I always dream and I nearly always recall them. If I cannot recall them immediately, the dream comes to me later on in the morning. I usually have a "main dream," then I wake an hour or two before I need to get up, fall back asleep, and have a briefer second dream, completely unrelated to the first one. Having two distinct dreams happens nearly every night. I've tried to fall back asleep to continue the original dream as Ken has done, but I'm not certain that has ever been successful in picking up where I left off. There was a time in my life I would write down what my dreams had been and try to make sense of them. Other than the entertainment factor, that was a waste of time. Regarding the original question: I'm not certain any of us has the capacity to stop dreaming (or to start if we don't think we do in the first place.) I used to drink a lot, and I can tell you that alcohol neither repressed nor enhanced my frequency of dreaming. I wonder by what mechanism a drug might affect it...I bet the manufacturer wonders the same thing.
When I had my badly broken leg, around 1988, and was in the hospital for 8-9 days, they gave me pain medication and whatever it was gave me the most terrible nightmares that I have ever had; so drugs can affect your dreams. I remember a vivid dream where I was dangling by one leg (wrapped with a rope of some kind) from a skyscraper and looking down at the street many stories below. Besides being terrified of falling, it was hurting like crazy, which is probably what woke me up. Then I didn’t know where I was or why I was there, just that I was not at home. Slowly, everything came back to me, mainly because my broken leg was hurting so bad, and that helped me to follow the sequence of getting it broke when the horse stomped on me, and ending up in the hospital, and then realizing that the pain from my leg was causing the dream where I was dangling from the skyscraper by my leg.
That's horrible. I hate high-anxiety dreams. I was in overnight after disc surgery in my neck. They moved me to different rooms 3 times, at one time putting me in with a guy who had a car accident and who [obviously] had been drinking all day while working in the hot sun, and who was drunk-sweaty and still out-gassing. I don't think I dreamed because I didn't sleep. Plus, the nurse missed my vein with the IV, so I never got the Demerol I paid for to weird me out...it shot straight into muscle.
That's horrible. I was in overnight after disc surgery in my neck. They moved me to different rooms 3 times, at one time putting me in with a guy who had a car accident and who [obviously] had been drinking all day while working in the hot sun, and who was sickly-sweet alcohol sweaty and still out-gassing. I don't think I dreamed because I didn't sleep. Plus, the nurse missed my vein with the IV, so I never got the Demerol I paid for to weird me out.
I know that pain medication can cause dreams, or maybe hallucinations. When my father was dying of cancer, I stayed over nights in his hospital room. He would wake me with all kinds of fantastic stories in the wee hours. One of the medications given to help stop smoking can also cause vivid dreams/nightmares. I can't recall which Rx it is, but my husband tried it a few years ago and would talk and yell out in his sleep. He never could remember any of the dreams, though.
The dreams I remember most are the ones that wake me up abruptly. Last night I dreamed there was a huge rat in the bedroom, the size of a small dog. I was in the bed in the dream. The rat climbed up a pole in the corner of the room and was scratching the ceiling trying to get out. My first thought was, Oh No, now I'm going to have to repaint the ceiling. Seriously. Then it jumped down on the bed and grabbed my toe. I tried to shake it off when I woke up. Not sure if I actually shook my leg or not. Back on topic. It's mostly what I eat just before I go to bed that causes crazy dreams. Things that are hard to digest are the worst. Cheese.
Let's think about this: -Eats cheese before bedtime -Dreams of rats Solution: Develop a taste for Little Friskies B.O.T.: You know, the only thing I believe might inhibit dreaming is to go to bed just dead exhausted.
You may be right, John. Exhaustion from hard physical work, not just because you stayed up way too late.
Most medical people that work in the mental side of medicine claim dreaming is necessary for good health. There is claims that if a person was prevented of dreaming it could cause serious mental problem or even death. I have had nights where I found that I was doing a lot of thinking of stuff and when I fell asleep I went into a dream related to what I was thinking about. Some geniuses claim that there ideas come in there sleep as dreams. There is also another phenomena that what is going on around you gets Incorporated into your dreams like if some on pinches your toe in might end up having a rat bite your toe. I am lucky and have some vivid dreams meaning I am aware I am dreaming so I can interact in my own dream. I had a recurring dream that I was chased and I was running for fear of my life. The last time I ever had it was in a vivid dream so I stopped turn around and said go ahead and kill me, never had the dream again. Some people claim dreams are for resolving problems that are happening in your daily life and because you could not carry out what you want to do you act it out in a convert way in your dreams.
A lot of dreams occur just from whatever it is we are feeding our consciousness during waking life. I remember having terrifying dreams of my son being in extremely threatening situations when he was younger and I was fearful of him getting hurt, mixing with the wrong crowd, being abducted, etc. Despite living in a fairly safe community, I was taking in lots of typical cautious parenting / "stranger danger" info and my subconscious mind latched onto the fear that generated, so my dreams reflected that. Those dreams stopped as he got older, learned self defense skills, and as I witnessed his ability to de=escalate tense situations. My fears for his safety abated, and as a result my terrifying dreams related to him stopped.
Dreams are simply a sign that your subconscious mind is overactive. Prior to sleeping, take a medication that will calm down your subconscious. My preferred medication is Jack Daniels straight Bourbon Whiskey. Hal