Yeah... my mother died when I was 18... I'm 22 now.. For a very long time after she had passed, I'd have dreams of my mother.. We'd do normal things.. Just hanging out.. and sometimes (inside the dream) I couldn't understand how she was here but I was happy nonetheless.. I would feel happy just to be with her and I'd hug her and tell her I love her (something I didn't do enough when she was alive).. But I never had a dream where she said 'goodbye' to me.. Whenever I wake up from these dreams I'd feel real sad and sometimes I'd wake up with my eyes wet from tears.. Like you, I pay alot of attention to my dreams in recent years and also enjoy sleeping very much.. It is my get away from reality.. I especially sleep late when I have these sort of dreams as I don't want it to end (therefore have missed classes and such)
My wife had the same thing when her best friend passed away three years ago. Even though I had never met him, but had seen numerous pictures and videos of him, I even had very similar dreams.
I think this is called sleep paralysis. I think it has something to do with the fact that your body releases chemicals that paralyzes your muscles while you dream, so you're not acting out your movements. And when you wake up unexpectedly, the chemicals haven't had time to dissipate. So you're paralyzed. In Vietnamese culture/superstition that is called 'being pressed on by the ghost', because you can't move. Edit: Crap. Didn't see the other pages to this thread that talks about this already.
One of my scariest dreams was that I dreamed that I had died in my sleep. I was hovering around my bed and could see my lifeless body. And I remember feeling so sad because I didn't get a chance to say good bye to anyone. And then I started sobbing and then woke up sobbing in my bed. And boy was I happy at that point.
I haven't had one for a while. I have had a few where I looked in the mirror at the beard I will never have. Then there's the standing in my underwear, sexcapades, free flight (the best of all, especially when you look down on mother Earth), and a few of those damn punches that don't quite hit their target. I used to get some strange dreams when I took my vitamins at bedtime. I think I'm going to try it again.
funny you you mention weird sleep disorders...i did a bit of research on this sensation i experience just as i fall asleep...they call it hypnic jerk...it's like a falling sensation followed by an involuntary twitch or rather jerk just as you fall asleep... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk but anyways...i use this translator i found on the net whenever i have an out of the ordinary dream http://www.freakydreams.com/freaky.htm ...hope it helps
I used to listen to Art Bell (paranormal radio host) when I was younger. They had some guy talking about OBE (out of body experiences) and he mentioned something about a loud noise like this. So ya, I have heard that too... Whatever that means.
I'm glad people have posted the stuff about the sleep paralysis. I used to get that quite frequently when I was working shift work graveyard shifts. I would doze off in my chair, and then I would become aware that I was asleep and try to wake myself up but couldn't. Sometimes I would try to lift and arm, and I would strain, in my mind, as hard as I could to lift my arm and it would feel like it just moved a few centimeters. Usually, after a couple minutes, I snapped out of it. For a while, I was quite freaked by it all, afraid that one day I wouldn't "come out" of it at all, and I would just be in a coma. But now I know better.
I love dreaming and then realizing im in a dream Some of the greatest dreams I've had include flying but not like superman but usually like a swim. I have also had dreams where I can flap my arms and get enough lift to fly into the air. weird things is when I awake in a dream I cant control it. I can control myself in the dream but I cant change the scenario itself. Has anyone actually changed the whole scenario of their dream? J