DREAMS

“I’m walking through a forest...”

Initials: SA
Age: 54
Date: May 3, 2021

I’m walking through a forest, and I don’t feel like a human. I feel like an entity of some sort, and there’s birds, most notably ravens cawing. I’m just kind of floating along, and there are sunflowers, which is strange because sunflowers don’t usually grow in the woods. But one of my mantras in life is that if you plant something, it will grow, no matter where, beauty is gonna find its way. So, I saw sunflowers, and I stopped to smell the sunflowers, and then I saw all these other little beings around me, and then I realized that I was a fairy, and I was in the wooded forest with my fairy friends, and then I woke up. It was beautiful. We were happy, and it was where I wanted to be. It was where I wanted my mind to go to relax.

“I was climbing a tree in order to see...”

Initials: AH
Age: 34
Date: February 1, 2021

I was climbing a tree or maybe a ladder in order to see over the roof of the house. I saw massive tornado forming. Then there was a huge explosion. Trees were bending. The destruction was heading towards me. I looked around where I was and saw that buildings had caught fire. Embers were shooting out, and the buildings were melting into oblivion. My mother was with me in my house. "This is the coronavirus apocalypse," she said. "The new strain." So we held each other and waited to disintegrate.

“I was doing the breathing technique...”

Initials: TH 
Age: 56
Date: September 10, 2020

I dreamed I was doing the breathing technique you taught me. Inhaling through the nose and out the mouth. Let’s go.

“I was just swimming with the killer whales...”

Initials: NP
Age: 28
Date: January 27, 2021

I was just swimming with the killer whales, and there was a mama and a baby, and the baby was nudging me. The mama was a little bigger in the background and didn't come too close to me. I was rubbing the baby, and it was cooing, and then I woke up. I guess it must have been intense because my heart rate was really going off into the 130s.

“We are all at a nursing convention...”

Initials: SM
Age: 29
Date: January 27, 2021

We were all at a nursing convention fruit tasting in Las Vegas. It was an all-nurse dream. One of my nurse co-workers was the getaway driver like in Baby Driver. Another of my nurse co-workers sampling the produce at Whole Foods by biting it and putting it back.

“I was at a summer camp...”

Initials: SM
Age: 33
Date: January 27, 2021

I was at a summer camp/Disney World with a massive crowd of students, helping to place them into programs. I started screaming at them after the sudden realization that none of them were masked. No one was listening. There was lots of music and noise.

“We used to have big parties with hot dogs and potato salad...”

Initials: CB
Age: 52
Date: September 10, 2020

I dreamed of different times when we would go over there and eat with my grandparents and we would have a family get together. We used to have big parties with hot dogs and potato salad. She made this one tomato sauce dish called ribeye gravy. We enjoyed her cooking. And as we all got older we would get together with her kids. We would eat that and something she called squash patty. It was like a type of cornbread. It was good it really was. Fried chicken, lima beans. I really enjoyed those times. I was 12 or 13 at the time. I dream about that a lot. Since my grandparents passed away, it hasn't been the same.

“They said they were going to have to remove my legs and arms...”

Initials: KE
Age: 19
Date: January 27, 2021

(I'm here for transplant so someone is going to have to cut me open.) I had one where they said they were going to have to remove my legs and arms and cut me in half. In the dream I was just in a hospital, so when I woke up I asked my mom not to cut me in half and take my arms and legs.

“I was literally pouring light into my friend's head...”

Initials: SH
Age: 44
Date: March 13, 2021

I was literally pouring light into my friend's head. He used to be a skier and had some head trauma. Grains of golden sand or rain were falling from my head into his head while he was lying with his head in my lap in a grassy park.

“I was walking around for a long time...”

Initials: KC
Age: 28
Date: June/July 2020

At Publix I was walking up and down the aisles. The colors were all really bright and vivid. I forgot my mask and I was walking around for a long time but couldn't find one. I started breaking down and panicking and then realized it was a dream. I tried to wake myself up and couldn't.

“One of my kids did something crazy out of character...”

Initials: EC
Age: 42
Date: Mid-January 2021

I was driving to Texas through swampland in Louisiana. We were going over a big bridge when suddenly the ground was not underneath us. We plummeted into the water from 30 or 40 feet up in our truck. My daughter said, "I can't believe it. My whipped cream fell off my smoothie." "Look at us!" I shouted. "How could you be worried about your whipped cream?"

RESEARCH PLANNING AND HISTORY

Tina Mullen, Director, UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine: At UF Health we focus on creative engagements that support meaning making and the preservation of identity in those suffering from serious illness or injury. The Dream Registry was instantly compelling to me because of its beauty, simplicity and authenticity. It is exactly the type of creative engagement that provides a sense of connection and reaffirmation of self that we aspire to in our work.  In exploring dreams within the context of health, the rational disappears, we journey into our imagination and free ourselves of our conscious context, opening endless opportunities for storytelling and narrative. So, as our patients and staff and record their dreams in Gainesville, so too are patients at Harborview Hospital. Two hospitals at opposite ends of the country connected by dreams.

Andrew Hix, Writer in Residence, UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine: I love collaborating and exploring new ideas to engage patients, families, and staff in meaningful storytelling. Sharing our dreams connects us by inviting us to explore the rich inner lives invisible to us in our day to day interactions with each other. Since I have started asking others for their dreams, I have started to remember my own. I see myself reflected differently in the unfiltered images of my dream scenarios, and I love encouraging others to do the same.

“I am floating up to a neon sign in the sky…”

Initials: MM
Age: 30s
Date: July 5, 2019
Title: HOTEL in sky

I am floating up to a neon sign in the sky that said HOTEL. I look up at it and I realize that whatever the fate of humanity was before, something wittingly or unknowingly became dislodged from whatever it was going to be, and no one is going to be able to know, but it happened. And I felt a really strong feeling that something massive happened; nobody knows about it; here we are; and that's it.

“I picked up a baby…”

Initials: --
Age: --
Date: July 5, 2019
Title: Older than expected baby

I picked up a baby and brought it to my house in Florida. Then I looked at him and realized he was older than me.

“I was training to be a jockey…”

Initials: --
Age: --
Date: July --, 2019
Title: Crooked betting jockey

I was training to be a jockey, and I got caught and arrested for trying to place insider bets on the OTB.

“I was at a gas station in Canada…”

Initials: MR
Age: 48
Date: July 12, 2019
Title: Debit card conga

I was at a gas station in Canada. I left my debit card inside, and as I'm walking back out the Conga song is playing on a car going by. I get to the car, pump the gas, and when I get back in the car Gloria Estefan is still playing. So I'm jamming out to it and the cashier comes up and says, “Mr. R, your debit card!” In real life my nurse is giving me pills, calling for me in the same voice. It felt so real--I thought I was in that gas station. I felt a sense of awe like, “What's going on here?”

“This dream was kind of futuristic...”

Initials: LH
Age: 20s
Date: June 14, 2019
Title: Nanobot déjà vu

This dream was kind of futuristic. In the plot something was unleashed, and it couldn't be fixed. All of these nanobots in crazy one-minded electronic creatures were all part of this huge diabolical plan to end the planet. Most of the time I was with a mom and her kids. I have no idea who they were, but they were apparently my family in this dream. What was really strange was that I had a feeling of déjà vu the entire time even though I've never had this dream before. At one point I knew that if I looked one way, the nanobots would react, so I decided not to look that way. As the dream progressed, it was all going as I thought it would. We pressed a button on a DVD/VCR, and it shut everything off at the last second.

“Biscuits with sausage and grape jelly…”

Initials: BC
Age: 48
Date: August 19, 2019
Title: Food you dream about in the hospital

Biscuits with sausage and grape jelly….I dreamed of my mother in law’s biscuits. She’s meaner than my dog, but she makes the best biscuits.

“I was on a horse about to get into lane for the Grand National…”

Initials: BTM
Age: 31
Date: August 18, 2019
Title: It’s the journey, not the destination

I was on a horse about to get into lane for the Grand National. We started riding past the corporate sponsors, all men dressed beautifully in black suits with tails. My dad was one of them. I wanted to call out to let him know I was in the race, but I didn't want to make a scene on national TV. I felt like I wasn't going to win. I was determined to win, but I was a last minute replacement jockey, afraid of falling and hurting myself or the horse. I might even get trampled. In the middle of the horse race, the dream changed. Suddenly I was wearing a jersey and running a marathon. I was running through a really fun obstacle course in someplace with Gothic architecture like in Prague. I passed people from my past, both fellow runners and bystanders. I was feeling good, not getting tired, then all of the sudden my feet were stuck in the mud. I pulled myself through the gaps in cobblestone roads to get to the finish. I knew I had done well, maybe even Top 4, but then as I was coming around the corner, instead of the marathon there was this whole big crowd in a parade like at Disneyland. Had I lost? Was this it? There was no competition anymore, just people of all ages, and little girls in princess dresses, and everyone was skipping. I was disappointed not to win but relieved to be in another stage of the journey.

“I was trying to find a room that I could read in…”

Initials: CD
Age: 67
Date: August 6, 2019
Title: To dream, perchance to read

I was living (or staying) in a place that was a cross between a camp and sort of a motel-like house with a couple of people I didn't know. I was trying to find a room that I could read in without disturbing them, but I could only find a porch that had no light. I had an actual book, not an e-book, so I needed light. When I woke up I (still searching), my husband handed me the New York Times Book Review to look at!

“J sees groups of people standing...”

Initials: JW
Age: 7
Date: August 1, 2019
Title: The people don't talk but the girl sings

J sees groups of people standing and looking at him but not talking. Sometimes when he is sick he dreams of a girl that sings to him. She looks like a girl who sang to him in the hospital when he was very young. When he was "under the laughing gas" recently he saw parents and doctors as if they were in fun house mirrors.

“My partner was driving a big red aluminum toy car...”

Initials: TB
Age: 60
Date: August 1, 2019
Title: The joy ride

My partner was driving a big red aluminum toy car. I was the car’s hood ornament, and his daughter was sitting in the back seat. We were going down a hill really fast, and we had no brakes. What stood out was the vividness of the red car. As the hood ornament, I was doing the dancer yoga pose and telling him he needed to slow down. Even though we were out of control, the feeling was one of sheer joy. 

“I went to visit my brother...”

Initials: MC
Age: 32
Date: August 1, 2019
Title: The ill-gotten lazy river

I went to visit my brother who was living in a bizarre, super-tall skyscraper apartment building. When we parked our car in the parking lot, it was immediately towed. My brother had a fancy car. He wouldn’t explain what was going on with the parking, but he took us up to the rooftop to meet his friend, an older woman with a tropical bungalow and an elaborate lazy river cruise. She told us that she is the parking czar and that all of the $80 fees she collects fund her lazy river.

“I kept trying to get to the meeting…”

Initials: HJ
Age: 43
Date: August 1, 2019
Title: A funny thing happened on the way to the meeting

I kept trying to get to an important meeting I had scheduled for the next day. When I came out of my hotel room, I ran into my old friend from nursing school. She was wearing a prom dress, so I thought I had to wear a prom dress too. I found a dress and shoes, but I couldn’t get my bun not to look like a poop emoji. Then I fell down the stairs. My brother-in-law saw me fall and asked what brand of shoes I had on. I went the wrong way on a highway on-ramp, got lost, and ended up stranded in a furniture store due to bad weather. When I finally arrived at the meeting, someone told me I could not enter because nurses are not allowed. To be honest it was a huge relief.

“I was watching an animated Japanese film...”

Initials: OA
Age: 24
Date: August 1, 2019
Title: Underappreciated foreign film

I was watching an animated Japanese film at the movie theater. The theater was so full that my friends and I had to sit in seats apart from each other. The movie was a mixture of history and fantasy. I was enthralled, but a lot of people didn’t know what they were getting into and left when they realized the film was in Japanese. I signaled to my friends to join me once enough people left, but they didn’t notice me. They were eating chocolate soft serve ice cream in the back row.

“I was in Bridgeport at the factory...”

Initials: DPS
Age: --
Date: July 16, 2019
Title: Walking stick friend

I’ve dreamed I was in Bridgeport at the factory where I used to work. I would see people, but they wouldn’t respond. Then I would walk down the street to a clearing in a field where I would run into an old friend. He was not welcome wherever he went. After a while he would appear in later dreams as a walking stick and then would disappear.

We were in a theater...”

Initials: AH
Age: 32
Date: July 15, 2019
Title: Last day off in Scotland

We were in a theater. We were supposed to have plans for our last day off. A man was dancing with a woman. She seemed older, and her big, ornate dress with a feather made her seem larger. They were ballroom dancing. A woman nearby was looking through binoculars, saw them, and got very upset. Immediately the dream cut to a montage of a party the Duke was having at his auction house. It was on a boat, then on an island, somewhere far away. The woman who was upset was invited there, and the Duke said, "I was just dancing." Then there was a lot of shuffling about wondering if I was in the right place. The way we got to Scotland was to take a helicopter. Scotland was gorgeous with cool, salty air.

“I’m swimming in a massive shark tank...”

Initials: EH
Age: 26
Date: September 17, 2019
Title: I’m swimming in a massive shark tank

I’m swimming in a massive shark tank, around the size of a large parking garage. I’m wearing a chainmail protective suit and do not need an oxygen tank or flippers to move swiftly through the tank. I’m being bumped by shark noses and mouths, but don’t feel afraid as I know they’re examining me/are curious. I also know that I would be able to fight them in this dream if one were to attack me. The shark’s eyes reflect the small amount of light coming from the faint LED bulbs on the walls of the tank, and so their eyes are sometimes all I that I can see as I swim towards what I think is an exit. The next dream-scene begins and I’m sitting in the back seat of an Uber next to my mom. My ex is in the front seat next to the driver. We’re in a foreign country where English is somewhat commonly used but isn’t the native language. The Uber driver is conversing with us in English for the majority of the ride but begins to speak only in his native language as we approach our destination. The driver eventually veers off course down the wrong road. I call him out, saying that I bet he’s taking us a different way to increase the price on the ride and scam us for more money since we’re close to our destination. Then I wake up.