I can't remember my dreams anymore with regularity. Its like I remember the mood of whatever it is I am dreaming about, but the details evaporate as I become more awake. I know when I have bad dreams because I will clench my teeth at night and won't feel as rested. I know when I have pleasant dreams because I can feel the mood.
I'm not big in to Freudian psychobabble, but I do believe there is some justification to analyzing dreams, much in the way Archer describes. At the same time, I think people can also read way too in to them. Our minds never really stop. The brain has to be thinking about something and I have little doubt that dreams are every bit as important physically as sleep itself is to the body. Its probably a regulating mechanism.
The thing is that I used to be able to recall my dreams often. I'm not sure when it stopped because it probably happened progressively, but I can't remember it as soon as I am awake. The times I remember most is not during REM cycles, but during the moments when I'm close to waking up. So if I slept 7 hours, at the 5th through the 7th hour I am more apt to remember it. But when I am fully awake, they are gone -- like it never happened, even though I know it did.
I don't know if its because of the military, that I now possess the ability to wake up and be ready very quickly, or if it is an avoidance issue, like some sort of cognitive dissonance, but I wouldn't mind remembering my dreams again since what I do remember of them are extremely Dalian or MC Esher-esque with doors that lead out to rushing water that is stationary.
“There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the 'wisdom' of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men: the solution is a technique; and both, in the practice of this technique, are ready to do things hitherto regarded as disgusting and impious" -C.S. Lewis
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