nightmares, but they're weird. One was that, like, a doorknob was chasing me. And there's music? Very weird. That's why all these people are like,

keep a dream diary because then you can look and you can see if there are patterns to it and you can which I think leads on to interpreting dreams as a bit like well you know if you dream your teeth falling out you're not going to get married like that's not how it works they're fairly certain that's not how it works I mean a whole man's above my head if in 10 years time they're like it was that simple yeah you look up an object you dreamed about and then it'll tell you whether or not you get that job that you wanted that'll be amazing but at the moment they don't think it is But they're not meaning to say if it is like a data dump in your brain. Obviously that's fascinating to take note of because it is going to be telling you things.

Like if you're consistently having dreams about being anxious about being late, like that that is telling you that that's something in your brain that just keeps coming up. So it's definitely worth if you are being... So firstly, I was just going to say about nightmares that if you do have them, to immediately try and get yourself out of the bed, move about, run your hands under the tap, get some water going because your whole body sort of wakes up and responds to water and also to say,

even if you're by yourself, say it out loud what it was. And as soon as you start describing it, you'll be like, oh yes, that makes less and less sense now. Yes, yes, say loud. Similar to like negative thoughts, if they're in your brain,

you're like, yes, of course they make total sense. And as soon as you get them out, you're like, oh, I see. And actually, often the overall details someone was chasing me is scary. It's when you look into the other details, like, someone was chasing me and it was a man who had banana legs.

You're like, oh, and there we go. And there we go. But it still like feels scary until you sort of can laugh at it. Yeah, they are terrified. by a doorknob for a long time and then when I said it out loud to my parents, they laugh. If you are having a lot of dreams at the moment

considered keeping a dream diary and to sort of write them down and see the sort of things that crop up all the time less about the door knob specifically. Because the door knob is just, it's just picking, your brain's just picking thing, anything out, but more the being chased and be like, okay, that's the theme

that I need to work on. Think like where's that coming from? Yeah. Because that's the thing like Freud was so clearly like, well, let's talk about door knobs. It's not the door It's the knob. Of course, Freud would come up with that. Look how quickly we got there. I actually spoke to Theresa...

May. How do you think... I spoke to Theresa May about her dreams. I imagine. No, not May. Theresa Chung, who wrote the dream dictionary from A to Z, the ultimate, interpreting the secrets of dreams.

Oh, hello. Hello. And I asked her about our two main ones, your apocalypse dream. Thank you. You're so welcome. So she's all about the dream diary. Yes, great.

Writing stuff down, interpreting dreams. One that I have all the time is finding a room in my house I didn't know was there. Yes, it is. And being really thrilled that I've got the extra space. Yes, I often find like grand ballrooms. Do you? Underneath the thing. Yes, beautiful, exciting rooms.

And I'm like, oh. This is lucky. This is so great. I'm going to have a party in here. I'm always like, oh, I can put that party in there. Yeah, always I think, well, now I can have my party all the time. So she says, finding an unused room in your house is one of the top five most common dreams alongside flying, falling, being chased

and cheating partners. Oh, that's... Oh, Jesus. Disappointing. That is disappointing. The house in a dream is the symbol of ourselves or the self. All the vaj.

What? All the vaj. As in there's an outside and an inside. Like the vaj. Just laughing hilariously. My own joke. Right, go on. And so the rooms within your dream house

represent aspects of your ego or inner world. And therefore, unknown rooms in your house as symbols of potential areas of self-development. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting. And it's worth considering what things pop up in that room.

Clowns. Yeah, like clowns. And be like, okay, what are these clowns doing in this room? I've got a clown in myself in a way. Anyway, your one was about the apocalypse. Yes. It says apocalypse dreams are another common dream. But you only make the top 50.

Oh. That makes me more special. I think so too. I actually have apocalypse. No, I don't. But I do what I do have is running from the government. Yes, I have those as well. Yes.

We have big time running from the government. I'm really glad that you said that because I've not met anyone else who's ever referenced running from the government as a theme. I'm in like the resistance. Same. But I'm so scared. I've got to get out. And sometimes they're like, they're not the government.

They're like, they're vampires or something. I'm the only non-vampire in the room. Oh my God, once and I went to a party and there were so many mirrors. I was like, I can't get near the mirrors because they'll know that I'm the only one who's. This is good stuff. And I was like so scared. I was like, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. But I had to get myself out.

Yes. People not realizing that you were in a room full of not friends. Not friends. And I think that's such an obvious, you're worried about how you're perceived, you don't feel you fit in, etc, etc. You want to be a vampire. I was going to say that's my main one, yeah. But actually, the apocalypse is an extremely exciting and positive sign. They suggest that physical and emotional changes are taking place in your life or need to take place for you to feel fulfilled.

Because the fact that the apocalyptic scenarios here are so wildly adventurous for you. And exciting indicates that having the courage transform your world will be frightening at first, but also a thrilling run. I mean, thank you so much. Right? This is great. And then I said that both of us have wizarding powers. Oh, yeah, always. I think that means you grew up brooding Harry Potter. I think so, too.

When you dream of having magical powers, your dreaming mind is trying to motivate you to believe that you have the ability, strength, and courage to get something done that needs to be done. Thanks, Brain. I know. Some dream interpreters say that this kind of dream means you lack confidence in your abilities and feel like you need superpowers.

But in my research, dreams of having magical powers is about our unconscious letting us know that we are enough and have what it takes to succeed. That's lovely. The idea of really getting into your dreams and like recording your dreams, for me is that it can help you lucid dream. So lucid dreaming is really fun because it means that when you're in the dream, you can change the dream.

I lucid dream and I think I started lucid dreaming when I became interested in lucid dreaming. The more I read about lucid dreaming, the more I realized I was able to do it. So now, whenever I have a nightmare, I actually now can wake myself up and I can get out of that nightmare. I have a trick that I do in pretty much every single dream

and it is... So have I. Mad. What's yours? Well, I know what yours is. Oh, do you? Well, you have sex with everything. Yep.

Does I have sex with the nearest thing and then wakes up. I can't believe I've told you that. Why can't even believe you're way worse things? Because I told you mine. Mine is that I say Akio Firebolt and my... A broomstick arrives.

I get on it and I fly away from the horrible thing. Oh my God, yours is so much better. But sometimes... I have to have sex without anything. It's so funny. But the point, your sex thing and my broom sick thing, it doesn't matter what it is. It's just finding something to get you out,

being aware that it's a dream. Because the moment you become aware that it's a dream, that's why the film Inception is so excellent. Because the moment you become aware that it's a dream, that your subconscious is now sort of... On its way out. On its way out. So you start to wake yourself up the moment you become self-aware.

The lucid dreaming thing, I taught myself to do it once I sort of discovered about lucid dreaming. What they recommend you doing is in your waking day, you say... You just have sex with everything. Stop it. You say, am I dreaming? Am I awake to yourself? Okay. Regularly throughout the day.

Sounds mad. Yeah, no, quietly. I'm a dream. You just quietly become, you quietly sort of, even though you were so aware that you're awake, you get into the habit of questioning whether it's a dream, then you'll be likely to come to that conclusion quicker in the dreams. If I'm like, how have I ended up in Japan? I'm supposed to be a meeting.

I'm quicker to be like, is this a dream? Yes. And then what I do, my test is to take off from the, I can fly. And so I take off my clothes. Take off my clothes and have sex or something. No, I only use that as an emergency if I need to get out of a nightmare. It's just brilliant. But I promise you it works.

You will not have to have sex for very long. No, because you wake up because that's also a fit. If you're ever in a nightmare, just have sex with anything, you will wake up. Essentially, you mean hump something, don't you? Because you use it like inanimate objects as well. Just have sex with a clock if you need to. No, I've never had sex with a clock. Okay.

It's got to be quite big. A table? No, like, yeah, like a tree or something. It's ideally a table. A tree or a table or a door or a fit man. It's got to be a person. Ideally, it's a fit man. And I literally just...

It never is, though. In my dream, I go like, oh, I'm dreaming. I look at my wish. I'm going like, oh, I'm dreaming. You, let's go. And then I just jump on that someone. I've had loads of dreams, but I'm genuinely like, I'm aware it's a dream. I'm like, okay, I'd like to have sex with like a fit man.

No, never, never. Ever. That's a really advanced level. That's advanced level. It's very hard to control because you, once you've got that hard, once you're that level to be like, oh, what can I summon? You're a master. You're a master, but you're so close to waking up now that you haven't got long there.

The dream is collapsing. The dream is collapsing around you and you haven't got long. Anyway, so I take off from the ground to see if it's a dream. That's my test. Good test. Great test. And then I'm flying. So what would happen if you can't? Oh, I just jump out the window.

Sure. What if you're awake and you try that? So I know for sure that I would never, in my actual life, be so convinced I might be dreaming that I would climb out the window. Of course you wouldn't. So that's really great. That is actually a very good test because you would never do that. Because you've never in your waking life. You sometimes had like a surreal moment or whatever. But you've never had that long enough that you've fully, you know, it's never gone on long enough for you to climb out the window. Yes. So I know for sure I won't. do that. So that's what I fully just climb out the window and jump off in my dreams.

And then once I'm flying, I'm like, oh, I told you. I knew it was a dream. And so what you need to get yourself is a test, literally like the things falling over in inception. Yes, yes, okay. You need to get yourself a tell or what do they call those things, your token or whatever. Yeah. Not you don't need a thing to come with you, you just need flying one. Yeah, I look at the time. The time is a great one. And the time never is right. Sometimes the time is never right. Reading is very difficult. Right. Now, you know, that thing like cheese gives you nightmares. Absolutely. Really interestingly, there's no research to say that if you have some cheese, you're going to have some crazy dreams.

No. But what there is, is it when your digestive system is upset, you might sleep poorly and wake up more often. So you will remember the dreams. Great. And so you'll be remembering some dreams that are weird because they're the early dreams, which are the short dreams,

that as you get further into your night of dreaming, they become more narrative. It's sort of like your brain's like settling into it. Yeah. Whereas the first year, apparently, just completely mad because it's just that it really is just like random thoughts. So you'll remember those. dreams more because you've woken up.

So maybe the food didn't cause a nightmare, but you, like, remembered it. Do you ever have a nightmare or a dream that you wake up from? So basically, the person who suggested this podcast is my mom. And hello, Mom. Hi. So she has dreams where you wake up from them, and then when you go back to sleep, they can continue. The false dawn. Oh, my gosh.

Oh, sorry. She can, she goes, returns to her dream. Very advanced. Advanced, but she doesn't often want to. No. Like a nightmare. And she's like, well, I hope that doesn't happen again. She goes right back.

into it and then it's there again. Nightmare. And I really tried to find an answer but there's no answer to it. So similar to the nightmare's thing she needs to get up, move her body around. Just shake it out, say out loud what the thing was because when she's in the bed still, she's or wherever she sleeps. She actually sleeps on the shelf. Certainly. So in, and no

judgment here. If she's in it and she wakes up and she's like, oh my God, how scary, but she's only ever thinking that in her mind. And then she just goes back in, it's so present and at the front. Whereas if she changes position, moves about, says what it was, it becomes less and less scary and it retreats. Yes, interesting. Yeah, let them dream retreat before you go back to sleep.

That's so great. Yeah, and the thing that I thought she was talking about was false dawning when you wake up and you think you're awake, so you get up and start your day. Oh, I see now your reaction. Tessa basically almost like in an immeditive way, put her finger and her thumb together, closed her eyes, looked at the ceiling and went, the false dawn. I didn't know why she'd done that. But now I actually had the urge to do that when we just explain that big.

Those are really stressful because you could have got so far through your day. Yes. And also being like, I'm so on time. My lunch is packed. Yeah, it's always when I go to sleep knowing I have to wake up really only and do something. And then I wake up and I do it. And then I wake up and I'm like, I haven't done it. And I thought I'd done it.

It's so annoying. It's because your knowledge of your own bedroom and morning are so clear for your brain. Especially if you, because you probably have in a false door and opened your eyes in real life. Yes. You have actually looked around the room. Yes, yes. And then doze. You're living in this, like, you're living in this, it's so close.

The Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone that's so close to the surface. And so your body's like, off we go. You're like, oh, it's so exhausting. I just have a nice thing, which was about how really, even if they are scary, you find them very stressful, that dreams are such a nice thing for your brain to just have some time out moment. And similar to when people have good ideas on the train

or somewhere where they weren't paying attention, you know, that allows your brain to go off on its own. A bit like how daydreaming, you know, sometimes comes up with the best ideas. Things like daydreaming and walking and being in the bath or the shower or driving for a long time. They thought of something that they didn't realize. It had a light bulb moment. Yeah.

And some famous examples of people who had their brilliant thought in their dream. Oh, my God. Alba Einstein. Of course. Theory of relativity. I mean? I don't know. Judging by the things that I write down after I've kind of said, no.

No. The structure of DNA? Of course. Google. I've all done that. Yeah. Google invented in a dream. The sewing machine.

James Cameron claimed that Terminator was in a dream. Oh, shut up, James. Christopher Nolan claims inception was. You can stay, Christopher, because it's about dreams. Yeah, and I can believe that. A hundred percent. A Hyundai Peeby. Hyundai Peeby, we believe you see, by the way.

100% babe. Hyundai. Oh, does it? Handy P.B. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Okay. I dig that. Yeah, I'm fine with that.

It's a surprisingly boring book. But cool I do. Cool idea, great idea. Yeah, the idea was the cool bit. Had that in a dream. And then famously, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. But I much prefer that that was the product of a game. Ghost storytelling thing.

Yeah, they were like, everyone has to go away and make up a... I think it sort of was. Yeah. Yes, so I don't want to say tweet as your dreams. Because it makes us sound very boring. But I'm interested. I'm keen. I'm keen.

I'm keen. I'm keen. I'm keen. I'm keen. I'm keen, but only if you do the work bit and you try and interpret it. Yes, yes, yes. I remember that it's not... I was being changed.

by a doorknob, it's not the doornob, it's the chasing. Yes, but also, tweet us if you have a thing like Tessus having sex with everything and me getting on a broom to get out of a nightmare. Tweez if you have a thing. Tweeters at Steevm, the S is a 5. At Tessa Cotes. All letters, as always. As always. Also, tweet us at Nobody Panic Pod

and email us Nobody Panic Podcast at gmail.com if you've got thoughts for future podcasts. You want to tell us your dream in length? Oh, yes, because we'll definitely read all of it. We're here to read that. We won't interpret it for you, but we will read it. And I'll give it a go. Yeah, well, of course, Tessa will give it a go.

I'll watch Tessa gave it a go. Nothing if not confident in my psychoanalytic skills. Of course. And yeah, we'll see you next week, guys. Have lovely dreams, everybody. Have lovely dreams. Sweet dreams. Bye-bye. Bye.