One of the stranger dreams I've ever had...

[GregT]

I am trying to remember it, so I apologize if this doesn't make a lot of sense. Then again, the dream didn't make a lot of sense to me--that's why I'm here!

In the dream, I was out with my girlfriend at a bar. The location in the dream seemed to combine a few elements of various bars/restaurants I've attended. We met a friend of mine and his girlfriend in the dream. (While my girlfriend and friend were, indeed, my girlfriend and friend in real life, his girlfriend in the dream was someone I've never conciously known before.)

I was feeling unwell in the dream. I was very hot and felt delirious. I was trying to focus on a baseball game on the television, but couldn't. I was sweating profusely, and commented to those with me that I really didn't feel well. My friend joked (as guys do) that I didn't look too good, and commented on how round my face was. In real life, if I gain or lose weight, it immediately shows in my face, and this is something that has been discussed before with this friend, so I believe he was just joking about my weight in the dream. (I think it is probably important to note here that I don't have any sort of eating disorders, nor am I overweight. So I don't feel this was any representation of real life body image issues or anything.)

So I told him that I thought it might be swollen, because it felt flush and ached a bit. I told them I was going to go to the restroom. I planned to get some water and splash some cold water on my face.

This is where things got pretty strange.

In the dream, I sort of woke up in the bathroom. But it wasn't the typical jumping-around in a dream. It legitimately felt in the dream like perhaps I had passed out and was coming to. However, when I did "regain conciousness," I couldn't see well. My eyes were almost swollen shut. I tried to make my way around the bathroom but couldn't see well. In addition to my limited field of vision, my eyes were having trouble focusing. Also, my face felt paralyzed. Not that I couldn't move it out of fear or anything, just entirely numb, except for the dull pain of the swelling.

When I finally did find a mirror, I was terrified. My face looked like I had been stung by thousands of bees. Everything was swollen and misshapen. Then, when I tried to adjust my face-open my mouth, open my eyes, etc-the skin sort of peeled off to reveal the layers underneath. As my face relaxed again, the skin sort of reconnected. The best comparison I could make would probably be to say that it was similar to some sort of berry bursting. As you put pressure on it, the skin splits, but as you relieve the pressure, the skin moves back together. I did this with my mouth and my eyes. Then, I sort of moved my jaw around to properly align my ears. (Each time I stretched to fix one part of my face, another part of it would shift. At one point in the dream, I remember almost being amused that with my downward-shifted ears and swollen face, I looked very much like a chimp.) Another odd aspect of this was when I saw myself in the mirror, I panicked and my eyes widened suddenly. When this happened, I saw my eyes in the mirror move in different directions. It was as if the sudden movement caused them to break free of their sockets. I took several minutes in the mirror to try to slowly move them back into my place. My vision was completely impaired during this time. My right eye was seeing one thing as it floated aimlessly, and my left was seeing another. It was incredibly disorienting.

When I had "fixed" my eyes, I realized I had no shirt on and the bathroom looked different. With my vision still not right and feeling what could only be described as severely disoriented, I tried to make my way to the bathroom door. My vision would go in and out, and sometimes I would see different hallways and doors. But it didn't feel like I was jumping around in the dream from location to location, more like my eyes were refocusing on different points in the room, or I was imagining myself in one location while still actually being in the original bathroom.

I reached the bathroom door and opened it, only to find it led outside to a freezing street. I was confused, but not particularly afraid, and shut the door because I knew that wasn't right. I felt like I'd been unconcious for a bit, and determined that maybe I had passed out in this strange bathroom after having left the original bathroom. But as I was trying to figure this out, my vision fluttered in and out a few more times and I saw what I remembered to be the original bathroom. As my vision and sense of location kept fluttering about, I only physically moved while I was seeing what I believed to be the correct bathroom. I took a step, waited as my eyes rolled around, then took another step when I came back into focus. Repeated this a few times. Finally, I had just about reached the original bathroom door, and I woke up.

I posted this in the nightmare section because it was extremely unsettling to feel so disoriented, but also because the vision in the mirror was legitimately terrifying. I can't describe it properly, but I suppose you could say I just looked like my head was about to burst.

Anyway, don't know if anybody here can make sense of it, but I thought it was very odd. I'm not scared now, just curious. (Of course, if someone interprets it to mean that my head is, in fact, going to burst, I might become a bit concerned.)

Thanks for any thoughts and input. Sorry the post was so long, but I figured I'd try to be thorough. Thanks again.

P.S. I am concerned about a baseball game being played tonight, so that's the one part of the dream that actually made sense. Go Red Sox.

[Wolfjk]

Hi GregT,
I don't think your head is going to burst, but you probably had some problems in the sleep this dream happened in. My guess is that you had a migraine come on while you slept. Perhaps a high fever or a bad cold could have caused the dream. The problem with your eyes point to some sotr of headache or migraine.
The dream is simply trying to get you through the attack without waking you up, but keeping you ready to wake if your headache got worse. However it is probable that by the time you woke the headache or migraine was over and you were left with only the memory of the dream.
Cheers Wolfjk

[GregT]

I did wake up feeling a little off, but I think it was the effects of the sense of panic I felt in the dream rather than a headache. I've never had a problem with headaches and/or migraines, and I wasn't feeling under the weather, but I suppose some sort of pain could've prompted something so strange.

I was exhausted when I went to sleep, maybe my brain was just working overtime in its sleep and didn't know how to put a nice, coherent dream together lol.