Toilet Until 2.45pm, Then Boardroom

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday May 15, 2006

David Higgins

SIGMUND FREUD would have loved Sydney. Last week our impromptu dream clinic revealed toilets were Sydney's major dream theme. Plenty of material there for the father of psychoanalysis, who might have judged us a city of anal-retentives, given the number of dreams about being caught with our pants down.

AB's dream was typical. "I dreamed I was in a shopping mall and had to go to the loo. There were no cubicles, just toilet seats all around the wall. Suddenly a woman came in and sat down beside me, totally unperturbed. I felt a bit embarrassed and looked away. Then a man came in and sat down on the other side of me. Those two people left suddenly and while I was still trying to wipe my bottom, all these people in smart business suits with laptops started coming in and sitting down.

"I noticed their seats were just chairs now, and I was the only one still on a toilet with my pants around my ankles. Suddenly I saw a big sign on the wall saying: 'Toilet until 2.45pm, boardroom from 2.45pm."'

Joanne has a recurring dream about "a huge room with a maze of toilets, all either broken, filthy, flooded, or doorless, and with other people all around. I want a classier recurring dream. Like, with flying or something."

The other major theme in last week's discussion was sleep paralysis.

"The first time it happened I thought I was dead," said Jamie. "However, I am used to it now. It's like I am paralysed or my body is asleep but my brain is awake. I try calling for help but no words come out. I try kicking my legs but they don't move."

Bruce dreamt he was "fighting against demons and in the dream I tried to make the sign of the cross and something stopped me. I woke up to find something pushing down on my chest and I could not move for about two minutes and I was wide awake. It happened again, but this time I heard a low growl. These days I wear a crucifix!"

Ethan identified this as "old hag's syndrome", a term used by Dr David Hufford, of the University of Pennsylvania, to describe the twilight state when we wake from a dream before our body switches on our muscle functions.

About a third of us experience sleep paralysis, according to Professor Al Cheyne from Canada's University of Waterloo (more information at http://tinyurl.com/6afe). Up to 15 per cent also experience a sense of presence or even a crushing sensation, as if a demon or "old hag" was sitting on our chest.

David Higgins

This week: Wikipedia.org lists seven types of coincidences from life-saving (a last-minute change in travel plans heads off disaster) to tragic (a man is run down by a car he sold 10 years earlier).

Post your surprising coincidences at smh.com.au or email dhiggins@smh.com.au.