A little while after dinner last night, I started to feel achy and chilled and kind of light-headed, so I retired to bed. Where I had really spectacular fever dreams about... blogging. Somehow, I had come up with the greatest blog post in human history, or some such. I can't recall what it was, but it seemed brilliant when I was shivering under three blankets.
I think, perhaps, I need to get out more. For now, I'm going back to bed.
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That's funny. The same thing happened to me the other night, though it wasn't because I was febrile.
I am an aspiring fiction writer and in my dream, I came up with the most beautiful story that ever existed or ever would. It was reminiscent of the beauty of the crystal spheres aligning in the heavens. The story was so beautiful and transcedent that I was filled with something indescribable. I wept.
Then I woke up and all was lost. Only the memory remained that I had created something perfect, and now it was lost.
Many times I've observed or discovered something wonderful in a dream. Out of habit, I dream that I'm emailing a summary to myself. It's frustrating to awaken and not only have forgotten the details, but realize that there's no email awaiting me.
On the other hand, about a half dozen times, I've woken up, scribbled down madly what I can remember before it evaporates, and succeed in publishing the story, poem, or mathematical proof which I had dreamed.
Finally, I once woke up screaming from a nightmare. I told the nightmare story to my wife, and went back to sleep. She went to the Macintosh and typed it up, revised and edited it, submitted it, and had it published in Amazing Stories:
Dr. Christine M. Carmichael, "Twilight in the Western Isles" [Amazing Stories, September 1989]
I call your attention to "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" -- the famous novella written by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson and first published in 1886. As wikipedia summarizes:
"In the early autumn of 1885 Stevenson's thoughts turned to the idea of the duality of man's nature, and how to incorporate the interplay of good and evil into a story. One night he had a dream, and on wakening had the idea for two or three scenes that would appear in the story. 'In the small hours of one morning,' says Mrs. Stevenson, 'I was awakened by cries of horror from Louis. Thinking he had a nightmare, I awakened him. He said angrily "Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale." I had awakened him at the first transformation scene.'"