Kevin's Watch

I've read statements by people claiming to have lived 1 to 200(?!) years in a dreamscape, to awaken from having slept much less than 1 to 200 years of real time. I've experienced time dilation in dreams, but nowhere near that scale.

What's your personal record for dream-time vs. waking-time?

I've had 2 dreams that I recall [one really cool, one scary as hell] that have covered @3 years, but most of mine don't cover very long periods.
I did have one of a different sort of time dilation...I was hiking near my hometown in today time while talking to a distant ancestor walking in the same place but long ago...don't know an exact "time-span," but his time was before white people were around, and I'm pretty sure traders were in my area by the late 15/early 1600's.

How do you feel when you wake up from a 3-year dreamworld? Like Rip van Winkle? (I don't actually know the RvW story very well...)

I ask because I have this stuff, calea zacatechichi, that reportedly intensifies users' ability to dream, and the "I dreamt 200 years of alien life" claim was from someone who had used the stuff. So I'm wondering how I'd feel on waking, if I lived an entire other life while asleep one night.

The strangest dream I've had along those lines is the one where I died (somewhere in my mid to late 30s, I think. I don't remember what caused it), was reincarnated about 16 years before my death, lived a completely normal life, then suddenly remembered my entire previous life at the point in time where I died in the previous life.

I wake up easily and frequently, so the dream probably wasn't any longer than four hours or so. I don't remember feeling any differently when I woke up.

I didn't notice anything different from waking from other dreams that I can say was caused by the time difference. I remember them because they were particularly high-drama/emotional dreams. Most of my dreams are quirky/cool [aren't everyones?] but not ordinarily intense, so I normally only remember then for a very short time/occasionally.

I don't have any kind of consistent perception of time on the few occasions I have dreams I remember. It's all pretty nebulous and changeable.

I've had dreams that have seemed to last hours but really took minutes, but I don't think I've ever had a dream that's encompassed a year, let alone 200.

Am I the only one who's thinking Jean Luc Picard in The Inner Light episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inner_Light_%28Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation%29

I mostly remember this episode for the tune he played on the flute at the end. But with regards to the impact of waking up after dreams that have covered substantial periods of time, it seems to me to be more about 'emotional investment' than 'duration'. In the Next Gen ep, the impact on Picard was high because he'd had a whole family in his dream life.

Not on the same level as Jean Luc, but the dream I remember most that covered a lot of time and left me feeling emotional, involved having written an entire novel. I struggle with plotting in real life and this book, even if I do say so myself, had a wonderfully intricate, yet logical plot. I remember feeling a mix of wonder and disappointment when I woke, particularly as all I remembered was that I was many levels under the earth and had figured out a way to configure a network of wooden planks so they turned and unlocked something. Which makes me think of Jeremiah!

I have had dreams that logically should have taken more time given what goes on. For instance, I somewhat recently (in the past few months, which is "recent" for me because I rarely remember dreams) had a dream in which I ended up on a starship and then was ejected into outer space, then drawn back in by earth's gravity and returned to earth safely. Yea, I didn't have a space suit on or anything. Also I was turned into a girl, probably not a hot one but I didn't get a look at myself. Anyway, the point is that even though one would expect the time in space to be quite prolonged were the dream a realistic dream, the whole thing was more a rushed sequence of events. I got just enough time to get an impression of being in space, being turned into a girl, etc and then on to the next thing - I wasn't given the opportunity to revel in what was going on. So it was a very short dream that "should" have been a rather long dream, IMO. I was cheated.

Shaun das Schaf wrote: Not on the same level as Jean Luc, but the dream I remember most that covered a lot of time and left me feeling emotional, involved having written an entire novel. I struggle with plotting in real life and this book, even if I do say so myself, had a wonderfully intricate, yet logical plot.

Heh...you reminded me of a third one that was time-dilated [in the dream it lasted a couple months of coherent story]
Somehow I was hired by Queensryche to write the sequel album to "Operation: Mindcrime." I convinced them to hire David Gilmour to join the band for it, too. Actually dreamed the recording sessions and everything.
In the end it was released on vinyl in a multi-set. with a negative-copy of "the wall" cover basically [white letters on a black wall]. First was a remastered "Wall," inside that a remastered "mindcrime," inside that the one I wrote [and in the dream I could read all the lyrics]. When I woke all I could really recall a piece of melody, and the album title "asylum counterstrike" one song title "Political Surgery."
Hmmm...now that I write it down, I can't recall if it all happened in one dream, or several related ones, all a bit fuzzy. I think it was all one. The recording sessions part was definitely all one long one.

I've had dreams that I swear took hours, but upon waking only 15 min or so had passed. I also had a long dream once of being chased, and chasing, and ended up with me walking up a hill, being directed by a man in a Civil War Union uniform to proceed on up saying, "He's right over there.", where Pres Lincoln was setting in a chair reading. I was approaching him on his left and he was starting to look up before I suddenly awoke, damnit.

Anyway, this time-dilated thread reminds me of H.G. Wells' story about a long dream over time....one of my favs.

en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Dream_of_Armageddon