I must be dreaming...

I find the topic of dreams to be a very interesting one - not because I put much faith into them having hidden meanings, or obvious ones for that matter, but because I don't often remember them myself. I have often gone complete years without so much as a fragment of a dream to remember upon waking. I have read that remembering your dreams is dependent upon what part of your sleep cycle you are in when you wake up, however, my own anecdotal evidence would suggest that this is only part of the story - as unlikely as I know it is, I choose to believe that I don't always dream.

My sleep schedule has run the gauntlet of options: going to bed every nite and waking up at the same time every morning, sleeping only when tired and letting my body wake itself up, only going to bed when exhausted but still setting the alarm for early to go to work, etc. I would think that with such a chaotic lack of true sleeping pattern over the years that I would be waking in the right cycle at some point to be remembering a dream, but that does not appear to be the case.

Strangely enough though, I did dream this morning - probably why I am so aware of the otherwise lack of dreaming that I experience. It also reminded me of something that I do find strange about the dreams I do have. The most common, if you can refer to something that happens every year or three as common, are dreams of everyday occurrences. These dreams take the form of going for coffee with a current friend and having a conversation just like we would have if we went for coffee. This can be quite confusing because sometimes I believe that they are not a dream, but rather a memory of going for coffee so I forget to update some friends with relevant news because I did so in a dream.

My other dreams strike me as equally strange because I am not in them - more like mini movies that I haven't seen before about other people's mundane lives - B-rated lighthearted dramas that go straight to video. Where are the dreams where I get to save the world? Or that I am being chased by aliens or monsters or bad people? Or that I have super powers? Or I'm a rockstar? I guess I should just be happy that it isn't like when I was young and (to borrow a line from Tears for Fears) "...the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had."