Sometimes I dream about losing AOE2 games (way more often than I win them) [1] and scream at night…
Also, psychedelics are “waking dreams” and I think nightmares are related to “bad” experiences on psychedelics, like, you internally believe “the world doesn’t want you to be happy” or “you don’t deserve good things”, which i think nightmares map to
(1) Bryan Johnson on X: “Weekly nightmares might predict premature death and speed up aging. A study found that weekly nightmares made people 3x more likely to die prematurely (before the age of 75). Here’s what they found and how to prevent premature death by nightmares. 
https://t.co/fI7TbGysO6” / X
I think part of the problem is that some people with (slight) bipolar tendencies have a tendency of wrecking their dreams (unfortunately this happened to me twice). Now that AGI/ASI is near, I know “interesting things will happen” (and random chance will give me good things) even if I don’t will them to happen, but historically I have sometimes yearned for the unrealistic (girardian desire), causing the inevitable clash where the dream destroys itself (and your career).
My real desire/dream, really, is to have total freedom and to be surrounded by super-smart/creative people, whether or not I’m competent/“accomplished” [interesting matters way way more]. Which I kind of already found a way to get, except I still hurt myself in two critical instances that still sting, and the trauma has caused me to not write on most platforms except for this where pretty much no one [other than the gpt agents] can read.
I don’t have truly traumatizing dreams - I generally forget them. Sometimes I scream only on the first night of sleeping in a new place. But I do think my tendency to dream of “bad things” more often than “good things” is more correlated with bad psychedelic experiences [as a result I took a long break]. It’s not just that dreaming of “good things” is universally good, but if you associate “good things” with things that can go badly really easily, they turn ALL “good dreams” into potentially “bad dreams”, and I once had a policy-gradient-modifying accident where I once acted out on a waking dream after getting egged into mania…
As AGI/ASI have shorter and shorter timelines, life becomes more surreal/absurd [and in a few people, psychosis-enabling], and a bit more like a dream [though DO NOT LET THAT DESTROY YOUR AGENCY]
My life issue (the real driver of my inattentive ADHD) has always been maladaptive daydreaming and I’m just trying to find ways of fixing it. Maybe TMS helps “fix” dreams too. Tiffany Thompson has some slides on this [slow-wave neurons]. Maybe they’re associated with higher insight/“mysticism” in some brains, but sadly my brain’s type of dreaming is too loopy/mode-collapsey to make this happen [unlike the high-resolution dreaming of Joel Simon/PicBreeder/Lila]. If life really is a dream, at least make the dreams less repetitive.
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maybe “nonwholesome dreams” is related to “daydreaming dumb things” too. Many of my daydreams are kind of degenerate and over repetitive things.
[1] I rarely play AOE2 now, but the game really infected me so much it got into my dreams. but losing isn’t an existential nightmare that actually feels terrible (oregon trail 2 has potential to give me far worse nightmares)…
