Both historically and in the present age, various writers, artists and musicians have found inspiration through dreaming. Poignant, beautiful, confounding, terrifying, even among modern societies there are those who regard dreams with reverence on account of the mystical-seeming insights they can offer. They are windows through which one may glimpse the workings of the unconscious, a cryptic realm of symbols and archetypes.
Generally, this is a thread in which to discuss the role dreams play in your work, both as a means of inspiration and as a feature of the work itself.
And last, for those with poor dream recall, here are some things you can try to facilitate dreaming, I have experience with them and found them efficacious:
Melatonin - This natural sleep aid has the side effect of causing intense dreams in many users. Such dreams, I find, are usually easy to recall on waking. However, lucid dreaming may be more difficult. Taking too much can make you unable to sleep, so don’t go nuts with it.
Diphenhydramine/Dimenhydrinate - Listed together because they are essentially the same chemical. Most over-the-counter sleeping pills contain one or the other; dimenhydrinate is also the active ingredient in dramamine and diphenhydramine is the active ingredient in benadryl. They are chemically related to substances found in nightshade, so you don’t want to take too many (which is very unpleasant and can also kill you). Anyway, these tend to inspire bizarre dreams, though be warned that they give some people nightmares.
Blue Cheese - Eating blue cheese before bed can make you have strange and vivid dreams. I have no idea why, but this is backed up by research.
Calea Zacatechichi (aka “dream herb,” “bitter grass”) - Can be smoked or made into a tea. Greatly improves dream recall and incidences of lucid dreaming. However, it seems to accomplish this by making one more alert, so one’s sleep is less restful. The tea is said to be extremely bitter and may cause nausea (I’ve only smoked it). It takes a fairly large amount of plant material to achieve the desired effect, but it is not expensive. Contrary to what some would have you believe, it does not cause hallucinations and is not an intoxicant.
