Last night I believe I was having a good sleep. Then I dreamt that I was in the Botanical Gardens doing an "observation". (This is an exercise done during university study/scientific research/or on-the-job reporting. It would be unusual to have a couple of hours observation of plants because they do not move or grow quickly enough, but my sleeping mind did not question this. )
I had an assortment of friends with me, none of them had to do the observation, they were just there for fun and company. A few of the males left to shift their cars, because apparently you are not allowed to park in the gardens after a certain hour nowadays according to my dream. I thought my car was fine, being in a legitimate parking spot close to the front gate, but after a while I got nervous and jumped onto a small motorbike I somehow had around my person and rode out to where I had parked the car.
The car was not in its space. One of my friends said they had to buy a ticket and I saw cars out on the on-street parking alongside meters. I went to the office/kiosk and asked about my car. They did a computer search and said it had been towed. I feared the account would be $250 but apparently it was $73. I was thinking even that was annoying and possibly filling out an appeal when I either awoke or moved out of dream mode.
According to Scientists, REM - Rapid Eye Movement - Sleep is the fifth stage of sleep. During this stage the large muscles are very still but the brain is very active. This theory would be in accordance to my feeling I slept well, because I went through all five stages of sleep, including the very deep ones. REM Sleep or dream sleep is very beneficial, if one sleeps poorly they may not reach that stage and may not have dreams. Often we have dreams but do not remember. (See http://www.happynews.com/living/sleep/rem-sleep.htm for one explanation of REM Sleep).
While this explains the mechanism of sleep, it does not explain the content. In my dreams I usually have an assortment of people with me, some of whom I have not seen for many years. They all strangely know each other, even if in real life they came from different areas of my activities and never met. Their friendship with me always seems current and solid. I never have trouble recognising them or have to reminisce and catch up. They are just with me and there for me.... Most other things are variables, and I can not make any more generalisations.
Cecelia
