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Quote by Ottessa Moshfegh

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My Year of Rest and Relaxation

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Author

Ottessa Moshfegh
Ottessa Moshfegh

Ottessa Moshfegh is a contemporary American author known for her unique narrative style and profound psychological insights. Her works often explore themes of loneliness, alienation, and moral dilemmas in modern society. more

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“Chapter 5: What Dreams Are Made Of (page 47) One woman reported to me that she has, at times, had frequent sexual dreams in which a dream orgasm occurred, leading to physical orgasms at the same time. I suspect that these dreams were provoked by the flow of blood to her clitoris during REM sleep.”

“Chapter 5: What Dreams Are Made Of (page 51) Many years later, I read about the phenomenon of hypnopompic sleep paralysis. This phenomenon is rare, but many people have experienced it once or twice in their lives. And a very few people are tortured by it nightly. I have known several people to mention such experiences, all of them expressing the same fearful elements of the phenomenon. We can awaken so abruptly from REM sleep that our natural bodily paralysis hasn't yet had time to wear off. It can take some moments before full bodily movement is regained.”

“Chapter 5: What Dreams Are Made Of (pages 58-59) Lucid means clear, rational, or intelligible. During a lucid dream, the dreamer gains awareness of the fact that he or she is dreaming. This opens up many possibilities for the dreamer, including the capacity to deliberately direct the dream.”

“Chapter 5: What Dreams Are Made Of (page 59) Toilets almost always have some oddity about them in my dreams. I'm not alone. I've read similar reports from other dreamers. Upon encountering these toilets, my limited consciousness tries to make sense of their oddities. I fail to and am often left confused.”

“Chapter 5: What Dreams Are Made Of (pages 60-61) These toilets were odd because they were dream toilets and dreams are weird. My consciousness tried to make sense of their strangeness. That's all. My awareness led me to make changes to the dream. Would the dream, the one with symbolic meaning that represents something I need to learn about myself, have gone in the direction of a search for a working toilet if it hadn't been for either the need to urinate or the intrusion of my consciousness? Probably not. Does the confusion itself have any meaning? Again, probably not. So don't get hung up on trying to interpret the meaning of so many dreams in which you are confused. It doesn't necessarily reflect, as an example, confusion during your waking life. Examine the source of the confusion in your dreams to see if you can identify the intrusion of your conscious mind into your dreams. If so, then make a note of it in your journal after the entry for that dream.”