Strange question for you all

[valis2]

Are you always yourself in your dreams?

As a teenager, I was almost never myself. I've been the matriarchal leader of a group of humans being wiped out by machines. I've been Prince Michael, determined to save his people from the black oozing menace that threatens his lands. I've been Death, collecting the souls of sorority cheerleader bunnies. I've been a knight in full armor, riding a horse, who lost his only true love. I've been a superspy agent. I've been a poor Russian peasant running with her husband from the police, who climbed a tower and then threw herself off and died. I've been in Hell, and Purgatory. I've been a mermaid in a swimming pool.

As an adult, I am usually myself, and I'm someone else about 15% of the time, I think. Going through my dream entries, it seems like that ratio more or less holds true, though in one I'm an Asian water dragon, and I think I was Snape in another. And sometimes I'm not quite myself, but a version of myself.

What about you guys? Are you ever a different person in your dreams? Are you ever a different gender? Species? I'm curious.

Comments

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

I'm often a different person, usually someone fictional like a detective, or someone male. Once I was Yoko Ono and was writing a novel.

Mostly I'm a version of myself, though.

[blackletter]

I'm often someone else. And even more often I'm just a bodiless observer of things. Sometimes I'm myself, but those are usually very boring dreams--like dreaming that I'm teaching class.

[kakiphony.livejournal.com]

I am almost never "myself" being me as I am now in 2010. I feel like "me" in my dreams, but that identity often has little to do with my current self. I am very often male -- I'd say I'm male 80% of the time.

[quoshara.livejournal.com]

Alas, I do not remember my dreams as well as I used to. Most probably because I get so much less sleep. *s*

But yes, I'm often other people: female, male, young, old... different colors and races, different vocations, human, non-human.
And oddly, other people do the same identity warps. A friend or a relative may look completely different than they actually do, but I still know it's them.

Sometimes I'm a part of 'the story' and sometimes just an observer. I hate that I can't remember them as well though, some of them were fairly entertaining.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Wow. I can't remember any dream where I wasn't myself. I didn't know you could do that--now I'm jealous.

I've had dreams where I was myself but, you know, had a completely different life. Like, I'm on a pirate ship because my totally different life has brought me to that place, but I never think of myself as not being myself.

[slavelabour.livejournal.com]

I have a LOT of really strange dreams but the last one that was super duper odd I thought I was myself until I looked in the mirror and I was Mark Twain. In the Colonel Sanders getup and the wacky mustache and everything. I had a bourbon and water in my hand and I dropped it when I saw my reflection in the mirror. The shattering glass is what woke me up. Craaaaaaazy.

[todayiamadaisy]

I rarely remember my dreams at all, but in those I can remember I've always been me. Me being attacked by giant birds while out to sea in a barrel, but still me.

[iibnf.livejournal.com]

I am always male. Tall, thin, dark brown hair, about mid 30s. Think Pierce Brosnan but not so pretty, not so hairy, prone to stooping.

I've died many times, I'm nearly always on the run from something.

[catsintheattic.livejournal.com]

I'm almost always myself, but, like sistermagpie, it's more like feeling like me and not necessarily wearing the same outer identity. I could be a war fighter, for example, but still recognise my real self.

If I'm not "me", I usually dream in the context of the story I'm currently writing, getting some insight into a character or even dreaming their dreams.

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

It happens that I'm someone else, but not very often. And when I am, I can sometimes find myself wondering what the point of this change of identity was. Like this dream I had when I was around 17-18, where I was a competent 40 year old male doctor, only the dream wasn't about that at all. It was about some really scary, bloodthirsty, green dogs who chased me up to a high chair. So I was wondering why I couldn't have been the 17-18 year old girl I really was for that dream, but I guess my subconscious wanted to break gender stereotypes.

Otherwise it's more usual for me to see a dream play out like a movie when I dream of people who are not me, and in those cases it can be hard to determine who of all the characters is "me". (Although often, I'll find myself entering those dreams eventually as myself. Heh, I guess that's kind of the self-insert American Exchange Student or something!)

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I do crazy things in my dreams but I'm always me!

[vanityfair00.livejournal.com]

I don't remember many of my dreams and the ones I do are usually nightmares. But I am always myself as much as I can remember.

[hardboiledbaby]

Wow, interesting.

I don't remember most of my dreams; lately, the ones I do are rather... traumatic. But I'm always me, as far as I can tell. I may be doing strange things or be in weird places (like a ghost town with honest-to-God tumbleweed), but none of it strikes me as odd until I wake up. Some are in color, some in sepia or B&W. And my POV is as though I'm being filmed from over my shoulder, so I can see my hands and glimpses of my profile.

[jaelle-n-gilla.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm always myself... just not always the way I am in real life... No, that doesn't make sense.

I'll start over. I'm almost always myself. Like, Jae, female, adult. I often have ideas, attributes. Sometimes I have strange superpowers, sometimes I have different hair, and I'm even sometimes (rarely though) a different person. I've had dreams where I was a man or androgynous in some strange way. Mostly, I am me though.

The thing is: My internal picture of myself isn't that fixed even when awake. I have trouble identifying myself as "me" in pictures. It takes longer than identifying my friends or parents. My mental self image is slimmer, younger, has no glasses. So I don't notice the difference much in dreams. I guess I'm just strange.

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

I can't recall being anyone but myself. Sometimes in weird situations, but always myself.

[little-tristan.livejournal.com]

It's funny you ask. Usually I'm myself, but different versions. Almost always thinner and healthier, like I can usually walk, although sometimes I feel like I shouldn't be able to. There's this nagging feeling that I'm not *really* myself, but I can't quite pin it down.

Recently, though, I've been Sam Winchester quite a bit. Which is much more fun, because he's big and strong and gets to hang out with Dean.:D

[drusillas-rain.livejournal.com]

Different everything. I was even a dinosaur once when I was a kid. I also have a vague recollection of being an inanimate object.

I think most of my dreams are actually in a 3rd person omniscient voice, so that I switch pov's depending on what's happening (and so that I end up being everyone who's pov I switch to).

[drusillas-rain.livejournal.com]

Reading through the comments, I was reminded that the answer to your question can depend on my brain chemistry - if I'm having really bad pms, I'm usually quite depressed, so I generally take either St. John's Wort or 5-HTP (which is a precursor to seratonin). The 5-HTP always makes my dreams a lot more vivid and detailed, and this is especially where the 3rd person pov occurs. I also tend to take 5-HTP based on the quality of my dreams - if my dreams are meandering and unfocused, it's usually a good indicator for me that I'm starting to get depressed and that I need to be more aware of my mental state.

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Most of the time I'm someone else. And to be honest, I kind of like that :). Quite often I'm a man.

I don't remember all the people I have been, but they include Snape, Sir Gawain and a princess from Super Mario ;).

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I'm not only myself but always in common situations, like talking to a friend or doing something that I do normally. And the funny part is that I'm always at the same age I am by the time of the dream.

[ms-hecubus.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure I'm always myself, more or less. At least in all the dreams I remember.

[droxy.livejournal.com]

Always myself in dreams.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! Yoko Ono? That's amazing, and now I'm totally intrigued.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'm just watching, that's true. And a lot of times I have dreams of the mundane, though they usually end up with odd twists where I scratch my head.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oh, how interesting! Sometimes I'm not really exactly myself, but I'm still "me" somehow. But sometimes I really am not myself at all, like the times I listed in the entry. In those cases, I was definitely a different person.