Thread: Dreaming of something i don't do for years

In my waking life, i use the train and the subway to go to work or other places. Everyday for the last 10 years. Before that, i used the train and the bus. I don't ride the bus for 10 years. So, why is that i keep dreaming that i'm riding the bus to go somewhewre? I never dreamt that i'm on the train or subway.
Has this situation happen to you? I mean, dreaming of something you don't do for several years instead of something you do everyday?

It happens to all of us, all the time. We tend to dream of things from years ago, and not of things more recent. A big part of the reason it happens is because of the way the mind uses dreams to help solve present problems, or rather to try to consolidate memories. At any given time you're going through issues - some big some small. When you dream your subconscious is trying to work through those issues and to figure out which memories from the day will become long term memories and which can be discarded (this is consolidating memories). And the way it does it is like this - it digs through your older memories for similar situations. Say for instance you've recently done something kind of uncool that hurt a friend and you feel like you betrayed that friendship to some extent, and it makes you feel guilty. In dreams you'll remember times from years past when you did something similar. Example, maybe when you were a child you felt like you had betrayed your parents one time, and that memory involved being at a particular relative's house. Now your subconscious may very well conjure up that relative's house as a setting for a dream, just because on an emotional level it links up with what you're experiencing now.

It's the way the subconscious works - it always tries to link up present situations with past memories. So often it will link together several different times from your past and it might include bits and pieces of setting from all of them.

Ok sorry to go so deep into psychology on you! But this is something I used to wonder about myself, and sine doing some reading about brain science especially related to dreaming, this is what I've learned. Just thought I'd share. Hope my writing isn't as incoherent as it seems like it is this early morning...

Nice answer. I don't mind deep psychology. Be my guest. And it was very coherent. Thanks.
Well, i guess, riding the bus made such a big impact on me that it "glued" to my subconscious. As i understood, maybe when i'm struglling with the situation of "going somewhere", my subconscious finds a long term memory related to this: riding the bus to travel to a place.

I still haven't dreamed of the house I've been living in for 3 years now, or the dog I've had for the last 2 years! Aside from a couple of times where they didn't really look right, it's like my mind is still trying to work out what they look like. Also, I noticed that when I was riding a bike for transportation for many years, I never dreamed of riding a bike - not until I stopped riding it. I also seem to dream mostly about people I hung around with years ago, and not any newer friends/acquaintances. Heh - and of course, I still occasionally have school dreams, when I've been out of school for a long time now. It's as if the past is much more real to the subconscious, and newer things are like ghosts, only taking on solidity with time. It can actually be very instructive if you want to understand why you had a particular dream to think about what images from your past showed up in the dream and how they might relate to any present situation.