Dream Lovers

Those phantoms of the night, the incubi and succubi of our dreaming hours, what are we to make of their capricious visits? Is it a longing unfulfilled or just a trick of our over-active imaginations? That these scenarios of exhilaration, copulation and depravity can coexist with the minutiae of the mundane makes them even more improbable. Images of nakedness and sexual activity in school, work or public situations, often with ridiculous complications (an elderly relative as a spectator, trying to finish a test, being in a childhood situation, etc.) doesn't help either. There are also the true night-terrors, but that is a another topic.

Perhaps the sweetest of the dreams is a joyous coupling with an unexpected person- someone who, in real life, is not a person of interest or may even be somewhat of an antagonist. Is our sub-conscious trying to tell us something? Or is it just trying to make a fool of us later, when we try to act on these desires?

It has been said by many that the dream-state can be used to work out problems that face a person in daily living. Inventors often 'sleep on it' and awake with a problem solved. If only our love lives were so simple...