I dawned on me that we don't have this thread. I have long been interested in dreaming, in part because of some interesting and memorable childhood dreams I had. Some pleasant, some not.

I would be interested in other people's childhood dreams. Here's one of my freakier ones.

I woke in the middle of the night. Everything was fine, until the clown on my wall started talking to me. I don't remember the conversation, but he was very articulate. I freaked out! I started to yell for my parents.

When they arrived, I made them take the clown off the wall and spent the rest of the night in their bed. The clown never made it back to the wall.

Now that I'm much more astute on dream topics, it's pretty clear what happened. I had a FA, the clown talked to me, I freaked and woke myself up. The transition was so quick and it was under duress. As a result, I didn't realize it was a dream. Of course my parents didn't understand that at the time either.

I remember one where I was being chased in a freeway that was suspended in the skies. I was driving my red sports car at full speed along the meanders of the freeway. Suddenly, I stopped in a toll both, and gave a 500€ note (fake one, from a game I had), saying that she (the woman in the toll both) should return it once that was over - I needed it for my monopoly-like board game.

Dr. T I had almost the same kind of dream; I think I've posted it here before somewhere.

Evil Hooded Sweatshirt

A hooded sweatshirt is hanging from the closet doorknob.  It comes off and moves towards me as if somebody is wearing it, but it is completely disembodied.  It approaches the head of my bed and stops, raising its sleeve towards me.  Inside the sleeve, I see swirling colors and horrible looking evil faces.  I’m terrified, and I think, “This has to be a dream!” (I wake myself up to escape.)

(I realized the same thing you did later.  I didn't want things hanging on the doorknobs after that.)

my recurring nightmare as a child... (typed now, remembering a very typical type of scenario)

INSIGNIFICANCE

i am small in an utterly large world empty except for the paths i walk on smooth ribbon-like tracks hovering in this flat colorless world a large room or a dull tan universe without stars dread utter dread i turn to feel this wave upon me a large solid object simple enough geometric no words to describe corner approaches me leaning in on me it moves so little but i must run so... so fast and the largest loudest bells ring deafening and i feel what insignificance is

i used to awake in a cold sweat from this dream... so often as a child... but it lasted on and off until about the age of 14 or so...  all i usually remembered from it at the time was a feeling of dread and insignificance.  once i read TheCusp's post on DV about "PLATONIC SOLIDS" and his childhood dreams... i was in awe.  it all came flooding back to me at that point...  and that is what i describe above.  i speculate that it must be some sort of brain chemistry issue as a child... because no one could have ever expected me to know what a platonic solid (of any kind) was when i was all of 4.    in a weird way, i'd love to have this dream once again... just for old times.

Quote from: DrTechnical on December 12, 2009, 02:05:35 PMWhen they arrived, I made them take the clown off the wall and spent the rest of the night in their bed. The clown never made it back to the wall.

Now that I'm much more astute on dream topics, it's pretty clear what happened. I had a FA, the clown talked to me, I freaked and woke myself up. The transition was so quick and it was under duress. As a result, I didn't realize it was a dream. Of course my parents didn't understand that at the time either. sounds like my childhood tiger... it was painted or a decal (HUGE!!!) on the wall in my room where i had my crib.  yes... my CRIB!  this must be my earliest memory of life... because my mom tells me she took it off the wall when i was no older than 2.  i used to scream bloody murder about it after a few weeks of it being there...  could it have been a dream where it also talked to me!?  i wonder...  but i do remember the tiger, and the wall it was on.  ugh.

Alright, I believe I had a day I recorded these on my old DJ, I'll go dig them up...

Age: 3-4 Category: Scary

You must understand something before you read this dream. I was terrified of a small indent in the wall over my bed. I don't know why, but I just was. I was in my tiny bed holding a toy car. I saw the indent in the wall. Without reason I began to smash it into the wall, and soon the wall crumbled down. I saw the landlord (who really did live next door; it was one of those connected homes) and she shook her finger at me.

Age: 4-5 Category: Fun

I dreamt there was a water pipe leading to our house which would flood the house with water. Soon the pipe let out water and I went swimming indoors!

Age: 5-6 Category: Fun

I was at school in our kindergarten playground. I found a wooden stump and stood onto it. Then, as I walked off I was surprised to find I could walk in the air a little! I could not fly, but I found that I could give a little midair jump at the level of the wooden stump. I jumped back and forth from the fence to the wooden stump.

Age: 6-7 Category: Nightmare

Scariest dream I ever had. It was because of this dream that I stopped watching the show "Madeline." See, I had a Madeline doll (don't make fun of me please) that I really loved. One night I dreamt that I was in a shopping cart going slowly down on an incline. I was waiting for my mom to take the car through the car wash. My Madeline doll was right in front of me. All of a sudden she started to sort of "glow." It's hard to explain. Then, her lips flew off and they chattered up and down around the cart coming towards me faster and faster...

Age: 7-8 Category: Nightmare

I was in my house and I chanced to look out the window. Wow! The sky was red and I could see some random junk just floating around. Then, I saw a "meteor" coming towards our house at about 50mph. I tried to yell for my mom but only a whisper came out. I tried again and woke up screaming.

Ages: 10-11 Category: Lucid dream (six)

Lucid 1: I was outdoors in the front yard. I looked around and saw we had a small black car. I somehow became lucid. I decided to try to drive the car. I got in and backed right into the grass. "Forget this," I thought and woke myself up (what a waste)!

Lucid 2: I was on some field and I became lucid. I decided that my shoes had rockets on them. By imagining this I was able to fly to about 100 feet high before they quit and I fell back down.

Lucid 3: I was in my house and became lucid. Everything looked so real. I decided to experiment. I noticed how far I could jump. I ran to the window to see how well my brain did shadows from the tree. Everything was kind of yellow, and the tree's shadows were sharp and jagged.

Lucid 4: I walked outside and became lucid. I decided to try to fly. I sort of hovered and bobbed upwards before gliding. I think I was satisfied and woke myself up.

Lucid 5: I was climbing on a slippery rock. I was about to fall off. I realized I must be dreaming. Stupidly (no reality checks; I didn't know about any of this stuff) I jumped down headfirst to the rocks below and woke up.

Lucid 6: I was in a room with yellow and green tiles that went all around it- even on the walls and ceiling. There was no way out, and I got lucid. I tried to go through the walls but I could not. I tried to wake up but I could not. I saw a knife and killed myself to wake up...

Childhood dreams are interesting, because for the longest time I mixed them with reality. You see, when getting before 5 years old, I was remembering both "dream" and "real" scenes as "real." For example, I have a very vivid memory of looking at the moon, and my dad pointing at it. I saw shadows of men walking across it. I'm pretty sure this is a dream now. There's others I forget now over the years that I asked my parents about growing up, and they assured me we never were in any place I described. I remember one now: I was on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride with my parents, and my mom's glasses fell overboard. A pirate man retrieved them, and gave them back to her. For years I believed that the people were actually real, though I have to assume now it was only a dream. Neat topic.

There are only two that stick out in my mind.

1. I dreamed at least twice of aliens, they were tall, skinny and always stood close together when they walked.  They looked a lot like the "puppet alien" in the Star Trek TOS episode, the one where the alien was a small baby and used the puppet so people would respect and fear it.  This sream occured between 1967-1969.

2. I was watching a woman speaking on the telephone.  Her head fell off, for no good reason, it just fell off.  Scared the crap out of me.  This was also sometime in the last 1960's.

Seeker, you know the alien thing is interesting to me. You would have been 6 or so, correct?

I was watching some show a while back, I think it was one of those reality tattoo shows, the one where they drive around in a bus tattooing people.

Anyway, they had this guy getting tattooed. Apparently, he is a UFO enthusiast. He was explaining how people who have been abducted go through the same pattern. They are taken as young children, then once again in adolescence. He was explaining how your memory of the event might manifest as a dream.

This freaked me out a little. I have about 5 dreams from childhood that really stuck with me. Here are two more:

Around 5-6:  I get up to go to the bathroom. I'm in front of the toilet when I realize there is an alien peering into the bathroom. He's just outside the window. I can see his head and shoulders.

Around 13:   It's nighttime and I'm heading upstairs. I pass the living room and peer over to the right. There is an alien sitting on the couch. He says nothing but simply stares back at me.

Now I stop far short of suggesting that I've been abducted several times. But that guys explaination did freak me out a little.

Dr. T., you realize I was living in the Chicago suburbs at that time....right?

Spooky!

I've had lots of alien dreams. All about the same, me being paralysed and or them trying to take me away and yes, the alien in the window too. Those were the creepiest. So much so that I can not stand to be by an un-curtained window after dark.

Toradoes were prominant in my childhood dreams. Also end of the world dreams, bombs raining down from the sky and demolishing everything.

Typical tornado dream from childhood: Me usually at my grandmothers and torandoes just rip down from the sky, they're conscious and they're after me. I always ran for shelter, a basement, culvert, anyplace out of sight of them. The sense of dread I felt in those dreams still lingers to this day. I'd probably crap myself if I saw one in real life. Tornadoes still make the occasional cameo appearence in my dreams.

Quote from: Vex Kitten on December 15, 2009, 12:47:31 PMTypical tornado dream from childhood: Me usually at my grandmothers and torandoes just rip down from the sky, they're conscious and they're after me. I always ran for shelter, a basement, culvert, anyplace out of sight of them. The sense of dread I felt in those dreams still lingers to this day. I'd probably crap myself if I saw one in real life. Tornadoes still make the occasional cameo appearence in my dreams. ugh.

Hmmm Vexie. More alien dreams. Somehow I knew that would resonate with people.

I also have a lot of disaster dreams. I have a recurring nightmare (though not often) about nuclear disaster. Basically seeing a big mushroom cloud and realizing there is nothing I can do about it. I would like to get rid of this one. I did manage to get rid of the alien dreams by becoming lucid and handling the situation more positively.

Thanks analyst. I needed that. Pj just suggested that I may have watched Wizard of Oz when I was too much of a youngin'. That might be where the tornado dreams originated. I think he's right. I have a vivid memory of hiding behind a chair and peeking out to watch parts of the movie. Something in that movie must have scared me. Prime suspect, tornado.

DrTechnical: I've faced down nuclear disasters while lucid and since I rarely have any of those types of dreams. I got a handle on the tornadoes for a while too, nothing like whuppin' the ass of a force of nature to make one feel empowered. Even so, a tornado will creep into a dream every now and again. They're as stubborn as I am.

I remember one where I was running and fell headfirst down the stairs and rolled all the way down. As a child... my dreams that I recall now... they were often filled with falling from high or endless places or jumping off of walls (which was high to little old me). I never figured out why.

OH! That alien comment of your Dr. T reminded me of when I had a nightmare that Scotty from Star Trek "beamed me up"! That kept me away from sci-fi for a long time.

Childhood dreams. . . a visit to a local mall last night reminded me of escalators.  I recently figured out where the dreams likely originated - with the old Downtown Detroit Hudson's escalators.  They were scary indeed, and even more so to a little kid.

I used to constantly dream of fast, steep elevators.  All through my childhood.

Other common dreams when I was a kid was being in an endless bright void with a floor and ceiling.  There were no walls and no features.  I knew I was dreaming when this happened, but I wasn't aware of the nature of lucid dreaming and it never occurred to me to exercise any control over the situation.

Escalators, my niece and nephew used to be afraid of them too. Don't blame them, they sometimes look like giant, kid-grinding instruments of torture. I wonder if they have nightmares about them. I should ask next time I'm babysitting.

I'll bet a lot of kids who grew up in big cities in the mid 20th century share that one - in the years before malls replaced the huge multi-floor department stores.