Do you Dream in pictures?

A good few years ago my life was a lot more complicated than the simple existence I live now! I really struggled to sleep, there was always far too much going on in my brain for me to be able to switch off.

I would lie in my bed for hours and hours staring at the ceiling, wall, wardrobe, pillow. I’d try to get to sleep. I was exhausted.  Each night I’d look forward to going to sleep, I’d crawl into bed, shut my eyes and then ‘ping’ I would be wide awake again! I’d do some relaxation techniques I’d learnt, you know deep breathing and then imagining you’re on a beach and you can feel the sand and hear the waves, and just I thought I was dropping off, ‘ping’ wide awake, Again!

I knew I couldn’t sleep ’cause I was thinking too much, sub conciously mostly, but still thinking too much.  How do you stop yourself thinking?  Really. How? No matter what I did to try and stop thinking, thoughts of the day and what was going on at the time popped randomly into my head! Really frustrating when all you want to do is sleep.

So I came up with a plan! A genius plan if I do say so myself!

I decided to think about something else! A simple answer you might say, but everytime I thought of something else in my real life other things I didn’t want to think about would pop back and I was back to square one!

So I decided to think of something that would never ever EVER happen in my real life not in a month of blue mooned Sundays! EVER! A kind of fantasy dream if you like, not that type of fantasy (dirty minded so & so’s) let me explain.

At the time Christiano Ronaldo had just joined Manchester United as a young Portugese boy.  So I became his British life coach! As I lay down in bed I’d shut my eyes and I’d start thinking about being Christianos life coach, that i’d take him to BBQs at my Mum & Dads house, we’d walk in the countryside, we’d have a nice sunday roast and tell him about the British weather and how pants it was! I was helping him settle in and be less homesick. It would always start off the same then sometimes I’d switch the story a bit. He took me to a big posh dinner and I got papped, my hair was always perfect, I was super slim and looked good, perfect skin and all that! He introduced me to John O’Shea and we started dating, me and John O’Shea. (as an aside in real life I don’t really fancy O’Shea) Then my story would change again and John would take me to the picture and do normal dating things.

Every night I’d get in bed and the same thing would now play out and I always managed to drop off!

Here’s where my original question comes in. When I say played out, I mean played out. Thats how I think, daydream, remember things. In pictures or more specifically a film, not like a flickery showreel, it plays out as if it’s happening.  Sometimes it’s as if i’m in the ‘scene’ other times I’m having an out of body experience and watching events unfold.  Each time I can look around and take note of the surrounding area, what people are wearing, what colour things are. But always in pictures. I don’t remember all my dreams, but even when retelling an experience to someone, my brain plays it out in pictures!

I was talking about this at work this week, I always recommend a dream life to people who are having trouble sleeping. When the discussion of how we dream comes up. I hadn’t realised that people don’t think in pictures! My dad once told me my mum thoughts were like a filing cabinet, but it didn’t occur to me it wasn’t actual filing cabinets where you can open the drawers and paper comes out or goes in and they sometimes fly around if you’re worried, like I thought as soon as he said it! He meant a completely different why of thinking! It was only this week that I realised, when someone said they thought in words and their memories were words not pictures. I was honestly astounded. I asked, if you don’t dream in pictures how do you know what you’re dreaming about? No one could answer! It’s a tricky one! I’ve not been able to stop thinking about it since I was talking about it. Are you missing out if you don’t dream in film, if your memories are just words not vibrant colourful pictures replaying the good and bad. Whats the difference? How do you recall things if it doesn’t play out? It’s enough to keep you up at night trying to work out!

Recently I’ve struggled to get to sleep again, this time it has more to do with being busy rather than worried. Mr C (my husband) asked me if I was cheating on him again with John O’Shea (there’s no secrets in our house) I said no! Don’t be silly! I haven’t thought about being Ronaldos life coach or dating John O’Shea in ages!  Now i’m Dougie from McFlys PA and I fly all over the world with the band and organise interviews and stuff! I’m super skinny and my hair is gorgeous, I go to a garden party in a stunning tea dress and Dougie introduces me Zac Efron!! Now thats a dream!

So, Do you dream in Pictures?