Tag Archives: dreams

Personal Blog

Blue Light Dreams

Now and again, I have a weird sleep issue that I call “Blue Light Dreams.” It goes like this:

 

1. I’ll be having a dream which I usually don’t remember

2. I’ll wake up with sudden urgency and start carrying out some task of great importance that my mind is convinced is 100% real. This can be something like “the tunnel in the ceiling is open, now is our chance to get through!” and will end up with me literally standing up on the bed and hoisting up Davis so we can climb through the nonexistent tunnel in the ceiling that I’m scrambling to find.

3. A few moments later I’ll realize that I’ve woken from a dream and whatever I’ve just been acting out is actually ridiculous. Davis usually makes his confused “Mrrr?” sound.

4. 99% of the time these outbursts involve me seeing a blue light. Like in the previous example, I will have seen a bright blue light in the corner of the ceiling which is the signal that the tunnel is open. This looks like a reflection off the wall of a bright blue LED.

5. My brain will make up an excuse as to what the blue light was to get me to go back to sleep, but it’s always something that doesn’t make any sense when I go back and think about it. It’ll be like “oh it was just my clock” (my clock has a green light and usually is dimmed) or…and this is my favorite… “oh it was just the indiglo from my watch” (noting that I have not owned a watch, let alone a watch with indiglo, since high school). But in this state the excited part of my brain accepts whatever excuse the other part has come up with for the time being.

I hate when these Blue Light Dreams happen, because when I settle down from them, I get really anxious and distressed. I’m definitely awake when they happen, but I’m doing something just completely bonkers-crazy and absolutely thinking it is real. It’s like a brief little glimpse into what being a madman is like, and it scares me (I just had one now, and I can’t get back to sleep, which is why I’m up late writing this post). The blue light part is weird but consistent, and it has become a false reminder. Like I wake up and see a blue light and it reminds me that this is a familiar situation. But instead of reminding me “hey you just woke up from a dream, remember?” it’s more like “there’s the blue light! It’s a sign! You have to get up and figure out what it’s for RIGHT NOW and it’s VERY URGENT and DON’T FORGET TO GRAB THE CAT.”

Then, at the moment I should be thinking like a normal person again, I do another weirdly crazy thing – the made up excuse that doesn’t make any sense and the calm acceptance of the excuse as reality.

I’m really not sure what’s going on with these incidents – I’m certainly awake when they occur, and though I often act out with great energy I don’t do anything violent, and at most disturb Davis from sleep by grabbing him and picking him up suddenly. They seem harmless other than the fact that they make me feel like a crazy person, which is scary and distressing. And then sometimes it makes it so I can’t get back to sleep.

Stupid Blue Light Dreams. Does this happen to any of you?

Personal Blog

The Pitch Neutralizer

I’m not normally a dream-recounter, but this one I had a bit ago keeps popping back in my head, so I’ll go ahead and share.

In the dream, at work, there was a large device called the “Pitch Neutralizer.”  If you had an idea for a feature for the game or a solution to a design problem, you would speak it into the pitch neutralizer through a telephone-tube device like you see at the playground.  Everyone would have a turn proposing their ideas.

Then, the Pitch Neutralizer would present those ideas to the whole room, the trick being that each idea was now coming from one voice and source, so you wouldn’t be biased against a particular person’s idea based on how good/bad he was at presenting it.  Thus, neutralizing the pitches (awake brain thinks that “Pitch Normalizer” would have been a better name, but asleep brain says “I DO WHAT I WANT,” so there you go).

The quirkiest bit about this whole thing was the voice and personality the device would use to re-present all of the ideas.  It was none other than Oprah Winfrey.

I have no idea.

Musings on Game Design

Dream Games

I often have dreams about games I’ve made, and of course they’re the awesomest ever in dreamland, because they follow dream logic. When I wake up and start reviewing my awesome new game idea, it is usually quickly apparent that, in real-world logic, they wouldn’t work at all.

All the same, I try and write them down, because even if they are meant for the land of dreams I occasionally pick out some idea or mechanic or insight that could be useful later. In some cases (like tonight) I wake up immediately after the dream and can not get back to sleep until I write it down.

tonight's dream game

Personal Blog

*Yawn*

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I am now bedding down a mere 2 hours out of LA. Tomorrow will bring me to Burbank and the beginning of the summer festivities, and for now I’m trying desperately to stay awake and adjust to the new time zone. It’s difficult work.

Staying in hotels always brings out the weirdest of dreams. I learned a long while ago that, when explaining dreams, they are never as exciting to your audience as to you, so I will try and keep this brief.

Predictably, the dreams were smattered with ETCers. There were zombie monsters in something that felt like a play that turned into a reality. There was a secret Disney lab which we invaded. There was a swimming pool with layers, and a picnic table amidst a battlefield.

Everyone was wearing the most ridiculous outfits…Andy was a ghost. Brian Evans was dressed very much like Rambo with the exception of a collared, button-down shirt beneath his ammunition harness. Jesse wore two pairs of engineering goggles, one over his eyes and one propped on his forehead, along with a lab coat and a pair of dish gloves that we were all supposed to believe were official science gloves. We were searching for Bryan Cash, who may or may not have been turned into a zombie monster.

There was much activity. Betsy McIver stabbed a zombie monster in the eye with a screwdriver. Vimal kept bounding in and out of existence with tutorial-like advice. There was a faculty decree that banned all animal migrations, with the exception of migratory fish.

I was FURIOUS about this, and put up a rebellious protest.

Certainly, I am purging some weird stuff from the school year…

Personal Blog

Cosmic Frisbee

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Last night I had the most incredible dream! There was a huge field crowded with many people, and we were playing the most gigantic game of Ultimate Frisbee ever. And everyone I knew was playing. Like, everyone. Nate, Josh, Ryan, Frankie, Woody…all the old Centre Frisbee folk. The ballers were there, the Shredding Tears were there, my friends from high school were there, the Science Center people were there…..eeeeveryone.

I’m not exactly sure who we were playing against, because everyone seemed to be on my team. Everyone was happy and running about. Every pass was perfect, and I was in no pain, even though I was running and jumping and such. Then, I threw a perfect hammer, and Nate Whitfield turned to me and nodded in sincere approval, smiling broadly.

…

Does this mean I’m about to die?

Personal Blog

Uggh

I don’t normally talk about or post about dreams because I have such a hard time listening to other people tell their dreams, or reading dream accounts, I figure it’s only fair.

But this vivid gem woke me from an early sleep and I thought it would be worth sharing.

I dreamed that the doctors found out what was wrong with me, and they had me come into the office and sit upright and submerged in one of those Japanese pot-tubs that they have at the onsens? Only obsidian.

Then they came and cut open parts of my back, where it is typically knotted, and withdrew the knots, which happened to be solid objects, or tumors, or something. I remember it hurting terribly, and being afraid, and that there was strange light, but the doctors were relatively friendly.

I also spent the last bit of while searching every nook and closet in the apartment for hidden doctors, and I locked the door to my room. Ah, the tricks the mind plays!

Personal Blog

Dream Post?

I always feel a little guilty making journal posts about dreams, because I have a hard time reading about other people’s dreams, and I know the same must be true in reverse. Plus, I know that a dream always seems way cooler to you than it is to the people you’re telling.

…but this one is really REALLY cool I promise!!!

The past few nights I have been plagued with dreams that are so realistic that I am absolutely convinced they are happening for real, but last night’s was the strongest.

I dreamed that you could access Google Maps on your cell phone, and if you zoomed in far enough on the map, when you looked up, you were in that location! I thought this would be a very good way to visit Ken, so I typed in “New Orleans” and zoomed in until I found a place on the map that looked very similar to a map he showed me once to show where he lived and worked. Even in the dream, I knew this was shaky logic, but I tried it anyway.

So I looked up, and sure enough, there I was in New Orleans. After wandering around nervously for a bit, I ran into Ken! “Heeey!” said Ken, “what are you doing here?” And I told him about Google Maps, and he took me to his place and we hung out and it was awesome.

I was so convinced that this was really happening, that when a phone call woke me up from my dream, after I hung up, I was all ready to go find my cell phone so I could go visit Ken. Then brain was like “psst, Lisa, you’re awake now…” and I felt really dumb.

The moral of the story is, I miss Ken and he should visit soon!

Although, if I visit Ken in New Orleans and it looked like it did in my dream, I’m gonna totally freak out