January 19, 2022

What's the last thing you woke up from a dream yelling?

For me — and this happened last night — it was: "There's a reason there's a rule against jumping on the furniture."

I even said it twice. It was, apparently, an important revelation in the world of a dream of which I have no memory.

59 comments:

mikee said...

"Damn prostate!"

Dave Begley said...

Paging Dr. Freud.

Iman said...

“Help me Jesus!”

Night Owl said...

I didn't wake up yelling it, but I said clearly and calmly "why don't you use a knife?".

It woke me and my husband up. I had to laugh because the dream was about my brother smashing his hands into a birthday cake and that was my response.

Dreams are weird.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I've never woke up saying anything, not that I remember.

I did dream, last week, about a movie I had watched, before going to sleep. I had watched an 'Alien' remake, 'Underwater' (2020), with Kristen Stewart playing the part of Sigourney Weaver. I dreamt that I was there trying to get away from the underwater creatures, just like in the movie.

zipity said...


My dreams are usually about the photolab/studio my wife and I owned for 16 years.

Usually about running out of photo paper and chemicals due to me not placing an order to Kodak. Or running out of the white paper rolls we used for portrait backgrounds.

Although I never say anything out loud during them.

chuck said...

Reminds me of my high school latin teacher who fell asleep while grading and wrote "peanut butter sandwich" on one of the papers. She thought it was funny.

tim maguire said...

The only time I remember was many years ago, but I remember because my wife told me about it later. "The kitchen is the fastest room in the house."

Achilles said...

The last reported event of me yelling after a dream was decades ago. I think I was running from a movie villain when I was 6 or 7.

I wake up after dreams fairly regularly. But I don't yell during scary/stressful situations.

It sounds awful to have someone yell in the house at night while people are sleeping.

Achilles said...

mikee said...

"Damn prostate!"


So you just had to go win the thread with the first post.

Figures.

Andrew said...

"Let's go, Brandon!"

Yancey Ward said...

Mikee wins the internet for the day.

Yancey Ward said...

I don't really speak out in dreams that I am aware of, and noone has ever told me that I do. I do often startle myself awake when loud sounds occur in my dreams, and my response to this is different now that I have taken care of my elderly parents. My father, before he died was often falling out of bed or falling down roaming the house in the middle of the night, and that always woke me up, and even if I was dreaming it, I would have to go and check to make sure it was really a dream- sometimes it was, sometimes it wasn't. That need to get up had faded over the last 3 years back to what it was where I would listen for a minute and then go back to sleep, but a few nights ago my mother got dizzy and had to ease herself down into floor before she passed out at 3 in the morning and she had to take a shoe from the nearby shoe-box and bang on the wall to wake me up, so last night I had a dream where there was a large bang in the dream, and so I had to get up to make sure it wasn't my mother. It wasn't- she was sound asleep.

rcocean said...

10 years ago, started yelling in my dreams. Always trying to warn people of some danger. Figured out my tolerance for rich sauces, especially tomato sauces, was gone. Stopped eating those rich red sauces on my spagetti or pasta, and my Yelling went away.

rcocean said...

BTW, if my cat or dog appears in my dreams, its almost always because they hopped into bed with us, during the night.

BG said...

Before moving to our current address, we moved into my husband's old family farmhouse temporarily after selling our house. He worked second shift so came home late. I was sleeping in our bedroom and as he crawled into bed, I was dreaming the floor was collapsing. I jumped out of bed screaming, "I have to get out of here!" and plastered myself against the wall.

rcocean said...

Notice that no one cares about Freudian dream analysis anymore. No more witch doctor psychology.

Birches said...

I don't ever say words out loud when I dream, but I do scream. I sometimes dream there's a guy standing over my bed. I always scream out loud. My poor spouse.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Never done that to my certain knowledge, but a few months back Mrs. NorthOfTheOneOhOne came scurrying out into the kitchen, half asleep, to tell me there was a bear in the kitchen.

AZ Bob said...

Could the dream have been prompted by yesterday's post?:

"My sense is that a law or regulation is at best an opening bid. Is it binding legally or morally? Maybe ..."

Rollo said...


That's a mouthful. Most of the time it's just, "Nooooooo!" and by the time one stops screaming, one has forgotten what one was saying no to.

Ann Althouse said...

AZ Bob

I thought about that. It’s weird to be so concerned about rules and their justification.

Old and slow said...

My wife was on a morphine drip after a c-section when she suddenly opened her eyes and said very seriously "I can't run this circus all by myself!"

Ann Althouse said...

My most common yelled-out line is “Get out!”

It’s always that I am detecting someone breaking into the room I’m in.

reader said...

I don’t wake up saying things. I have been told that I’ve screamed that the cabin is on fire as I ran down the hallway of our house. I have also stated that the tools in the crib are covered in wax. According to my husband though I mostly just giggle.

Wilbur said...

I'm unaware that I have ever spoken in my sleep, much less yelled something.

I've always been a very sound sleeper, only needing 5-6 hours, and never remembering my dreams, at least after a few seconds pass.

My sleep is a bit more intermittent, though, as I enter my so-called golden years. Yes, the prostate plays a role in that.

Temujin said...

That's pretty hilarious, Ann. Something that harkens back to your upbringing, perhaps?

I dream heavily and I actually do have some dreams that repeat. Not daily or even monthly. But every once in awhile over my life I've had some dreams- or situations- repeat. As for waking up and yelling, there is one thing that I do very rarely. But again, it does happen, only this one has a much longer gap between instances. Like years between 'events'.

I'll be awakened by this horrified, guttural, otherworldly sound coming out of my own mouth. And I am always the last one within earshot who is awakened by this. So I am typically in this deep dream, and obviously a very stressful situation (monsters, blobs, Democrats...something) and from the background of the dream I hear this other worldly noise...and I wake up to see a face- or in some cases- faces, staring at me as the last weak remnants of the otherworldly sound sneaks out of my mouth.

The funniest was back in college. I had been at a party at a friends house in which a number of us just crashed there. I was sleeping on the floor of a room, with two other people sleeping on sofas above from where I was. I woke up to see two horrified faces staring down at me as this last sound came out of my mouth, and I just burst out laughing. It was a memory I'll never forget. The looks on their faces of pure horror. Like they were witnessing a live demonic possession. It was classic. I still laugh at the thought of it. I'm a long-time practical joker and this was better than anything I could have planned.

zipity said...


My in-laws told me a story about how she dreamed there was a car coming at her, and the lights got brighter and brighter, and then went out.

Turns out their cat was tapping on their 3-way touch lamp, turning it on, brighter, brighter, and then off.

Calvin said it best.

https://i1.wp.com/www.jadewalker.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/strange-dreams-1.jpg

Linc said...

I believe that dreams are just screensavers for the mind, so what you said aloud is just something your mind is getting rid of.

retail lawyer said...

"Thats felony murder" after a harrowing nightmare that took me minutes to recover from.

reader said...

I have had a repeating type dream for decades. I call them my counting dreams. I’m being chased by a man that I don’t know and can’t see and I always have a number of some living thing - 5 puppies, 3 toddlers, 7 bunnies and I need to keep them safe as I run away from/evade the man. I might be on foot, on a train, driving. I spend the entire dream repeatedly counting my group of whatever to make sure I haven’t lost one. I always wake up exhausted after a counting dream.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Old and slow said...

My wife was on a morphine drip after a c-section when she suddenly opened her eyes and said very seriously "I can't run this circus all by myself!"

My wife had to be sedated for some dental work a while back. After it was done and I had gotten her in the car to head home, she turned to me and said; "I don't even remember going into that restaurant!".

theCase said...

At best I mumble unintelligible gibberish, but I do dream about writing SQL (computer code) a lot. I wake up and say "Eureka!, an inner join back to the same table with a MIN function will work!"

Nah, I really wake up and say "that was stupid".

Mark said...

I don't really talk much in my dreams, much less upon waking up, if ever.

In most of my dreams, I'm on the move -- driving or running or walking.

Mark said...

For a time, when I was on a certain medication years ago, I had a lot of really vivid dreams, some where in the middle of them, I knew I was dreaming and if I got into danger, I could intentionally wake myself up.

tim maguire said...

reader said...I always wake up exhausted after a counting dream.

Sounds really stressful.

gilbar said...

i seldom wake up screaming... i'm a sound sleeper

as Heinlein said...
I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather;
not Screaming in Terror, like his passengers

Rosalyn C. said...

I've never shouted out during a dream or woke up yelling.

I do have a reoccuring dream for many years where I am traveling in an unfamiliar and very highly developed city (always some place different in each dream) and I am trying to find my way back home or back to my hotel but I have no frame of reference, no knowledge of the transportation system or familiar landmarks. I don't know the name of the place or any street names, etc. Imagine being dropped into a place you've never been before and being completely lost. Extremely disconcerting to say the least. I keep suggesting to my subconscious that I will dream that I find my way back, but it hasn't happened yet.

gilbar said...

There WAS this One Dream; that i had once or twice... When i woke, i chanted:
‟Seek for the Sword that was broken:
In Imladris it dwells;
There shall be counsels taken
Stronger than Morgul-spells.
There shall be shown a token
That Doom is near at hand,
For Isildur's Bane shall waken,
And the Halfling forth shall stand”


it creeped me out, 'cause it made no sense. Who's DOOM? and What Good is a broken Sword?

Unknown said...

I woke my wife up saying very loudly, though not yelling, "Austria? Austria? Australia!" in a terrible Australian accent. No idea of the context.

Bruce Hayden said...

Married to women who have vidid dreams. They both are sensitive to the paranormal, and consciously reject it. Partner’s mother embraced it. Did the cards for each of her 5 kids, and gave her middle kid (said partner) a name that essentially means queenlike. I tell her that it was appropriate because my first name is the royal Scottish surname. In any case, she has gone through life always being the center of attention wherever she was, which was a problem, because she has always been an extreme introvert. Her mother also called out her major life challenges, including early widowhood.

I remember my ex waking up shaking in fright, sitting next to me in bed. Except that she wasn’t actually awake. Actually woke her up a couple times, but usually enough reassurances that she was ok were sufficient to get her to lie back down, and sleep normally. I was the one who freaked out a bit when it happened with my partner. Was it something about me, or were all women this way? I think the answer is the former - I have a type, and it is much more a personality type than a look (I think the GF between them probably fit in there too). In any case, one of my partner’s stories about growing up was that she would get up, out of bed in the middle of the night, to pee. And her parents would find her sitting up in bed, still asleep. Lasted until about kindergarten. Her next brother may have been worse - several nights a week sleep walking down the block to his best friend’s house, where he ended up finishing his night. That apparently lasted until he was maybe 7-8.

My ex explained her fearlessness in business to enduring what she experienced at night. I think for both of them, their vivid dreams were why they both rejected what appeared to them to be talent for the paranormal. My partner’s mother told her that being sensitive to it was a choice. Both these women chose against it, and that mostly worked, except maybe a half dozen times when my partner knew someone had died, before she possibly could have. Oh, then there was the house that she bought, after selling me the one she had been in, 20 years ago. She was in there about six months before she could sell it. Most nights, her first (long deceased) husband would come and sit on the bed with her to keep her safe. Turns out, the subdivision was supposedly built over an Indian burial site. Those dreams immediately went away when she moved.

tim in vermont said...

For Biden it was "What the hell is 5G and why am I only hearing about it today?"

Imagine if Trump had been the executive in charge of a cock-up of this magnitude. This is a US prestige damaging cock-up. We are supposed to have our quirks, but at bottom, know what we are doing.

tim in vermont said...

"They both are sensitive to the paranormal, and consciously reject it."

Yeah, ok, that's an interesting way of phrasing that they both believe in the paranormal. Hot women believe everything they think. It's from a history of almost nobody calling them out on their shit. Don't get Crack started!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Poldark -- stop it, that tickles!

rcocean said...

Hopefully, we'll all wake up, take a shower, and remember that Biden never happened.

Maynard said...

My wife tells me that I have night terrors and talk/shout in my sleep once or twice a week. I do not recall these incidents at all.

I usually have a hard time remembering dreams unless they are repetitive in nature. Many years ago, I often dreamt that it was the end of the college semester and I had not done any work in my classes. A few decades later, that dream morphed into thinking that I had never finished my Ph.D. dissertation although I was working in the field.

The dreams seem entirely real and annoying, but I don't recall them ever waking me or getting me to talk.

Jamie said...

Imagine being dropped into a place you've never been before and being completely lost.

My favorite (not really) recurring dream is the one in which I'm in my own house (not a version of my actual house, but a house that, in the dream, I know it's mine and that feels completely familiar) and I discover a whole sort of mezzanine floor midway between the front and back of the house and between the first and second floors, containing a fully furnished bedroom and living room, neither of which I've ever seen before. It's both intriguing and disconcerting.

Howard said...

The 5G mass hysteria creation of Covid isn't a dream. The Lab Leak is just a batshit crazy cover story. My CIA wannabe friends say they call this type a deal a limited hangout. That's why they are cancelling Joe Rogan, too. He knows. Well, basically everybody knows but are just too afraid to admit it.

Iman said...

“Number nine!”

Iman said...

Biden implodes at news conference

Rt41Rebel said...

Even though I retired almost two years ago, I have dreams almost every night that I have to return to work and face some untenable situation. The dream usually ends when I realize that I don't work here anymore, and I say goodbye to everyone and leave.

Drago said...

Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!

Baceseras said...

Three little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and broke his head
Call for the doctor the doctor said
No more monkeys jumping on the bed

exhelodrvr1 said...

Meade was unavailable for comment.

Leora said...

Sounds like childhood trauma to me. I was told I woke up saying I needed to see a mentist for moral decay but that was a long time ago.

Iman said...

I had a dream where I found myself leaving a party and ending up on the plains of the Serengeti with a rifle in my hands, no ammunition and two large lions with a laser eye lock on me. They began slowly walking towards me and my wife tells me I said “Help me, Jesus!” twice, only “help” came out “hep” and I sounded like I was in a Traveling Prayer Meetin’…

we had a good laugh about that one.

Bilwick said...

"The horror! THE HORROR!" I was dreaming of Hillary Clinton winning the presidency. But seriously. . . .

In a dream I had when I was a kid, a menacing tough guy/gangster type was looking in my bedroom window, and saying in a low, gravelly voice, "I'm McMann, and I ain't kidding!" I woke up repeating the words, and still feeling the sense of menace.

boatbuilder said...

Growing up, my bedroom window opened on to a porch roof which had about a 7' drop to the ground on one side, and about 15' on the other. I would sometimes sneak out that way as a teenager.
When I was in college I would stay at home during the summers. I was working two jobs, bartending and painting houses, and not getting much sleep.
My brother and I went to a friends house for a party. I had a couple of drinks, but around 10:00 I was really dead tired, and asked my brother to drive me home, which he did. I went to bed and passed out.
I had an extremely vivid dream that the house was attacked by some sort of armed and malevolent invaders. I awoke to find myself outside, on the ground, peering around a corner of the house, on the opposite side of the house, with bloody, skinned knees.
I had climbed out the window and jumped off the roof, while I was still asleep.
Amazing that I didn't kill myself.

Josephbleau said...

Sounds like a few people here have sleep paralysis. Waking up from rem sleep and not being able to move, and sensing some evil presence entering the room, usually trying to scream but only emitting a small bleep.