Dreams have been a huge topic in our house recently, especially as both my girls tend to have them every night. For me, I don’t ever remember having dreams as a child (though I’m sure I did) and for the majority of my adult life I barely had any either. Many times my friends would talk about their dreams and all I could say was “I don’t really have any”. However I’ve noticed over the last few years I do seem to have more and as I’ve always known, its my brains way of processing everything that happens. I don’t know if I have a more stressful life nowadays, or maybe more things happen that need processing – but whatever the reason, I definitely have dreams more often than not these days.
Last night, I had one of those dreams that you’re not really sure if it’s good or bad. The dream itself was good I suppose. I don’t remember it clearly now (and honestly I’m trying not to as well) but my dad was in it and it was happy and I was happy and there was love. However when I woke with a start this morning, I realised it was just a dream. Then there was that bittersweet moment as reality set in that my dad wasn’t around and that I couldn’t talk to him or see him, or hug him as I had in my dream – as he died twelve years ago. All morning I’ve felt a bit shaky, a bit like I want to cry and the truth is I know why I dreamt it, as there is family drama going on – especially that which involves my mum and I can only imagine how much she might be missing him right now.
Luckily though, Lily came down this morning and was all chatter about a weird and wonderful dream that she had. The girls always make me smile with their dreams as they’re nearly always happy, but if not then at least strange and funny. They used to have nightmares a lot when they were younger and I put most of that down to the fact they had good imaginations so they worked overtime when they sleep. Now I’m glad they are better at enjoying their dreams and can make the most wonderful stories based on them. Sometime we try to pick apart what their dreams might mean and I’ve sometimes even googled the odd thing when it’s been a really specific dream.
In association with Adjustamatic adjustable beds, I wanted to share this video about explaining kids dreams. I love that as a child, your mind sort of protects you from the bad aspects of your thoughts and puts them into more relatable stories in your dreams. That said, as far as my bad dream went last night, seeing my dad and being able to hug him again was actually a really special part of my dream – so maybe our mind is always looking out for us, in its own way.