Students try to make sense of mystifying dreams

By Quinn Levin, Sophia Nascimento and Val Yanez / Staff Reporters

Every night, people all over the world close their eyes and rest their head comfortably on a pillow. The quiet stillness of the night lulls them to sleep as their breathing becomes relaxed and gentle. They drift off to sleep, and a dream starts to develop in their mind.

Dreams intersect with reality

Before that, however, many people have habits or routines that make them more likely to dream. Senior Fisher Brashear said he likes to fall asleep with music playing in his earbuds.  

“When I fall asleep with jazz music, I dream more,” he explained.  

Brashear said he often doesn’t remember his dreams, but when he does, he starts to feel déjà rêvé: when someone thinks they have dreamed the moment they are experiencing. He said he doesn’t dream about things that have happened to him previously, but instead, the next day mirrors the dream he had the previous night. 

“Sometimes I’ll be having a conversation and I’ll think, ‘Did this happen already?’” he said. “All my friends will be like, ‘We’ve never had this conversation before.’”  

Brashear explained he often dreams about school and grades, so when he gets tests back, he feels as though he has already seen his grades. 

Junior Andrea Golden has similarly uncanny experiences with her grades appearing in her dreams, she said.

Before her AP U.S. History exam score was released, she not only dreamt about the score itself, but also her reaction to her score, she explained. When she saw her real score, Golden said she had the same exact reaction that she had in her dream.

Freshman Rocco Isaly said he dreams about schoolwork as well, especially when he has important tests or projects coming up.

“I dream about things that have happened to me,” Isaly said. “I end up dreaming about school because that’s where I am for most of my day…One time, I had a dream about math class. I had failed a test and I was going crazy and frantic, and when I woke up, it had blended with my memories.” 

Isaly said he doesn’t believe dreams have any significant meaning or hidden messages, and they should not guide people’s lives. He said people should do what they want, rather than what a dream says they should.

“The whole Disney thing with ‘a dream is a wish your heart makes’ is a little dumb,” Isaly added. “I’m sure that’s how it works for some people, but definitely not for most.” 

Golden said she often experiences déjà rêvé with her dreams. In the middle of the day, she said she will remember having a dream days before about what’s happening.

Junior Ella Hughes said she has never experienced déjà rêvé, but she does have recurring dreams. Her dreams aren’t exactly the same, but they contain similar themes, places and events, she said. However, she said she doesn’t think these dreams mean anything. 

“Personally, my take is that dreams are kind of brain vomit and what’s left at the end of the day in your brain,” she said. 

When Golden was around 6 years old, she would have recurring dreams about the cartoon “Sofia the First” where she imagined her life as a princess and herself in Sofia’s dress. 

Golden said she doesn’t remember most of her dreams, but she does remember one particularly vivid dream. 

She said she dreamt about her car being parked a few blocks away from the school, but once she came back to it, it was gone. Her dad was standing in the parking spot, and he told her someone took it because it was by a stop sign, Golden explained.

Her dreams are often random, but they can still be enjoyable, she added. Although Golden’s dreams are relevant in her own life, she said people experience dreams differently. 

“In my personal experience, I am fascinated by how dreams come about and how the brain works while I’m asleep, but some may not even think about their dreams, so they don’t remember them,” Golden said. 

Hughes said she rarely remembers her dreams when she wakes up, but when she can recall them, they are generally very confusing with no clear plot line. 

“My dreams will mesh places into one big place,”she said. 

  She explained that she has recurring dreams about school and once dreamt about Montrose, the high school and her other past schools coming together. 

“It was a really weird geographical mess,” she said. “Nothing makes sense in a dream. If you try to explain it, it never makes sense.”

Dazed and confused: students lucid dream, sleepwalk

While asleep, most people are unaware they are dreaming. Their subconscious tells an elaborate story over the course of the night, and they are simply along for the ride. However, some people experience lucid dreams, in which they are aware of their dreams and can even control them.

Junior Olivia Wilson said she is able to lucid dream, and when she was younger, she used to sleepwalk, causing her to develop this ability. 

Wilson said her dreams are often influenced by the way her day went. If she has a good day, her dream will likely be positive, but if her day is stressful, she said she will often have nightmares. 

Further, the mood of her dream determines whether or not she can influence them, she added.

“I can control my dreams when they’re good and happy because I want to dream about them,” Wilson said. “But nightmares are uncontrollable.”  

Apart from her mood, she said sleepwalking also affects her dreams. Most nights, her actions do not influence her dreams, she said, but in some cases, her sleepwalking and actions appear in them. 

“One time, I was having a nightmare and I could feel myself in it, but I couldn’t control it,” she explained. “It turns out that I was walking into the closet door screaming and crying, and my dad had to come in to get me because he thought I was getting murdered.”

Sophomore Ma’ayan Cohen said she can lucid dream as well, but she doesn’t have the same abilities as Wilson. She is aware that she is dreaming, but she can never control the actual dream no matter what she does, she explained. It’s as if her brain is awake, but her body is not, she said. 

“When I have lucid dreams, I usually wake up right after them,” Cohen said. “I guess my brain becomes active and alert.”

Although Wilson said she enjoys controlling her dreams through lucid dreaming, she’s often caught in lucid nightmares. This occurs when she becomes aware that she is dreaming, but cannot control her dreams in any way, she explained. 

In recent years, her lucid nightmares have turned into sleep paralysis, she added. 

“I’ll look at my closet and I’ll see people, but they’re actually not there,” she said. “Then they’ll turn into my actual closet, and I’ll wake up.” 

Wilson has had the same recurring lucid nightmare for years. It started when she was 4 years old, and it happens about once a year, she explained. 

“In the dream, I woke up, and I leaned over my bed to look through the hallway,” Wilson said. “Then, there were men with guns, so I ran to my dad’s room. He grabbed a hammer, and my older brother went downstairs not knowing what was happening. I was really scared that he was going to get hurt.”

Every time she has this dream, she is stuck in her 4-year-old body, she said. She has tried to vary her actions in the dream, but no matter what she does, the story always turns out the same, she added. 

Cohen said that she’s had the same recurring dream three times before, where she is stuck in a strange place. 

“I’m in a world made of orange shapes, and I’m running through them,” Cohen said. “Then, I always reach a high-up cliff, and I have to jump down to this orange square ledge. I feel the roller coaster dropping feeling in my stomach when I jump down.”

Many people have dealt with lucid dreaming, nightmares, sleepwalking and sleep paralysis, Wilson said, yet most people don’t know what any of it means.  

“I wish I had a meaning to the madness, but I don’t,” she said.

What’s your recurring dream?

Compiled by Chayce James / Staff Reporter

                                  Chayce James is a junior at Bexley High School and a staff reporter for The Torch. Outside of The Torch, she is on the girls varsity volleyball team and takes college classes at Columbus State.

Quinn is a junior at Bexley High School and a staff reporter for The Torch. Outside of the newspaper, he is a part of the Theater department, marching band, and the Jewish Student Union.

Sophia is junior at Bexley high school and a reporter for the Torch student newspaper. Outside of torch she plays tennis for the high school.

Val Yanez is a Junior at Bexley High School and a staff reporter for the Torch. Outside of school, she plays golf for the Junior Varsity team.