25 Things You Didn't Know About Dreams - mental_floss List Show Ep. 321

A weekly show where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. This week, John looks at 25 things you probably didn't know about dreams.
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[@cj-seejay-cj-seejay]

It's surprising to me that only 4% of children's dreams are fantastical. Most of the dreams I remember from childhood definitely had an element of fantasy to them. My favorite was a recurring dream where I would stand in a certain spot on our lawn, and a magical top-loading washing machine would flutter down from outer space (if you can imagine a washing machine fluttering). It would talk to me (the lid would flap up and down like a mouth) and give me small gifts, like sets of water color paints. I've had lots of good dreams in my life, but those washing machine dreams were AMAZING.

[@MrsD910]

slut4berniesanders The comment in itself deserved a like, then I saw your username! #Feelthebern

[@bakntime2]

slut4berniesanders that still doesn't mean it was more than 4%, it just means that those fantastical dreams are the ones you remembered the best because they were notable and they stuck with you all this time

[@cj-seejay-cj-seejay]

Cave Johnson That's possible, but I don't know, 4% still seems pretty low.

[@laurap4415]

slut4berniesanders Also, there's nothing saying that your distribution of dream types has to be (or is especially likely to be) statistically representative of the whole population of children. :)

[@cj-seejay-cj-seejay]

Laura P true!

[@AndrewKaylor]

Being a lucid dreamer and one that has recurring dreams, I've visited complete theme parks that only exist in my mind multiple times. This has allowed me to explore / create more content within that imaginary theme park. How fun would it be if we mastered the art of lucid dreaming, the things we could do absolutely free!

[@corsaircarl9582]

My mom had a nightmare about chimpanzees coming in through the window and stealing me... I still laugh about it to this day.

[@corsaircarl9582]

I'd go completely bananas

[@ReiAyanami8]

Trigger McTriggerson **throws pie**

[@fireaza]

Trigger McTriggerson You died the way you lived.

[@corsaircarl9582]

***** Um, I'm dead?

[@1973Washu]

Trigger McTriggerson You ded

[@piggiesmile]

Also very strange is when inside my dream I realize I'm dreaming. So sometimes I can choose to keep on dreaming or to wake up. Its so weird and doesnt happen very often.

[@natehaken2686]

If you have one of those you are able to control the dream, it's called lucid dreaming

[@boomstick900]

Hannelore Verhelst I had a crazy Inception dream once, I was asleep and dreaming, and in that dream I went to sleep and started dreaming another dream, then woke up from that dream back to the first dream, before waking up for real

[@piggiesmile]

Never knew it had a name, thanks!

[@piggiesmile]

Yeah, dreams are so weird 😄 But I wish I could have a nice one for once cause all of my dreams lately have been so strange and I really don't get where they come from haha

[@RookieTiger]

boomstick900 I sometimes dream that I wake up in the morning and go about my day, but then I actually wake up and I'm back in my bed. -_-

[@cati101]

whenever i click on one of mental floss' videos i hope it is John Green and not the other hosts. i am always relieved when it is him. nothing against the other host though^^

[@veronicavanhelsing]

cati101 same here. not that the others are bad, just that he's my favorite :)

[@mrs.w5539]

I enjoy lucid dreaming. I do it a few times a year. Usually, when I realize I'm dreaming A.) I always decide to fly and B.) It's a struggle to remain asleep

[@Marleau_Seneca]

My top 2 recurring dreams are 1.) Teeth falling out / become damaged 2.) I forget something crucial when I want to participate in an activity. (such as I forget my snowboard but I'm already at the ski resort or I forgot my hockey stick but I'm already at the rink).

[@kiffe22]

SnowwLupus teeth falling out is the worst. I get it all the time.

[@sakura9400]

SnowwLupus Teeth falling out or being damaged is actually really really common and associated with stress. I've only ever had two of those dreams which I'm thankful for because I have a huge fear of damaging my teeth :S

[@trafalgarla]

SnowwLupus I get these weird dreams where there is suddenly no friction and then I keep continuously accelerating and getting faster and faster. It's bad to me cause accelerating and going fast like that scares me a lot in real life. :/

[@NickGreyden]

SnowwLupus Teeth falling out, reference to hockey, all things snow and ice... must be Canadian :-D

[@mastermarkus5307]

SnowwLupus I often have dreams where my teeth are falling out, but nobody (including myself) freaks out about it, like we all assume they grow back or something.

[@Smokey94462]

Don't let your dreams be dreams. Yesterday, you said tomorrow.

[@discflame]

As You Were Reading My Very Long Username I Stole Your Sandwich JUST DO I- hey where's my sandwich?

[@PuNkFuMeSt1027]

As You Were Reading My Very Long Username I Stole Your Sandwich Thanks Shia.

[@1Dyermaker]

Man, that's deep.

[@mkingmk]

I have a dream

[@Eric_D_6]

As You Were Reading My Very Long Username I Stole Your Sandwich been a while since you last stole my sandwich, I must have only dreamed it.

[@mundospunky]

When I was 12 I dreamt that I could fly, it was an amazing feeling being up there feeling the air under my arms, the moon on the back and the feeling of freedom. It happened once more than 30 years ago but I'll never forget about those feelings and I hope it will happen again.

[@georgiawilksch5708]

In dreams that I remember, I am often aware that I'm dreaming. Like, something weird will happen and I kind of just sigh and go "i'm dreaming, aren't i?" like i'm in some sort of TV show. This doesnt necissaily mean i control my dreams, but i'm aware of it not being real.

[@bradkoplitz6340]

John Green is my spirit animal! I could watch these all day!

[@Mad.E]

That Hypnagogia thing happens to me all the time! Really interesting that there's an actual term for that :)

[@MatthewSchellGaming]

I actually had a dream about John and Hank a few days ago. We were all in a classroom and they were sleeping. That's all I remember other than when I woke up I thought they must be exhausted with all the things they have going on.

[@Supermanohman]

"I think there are bananas on the space shuttle but I'm unlikely to become one of them" uh, yeah with that attitude you probably are. Geez.

[@checkjaguar1083]

The only dream I remember from my early childhood was being trapped in a slaughterhouse and eventually being slaughtered.

[@pjfair12547]

Bro that's dark

[@pjfair12547]

Meat is murder

[@bakntime2]

paul fairweather delicious, delicious murder

[@josephfox9221]

Cave Johnson when life gives you lemmons

[@Soma2501]

Checkjaguar108 I've had that same dream before

[@shirosenshiesq]

I had an epic one last night, coincidentally. I was running through a field with a briefcase in my hand, toward a tree surrounded by a low fence, with a large safe next to the tree. Chasing after me were some bad guys, who wanted the briefcase. I have altered over the fence and put the briefcase in the safe, slamming it shut. The bad guys caught up to me and put me into a bus that they were going to use to get away. I started laughing and pointed out that they could never get the briefcase now, and while they were arguing over how to get it open I pulled out my phone and made a call. "Get me Tony! I don't care if he's on lunch, it's an emergency! Tony, do you still have the Hulk buster comet? Excellent. Can you Target to my location? Don't argue with me, just do it!" As the bus I was on started to pull away, I kicked open one of the windows and jumped out. I ran back to where the briefcase was, chased by all the bad guys again. I left over the fence, dropped my phone now the safe, and waited for all the bad guys together near me. I saw a blue streak in the sky, which got larger and larger and larger, and then left over the fence and ran away just as giant artificial comet slammed into the ground, killing all of the bad guys and turning the safe into a pile of molten slag. I started to walk away laughing, and was joined by Harley Quinn for some reason. She laughed, and said "well I guess I'll get you next time!" And then I woke up.

[@Regolith86]

"There's nothing less interesting than other people's dreams." - John Green

[@mariacargille1396]

"There's nothing less interesting than other people's dreams." Personally, I love hearing about other people's dreams. In my family, we frequently discuss our recent dreams, and dreams have given me some of the best writing ideas I've ever had. :)

[@adamborison3054]

I'm a teenager, and over my life I've only remembered like 5 or 6 dreams after being awake for a few hours. I only remember one dream as of know, and that dream was completely useless. But I do play a lot of video games and the following though just came to me: What if I do have lucid dreams but I don't remember them? That sucks to think about, because controllable dreams sound awesome to me.

[@anesyamin848]

ive had a dream when I was around five years old that I have always remembered which involved me living on a flat cliff, practicing archery only to see Voldemort and him killing me with a mini black bean bag

[@CassidyNP]

I absolutely HATE when I'm in a nightmare and I realize that it's a dream, but I can't change anything or force myself to wake up. It's the most terrifying feeling

[@jeremyjackson5688]

The part about dreams being in real time surprised me. I knew a woman who said she frequently had very long and vivid dreams. Once she had a series of nightmares in which she was kidnapped, tortured, and abused. In the dreams, it felt like many years passed every time. It was so real to her that when she would wake up, it would take a long time to even remember her own name. She was honestly worried about losing her grip on reality before they stopped. Fortunately she got better, but still has long, vivid, and freaking WEIRD dreams on a regular basis. I've never experienced it, and it really freaked me out to think about dreaming for so long.

[@realspacemodels]

I used to have anxious dreams about being naked in public. However the last few times I have had this dream I relaxed and said "If I'm naked in public, it has to be a dream - so no consequences" - Much less anxiety.

[@iluvDNA100]

I have not only dreams but lucid dreams in vivid color almost every night. Eventually I got bored of controlling my dreams and just let weird stuff happen; last night I dreamed of welding things. Things that shouldn't be welded: Denim, plastic, paper, silly putty, dark teal colored chocolate, I even welded a welder with dark teal colored chocolate that was welded together.

[@kirbytoad661]

I get those pre cognitive dreams all the time I have had so many times when I dream of me telling my self its is a déjà vu than I forget about it and then that happens in real life It's wierd.

[@ajmetzy]

I get déjà vu way too often. :(

[@plane1998]

Why do you say you return to your salon? You never left? Is this an inside joke or?

[@kcwidman]

I have the same question to, can someone answer us?

[@atherion0]

Peyton Lane I think it's because there is a big block of graphics leading up to that part. So, you don't see him sitting there talking that whole time, and it is like he is bringing it full circle to end the video.

[@ytdlam]

Yeah makes me wonder if there are secret legal disclaimers attached to the salon.

[@quinz8649]

Peyton Lane Maybe its only a salon if there's a fire in the background.

[@koolycali]

Peyton Lane This question plagues me. I NEED definitive answers people.

[@ArmageddonAngel]

Is that John Green'd face lying on the desk when he talks about hypnogagia?

[@kcwidman]

BIG QUESTION IDEA!!! Why does the metric system use metric tones instead of megagrams??? Mega (meaning million) refers to 1 million grams while a metric tone is 1000 kiliograms (meaning thousand, 1000*1000=1000000) or 1 million grams. If we use the "Mega" prefix for thigs like megatones, megajoules, megahertz, megawatts, and megabytes, why don't we use megagrams in place of metric tones???? I would absolutely love it if you could make this a "Big Question" question, it would make my day! Anyway thanks for all the great content and have a nice day! Ps. Also if at all possible, could you put the upper part of the comment, with my name in the video or in the doobly doo, just so that I can prove it was my idea to some friends! Thanks!

[@cellogirl0096]

The TV black and white thing is really interesting! So cool!

[@Iinneus]

One time I had a dream that I with my girlfriend, but then I ran out of condoms... Later on, I suddenly realized that I was dreaming, so I just made condoms magically appear! It was only afterwards I realized that I never needed them in the first place... it was a dream. Anything goes.

[@tjarod11]

I had a strange dream last night where I knew I was dreaming, but I couldn't control the dream. My thoughts were as if I were awake. I woke up in the top story of a beautiful home, and immediately could see the clear blue sky out the window. I looked out the window and saw amazing three story house suburbs for miles. I was awestruck, it was beautiful. Suddenly the house I was in was replaced with the dirt of a workplace, machinery was lying around, it was like a Sunny scrapyard. I saw people lining up and walking single file through the dirt to their stations. I saw mom twice as if duplicated, in the line. When I spoke to her she said something hard to remember. All I got from it was that I had seen something I shouldn't have seen and I should have stayed inside, and now I needed to see someone like an oracle. Except the oracle had a silly title, like toothpaste or laundry. I mentality sighed and looked over at a smoke cloud coming off of some machinery. I noticed the cloud looked like an ape head, the head smiled at me, as if winking. Like my subconscious was smiling at me. Then my sister woke me up. It was strange that I knew I was dreaming the whole time, but I couldn't control my dream like I usually can when I know I'm dreaming.

[@Viva_Reverie]

I know often when I go lucid when dreaming I can see vivid colour, I can name at least two times this happened

[@cherylmakhani8562]

I have been dreaming bout my my sister's two sisters passed 7 weeks apart and my oldest daughter she passed away 10 years ago she was only 30 God help me with the pain

[@Alitari]

Holy cowlick Batman! And Mental Floss! Wait ... I've never seen Mental Floss and Batman in the same room together ... is Mental Floss ... BATMAN?!

[@aeron6747]

Once when my sister was dreaming (maybe 10 years ago, I think I was about 10) I got kinda bored and decided to flap our toy owl above her. The next morning she reported having a dream where she was stuck on a cliff and a bird was flying above her. It was a great moment B)

[@KillVannah]

I have a strange recurring dream where I tell my mom I'm off to become a Pokémon master and I have a Pikachu with me and when I return home after becoming a Pokémon master my mother is still sitting in the same place only she's dead and a skeleton at this point. I don't know why I dream this. I wasn't even a hardcore Pokémon player when I was little.

[@KillVannah]

David Jameson doubt it since I've had these dreams since I was 7 years old and I didn't even use the internet/knew what a meme was back then.

[@nichecarved2433]

KillVannah Your mother's name wouldn't happen to be Vannah, now would it? Just kidding. 1 thing for certain that we all know about dreams. Dreams are strange. Don't read too deep. Usually, if it means anything at all, you'll just know. or it may even occur to you later when something clicks in the mind.

[@KillVannah]

Niche Carved Nah I don't really read into dreams much, they're in my case pretty much always completely deranged. But if I ever happen to decide to travel a long time with a giant rodent at my side only to return and find my mother dead that would've been some scary foreshadowing.

[@KillVannah]

David Jameson ..I'm not sure? I'm talking about my real life mom though. Not the Pokémom. ...Yes I'm fun at parties why do you ask

[@KillVannah]

David Jameson Nah I just wanted to share this weird dream I keep having since I was little haha.

[@syed.muhammadali]

I always love an episode when you are hosting John. You are the best :-)

[@Durungil]

I have this recurring dream where I can essentially "swim" through the air. It's an incredibly liberating feeling.

[@hashbrownz1999]

When i was a real little guy ( 5-7 ) I used to play my PS2 daily. If i ever played that thing for more than an hour or two, i would end up having nightmares about it or the games i played on it. I never had recurring dreams, but they always had a common theme: my dad. Which is weird, because in all these PS2 nightmares i had, my dad was this evil villain even though in the real world he's an awesome dad. One PS2 related dream i remember vividly involved my dad forcefully strapping me down into a chair that was bolted to the floor. He left the room, brought in a TV set and inserted a game. Since the game inserted was scratched morbidly, the console would go through the insanely creepy "unrecognized disk" screen which would suck me into the console, scare the living shit out of me, and force me to wake up. The concept is hilarious to me now, but boy was that terrifying when i was a little kid.

[@NickDClements]

'The Unhappy Robot on the Other Side of the World.' Coolest dream ever. You should dream it sometime.

[@GalaxC13]

Oh I definitely fightback in my nightmares, but that doesn't mean I'm not scared out of my freaking mind!

[@warplease]

I had a dream, that I woke up had a shower, ate breakfast, drove to work and just as I was about to say hi to my coworkers I work up and was like you have to be kidding me I have to do this again !

[@seansmagee]

I've been out of HS for 10 years and undergrad for 6 but still have terrifying dreams of having to take the final exam having never attended a class or not doing required reading or things like that. Do these nightmares ever go away?

[@kayaktulsa7170]

I retired 10 years ago and still have dreams about being late for work. Sounds like kind of the same process. Also, I quit smoking cigarettes when I was 21 and continued to have dreams (actually nightmares) where I still smoked. This went on for several years but became more infrequent over time.

[@Figgy5119]

I frequently dream that my teeth start falling out, and at first, dream me is like "oh ok, I must have *somehow* still had baby teeth left" and then more and more fall out and I'm like "ok, nope, this is not good...."

[@Josh_Fredman]

Figgy5119, that's actually a surprisingly common dream. I've had it many times myself.

[@Jenn12141983]

My daughter is a month old and I don't recall having any nightmares about her after she was born...then again I don't get a lot of sleep 😄

[@jaydodsworth5849]

This world is so controlled....i only feel free when I dream....i love it!!

[@DroidFreak36]

I honestly don't remember having a single visual dream in the past 10 or so years of my life. I think I do have dreams, but they are all auditory since I am a very auditory learner. I used to think I was visual since I liked to read a lot, but then I realized that when I read, I turned the printed words into spoken sounds in my head. XD

[@DroidFreak36]

DroidFreak36 I am also a gamer and a very logical person, which might be why my dreams don't affect me very much. They're more like fantasies than nightmares.

[@killaki1065]

I nominate John Green as emperor of the universe! Anyone with me?

[@eboniejohnson9522]

It's been a while since I've actually remembered a dream... probably years ago. I like reading about other people's dreams though :P

[@emmetcameron1026]

Haaa I'm the friend who totally wants to hear everybody's dreams actually.

[@daltonslayton6766]

I've dreamt about the same girl since I was 8 years old. I'm 28 now.

[@randompastahandle]

@@daltonslayton6766 was the girl you?

[@99thTuesday]

I think it's cute when my dog is dreaming and makes woof sounds

[@123rockfan]

Whenever I remember my dreams, they're always realistic. Yesterday night I dreamed that I meant an extremely nice girl and talked to her for hours, only to find out the next day that she had cancer and only had two months to live.

[@zachboi13]

one of the earliest dreams I remember. My mom popped into existence and my kitchen then decided to materialize. She turned without moving and placed a grilled cheese on a plate that materialized. It was THE MOST BOMB GRILLED CHEESE in the history of grilled cheese sandwiches. Buttery, salty, cheesy, oh god I just got goosebumps.

[@christopherdean4897]

Starting an episode only to find that my (relatively) small school was the opening fun-fact is an interesting feeling. Hooray for relevance!

[@iLOVEpicklesBRO28]

I don't remember my dreams but experience hypnagogia frequently. It's pretty weird, and happens typically when I'm waking up. Everything is like a dream- you see it, you hear it, you know it's happening- but you can still feel your sheets or hear real sounds and can kinda manipulate the dream a bit.

[@surajbhat5447]

Is it weird that every dream I remember are a continuation of each other, and they all seem really realistic.

[@mariacargille1396]

That's unusual, but super cool! I occasionally have a couple connected dreams, but nothing long term or super consistent.

[@alishahernandez13]

I have similar experiences 👌🏽

[@vernalloy4640]

I had an awake dream. I didn't realize I was dreaming, the visuals were incredibly vivid, and I had complete control over it.

[@deep_fried_analysis]

Why dont you ever write down links to the studies you refer to in these type of videos?

[@seriousyak4734]

I remember having this dream a couple of years ago, where I was cast in the first season of Big Brother Canada. There was a task that we had to do during a competition - running into a ball pit of balloons and popping them to find answer for the producer speaking on the "big brother phone. The first person to the phone got to hear what the special task was and couldn't rely it to any other house guest. I was the first one to get there and while I was on the phone, a tall person wearing a green sequin shirt (I didn't see their face) was standing next to me. I got off, knowing what the task was (It was literally that the freezer was full of ice cream, I kid you not) So when the first episode of BBCAN came around, I found out that there was a red phone that had a producer on the other side (telling Suzette what to do) with Gary near her (who was wearing a green sequin shirt) and the first veto was a balloon popping competition, where they had to dig out pieces of the veto puzzle to win. I knew that it wasn't exactly the same, but it was pretty damn close.

[@frenchthenerdfighters3854]

I had a dream where John Green and I were making salsa on a beach but I woke up before he gave me the number to the salsa problem hotline. I was devastated.

[@0netnet0]

... Are we all just going to ignore John's hair?

[@McSandwich121]

Nothing less interesting than other people's dreams? Are you crazy? I LOVE hearing dreams of other people and how crazy they can be!

[@bhjklol]

Lately I have experimented with putting myself into dreams by force not through sleep. I lay and think about events of the day or I imagine a scenario that I find thrilling. I go through the sequences of what it would feel like emotionally to me and try to plan what to do in the scenes I place myself and if I do it long enough I forget that I am just laying in my bed. I have gone to sleep like this hundreds of times and by doing this I have a much easier time remembering my dreams. I also can see from a third person perspective how I feel and am affected by the situations of the day.

[@leothetiger13]

Yup. I notice that I am able to fight back or even force myself to wake up during nightmares. Been able to do that for a long time and it seems to get easier the more it happens.

[@veteran17865]

PLEASE for the sake of the world turn the flash around. We can't have him turning to stone.

[@happyfacefries]

like

[@opeia2390mz]

on #1 fact: I remember my first time playing a video game. The first two weeks of playing it, I have never seen myself so excited to shear sheep (that was what I was doing for my first two weeks in that game) and was one of the most vivid dreams I had

[@doodlepony2]

My recurring dreams are always about losing my contact lenses or missing the school bus, or, occasionally, losing my contact lenses which causes me to miss the bus. My nightmares always have to do with my younger sisters dying or getting hurt. My sister once had a dream that featured a singing cat, and that's a story I can't beat so

[@rickrodgers9277]

My sister can determine what she wants to dream about. If she thinks about something before going to sleep she will dream about it. I was disappointed John didn't talk about this unusual ability.

[@jessicazeller8060]

My dream warrants a quarter in the Porkchop Party Fund! I had a dream that a giant potbelly pig would chase me up and down a flight of stairs every time a bell went off. If it bit me, I would die from the pig's venom. I researched it in an online dream dictionary, and dreaming about pigs means we might be living in filth. It was a sign that I needed to clean my room. I also had a predictive dream in which I met my favorite singer. When I saw him in concert, everything that happened in my dream happened that day. It was literally a dream come true! :)

[@maddisonj4210]

When I'm sick I always dream that I am selling bad jokes by a pool at a Disney resort in summer.

[@EmmaSpAce111]

That actually explains a lot, the more I play games the easier it is to lucid dream. I already could, but it gets easier after I play them.

[@PuNkFuMeSt1027]

I have a recurring theme where I find treasure or money or gold coins and quickly try to put it in my pockets. This could be a secret stash from an estate, treasure on the bottom of the ocean, hidden loot in old ruins, or even diving into a fountain and scooping up quarters. Then when I wake up I'm disappointed that it's not there.

[@241wright]

Due to a servere head injury back in 2008, I've only been able to recall apx. 10 or so dreams til now most of which occured within the last year. So don't take dreaming for granted.

[@mastermarkus5307]

Sometimes when lucid dreaming I forget that it isn't real life, so when I wake up I end up thinking stuff like 'Why didn't I kill that guy?" or "steal that thing?", there are no laws in dreams and I spent most of the dream moping about how I couldn't!

[@dnatsrednUouYoD]

My dreams were always purely fantastical... When I got older my dreams got more realistic but they are still more fantastical than most.

[@ErzengelDesLichtes]

"Gamers are less prone to nightmares because they're more willing to fight back during their scary dreams." Oh, is that what's happening? I keep having dreams where I wake up suddenly because my subconscious is apparently a rage-quitting GM. Most recently I remember someone I knew stole my car, told me they stole my car, and wanted to send me on a quest and then they'd give me back my keys. I just said, "Or, I could call the cops." and started dialing my phone, at which point I woke up.

[@SlyPearTree]

I had a great dream the other night, it's in fact my favourite dream of my nearly 54 years of life. I dreamed that I worked for a business that lent electric wheel chairs to employees. One night, instead of taking the bus, I decided to borrow one to go home. It was not very fast, fast walkers and standard bikes were faster, but I thoroughly enjoyed being able to enjoy my environment as I never did before. Note that the scenery was more like "The Lord of the Rings" movie than my awakened little piece of suburbia. I mostly used pedestrian walkways that sometime had stairs but they weren't a problems, the stairs were low and wide enough for me to negotiate them without problems. When I got home it wasn't my real life little basement apartment, it was a two story house with an indoor ramp for wheelchairs. This was in every way very different from my usual dreams of me falling down and being unable to get up or being able to walk but not to ascend normal stairs because of being unable to lift my feet high enough to climb them. Or being totally lost in a building that my dream self navigates every day. It was outside, I never ever dream of being outside, I do not normally like to be outside during the day. (not at night anymore since a year or two but that's not what this is about). And the dream felt longer than any dream I ever had, it seems like it lasted hours. I'm aware that the duration of a dream is an illusion (or thought I knew but one the fact in this video seems to disagree) but I never had one that felt that long. It's only one dream but I wonder if that radical change in dream scenario might be related to some negative issues I that happened with my mental health recently, i.e. beyond my anxiety issues. I experienced exploding head syndrome twice in the last couple of weeks (look it up, I did not know about it before I first experienced it) and I feel like the year keep switching between 2016 and 2017. That last one bothers me a lot more, I'm weirdly happy that I'm thoroughly a skeptic and believe I'm sick, not time traveling.

[@AbiSaysThings]

I don't tend to have recurring events in my dreams but just entirely fictional locations that I keep coming back to

[@sakura9400]

I had a dream last night where a plague of sorts had destroyed the lives of many, and in fear many people turned away from logic and concluded that the unexplained misery had to have been caused by the House Elves misusing their magic. They were like the House Elves in Harry Potter but really ugly and they couldn't talk as well because their throats weren't properly formed, and the people thought they couldn't talk because they were stupid, too stupid to possess magic, and in said stupidity couldn't control their magic and were unintentionally causing the plague. The peoples' solution to this was to kill all the House Elves, so there was a war of sorts, but an unfair one because the House Elves weren't as powerful as us, even with magic. A few people stood forward to defend them, my dream self included, and we were treated unfairly for it. We understood that the House Elves were actually quite intelligent, and kind, and all they'd ever wanted to do was help us people. Those of us defending the House Elves met in secret, taking classes set up by an old teacher of mine. She thought us how to use letters, typography, and colours to conjure magic. Then I woke up. *Shrugs*

[@Coyoteari]

One time when I was really little I had a dream that Spock was my father. It wasn't even that my dad turned into Spock, or that I was in space. He was just standing in the living room and I had that automatic "dad" response you get when you look at your parents. It was really weird

[@Yui714]

Up until relatively recently, my dreams were always staticy like old SDTVs and they were in roughly 24fps. This is likely due to high levels of SDTV exposure in my lifetime. Even in reality now I make an effort to notice more frames of motion - feels like I'm training my brain.

[@hayhayeht]

I never thought that some people dream in black and white... Anyway, my weirdest dream was when I was an elephant, with other elephants at an arrow shooting range. We played against Chuck Norris, and when he shot his arrow, of course it touched the center of the target, but with so much force that it concentrated and the arrow and the target fused together. This "thing" gained so much energy that its mass increased while its volume decreased, ultimately creating a black hole in which I was sucked. It looked like a fall through the 4th dimension, with bright colors and everything. Then I emerged as a baby and I woke up.

[@Apledore]

I've always had incredibly vivid dreams, but only one nightmare; a demon was just about to attack me, and I knew I wouldn't be able to stop him. When I realized the dream was going sour, I told myself to wake up, and I did - pouring sweat. It was weird. Usually if there's a strong emotion connected to my dream, it's frustration over some mechanical item not working right. But sometimes I have a dream that makes me wake up intensely happy and content. I love those days.

[@TheBillymybob]

I personally think that Men tend to dream of Men because of competition. I remember reading something on the internet saying that dreams tend to simulate situations in the future so we are better prepared to handle them. This would explain why the mothers of new borns have more nightmares and why males dream about males. I know someone who plays a rhythm game called Osu! basically professionally and I just asked him if he ever dreams about the game and he said "More often than I think is healthy." I wonder what would happen if we could remember all our dreams and how accurate they might be to real life...

[@Lizabeth1423]

Why do people forget dreams? More precisely, why do some people feel like they never dream because they can never recall them? I live the majority of my life sleeping and when I wake up, it feels like it was just a blank void. If you could possibly address this, I would be so appreciative! Btw-- John Green I love you!!

[@AccidentalNinja]

Precognitive dreams could also be your own mind putting together various factors that happened & making predictions.

[@xedocat]

I remember some dreams so vividly that I remember going to my grandfather's funeral, and I believed that he was dead for 10 years. I only recently learned that the memory was just a dream.

[@Netbug009]

Dang, Fact 01 explains a lot for this gamer.

[@alisea1911]

I have a recurring dream that, despite being in college, I find out that I technically never finished high school and have to go back to high school and start over from there. I have this dream at least once a month (sometimes 3 or 4 times in a month) and this has been going on for several years. What the heck does it mean?!!

[@tenebraequeene]

Alise A I have dreams similar to that. But in them I HAVE finished schooling (only highschool cause I never went to college) and I had to go for another three years. Only I get fed up by the first year and storm out of the school because "I don't even NEED to go to school anymore!" as my dream self would say xD I have had these dreams for the last 6 to 7 years ever since I graduated HS to this very day. I have a dream dealing with going back to school nearly once a month! I think my subconscious just misses school...

[@828Carey]

I also have this recurring dream. In it, I often don't know the layout of the school and get lost and/or I'm running very late and have missed a lot of class. Weird.

[@PompeyEyre]

I literally have just woken up from a weird dream which featured John Green! I dreamt my camera was stolen by these 3 guys, and I was able to chase after one and tackle him, finding out who the other 2 were and where they were headed. Jump forward to me happening across the Green brothers who were in a mall food court (both sat eating junk food) and they had somehow managed to stop the thieves. Hank gave me back my camera's memory card, but I was so nervous talking to them that I was fidgeting and managed to snap the card into a bunch of pieces. Meanwhile John was explaining how they had stopped the thieves and gave me back my camera, and for some reason a bunch of candy that looked like beads (the sort you find on little girls' necklaces and friendship bracelets)

[@tenebraequeene]

Also! How about next have a video on "25 facts about memories"?

[@pancreasnostalgia]

I recently had a dream that my large intestine eviserated from my body and Derek Hough from Dancing With The Stars helped me take it's pH and then got me to the ER. This was more exciting than my reoccurring dream that I'm in a bookstore and spend the whole time reading a book from a specific series.

[@VoidPetsBack]

In any or all dreams, I can bail from a dream just by lying down, closing my eyes for a few seconds, and when I open them, I'll wake up. So when the situation in a dream gets bad, I just hit the floor and wake up.

[@britneyhicks1211]

Omg, John is the only person I've ever heard say "rem" instead of R E M. I've always said it that way and wondered if I was saying it wrong.

[@skeeterboom]

I once had a dream about plastic talking alligators in a fountain pond eating Doritos. I still marvel at the weirdness of my brain and it coming up with that even now, years later.

[@tobiasjones1721]

Hey, there. I heard your interview on NPR this weekend. I assume you're that particular John Green anyway, so Kudos to you, sir. Great interview! Have a splendid day!

[@madelaineparry5386]

I used to have recurring nightmares about being kidnapped, so my friend got a dreamcatcher for me for my birthday. I absolutely did not expect it to work at all, but I immediately stopped having nightmares. Do dreamcatchers work for you guys?

[@TheSeaofScience]

Once, my mother dreamt that she had my father look after me and my sibling, but he ended up losing us. She kept asking him where we were until my grandmother, who had died in 2001, said from heaven, "they're with me".

[@portieay8137]

I once had a dream where a giant robot was chasing me down the road. Before it started chasing me, I was surrounded by cats. That was a strange childhood dream

[@tigerfanfrv]

I woke up this morning in a panic because i haven't paid my rent on my London apartment. um, i don't have an apartment in London. I was there for 5 days 3 years ago.