Thread: Unconscious Music Upon Awakening

Has anyone else ever experienced waking up from a dream, with a random, completely original song already stuck in your head? Because it happens to me occasionally, and my sister has also had this phenomenon. It's like your unconscious brain composes new music while you're dreaming about something else and then plays it back to you when you wake up. The content of the music also seems to relate to the mood/state of being you're in at the time.

I find this really strange and fascinating, so these days whenever it happens I quickly grab my dream journal, or the nearest notepad, and write down all the notes in the brief, repetitive melody before I forget about it like the rest of my dreams.


Here are a few songs I caught on paper and then made in FL Studio (music program):

Dream song 1

I don't remember what was happening or what I was dreaming about in that one, but it was the first one I wrote down. (I spiffed it up a bit with a beat)

Dream song 2

Not sure about this one either.

Dream song 3

This one is very specific. It was November 5th, the morning after election night, and in my dreams Obama came over a couple times for dinner, among other strange things. I recorded this song in piano, but it was actually orchestral in my mind, it was just that I couldn't find many good orchestral instruments on FL Studio for it. The highest few notes hovering above as I recall were an oboe, and there were strings in it. It kind of reminded me of Beauty and the Beast.

Dream song 4

This was the most recent that I wrote down, about November 24th, after a strange nap as a result of a huge peach/mango flavored water bottle full of aspartame, which I know is bad but I drank it all anyway. I could sense how it was messing with my brain, so I'm not surprised how weird and creepy this song sounds. It matches the state I was in pretty well.

i do this except i write poems and lyrics in my mind instead of musical notes but they are sometimes accompanied by music my mind makes. i have six poems i have written down and i memorized most of my songs.

This only happens to me with songs I already know. I often wake up with songs in my head, and sometimes they are ones that I haven't heard in years.

I do this too. It might happen more to musicians. There is a long history of music artist being inspired from their dreams music, dating all the way back to ancient aboriginal tribes. Our minds are made for music, and why shouldn't our dreams inspire us to create it?

I TOTALLY LOVE THE 4TH ONE!
Sounds kinda interesting though how it sounds creepy and sounds like you might have been nervous in your dream!

Narbizzle is correct, in fact I remember my friend telling me one story about how this one famous violin player had a dream about the devil playing a completely beautiful violin song, so he wrote down as much of it as he could (he forgot some parts unfortunately) and ended up playing the song, however he never officially released it onto a CD, he only posted it on youtube because he was afraid of somehow associating with the devil if he did officially released it.

Neat, huh?

Since we are on this kind of topic, I my self am considered an "artist" yet I never seem to have any dreams of me drawing anything. I do remember one time that I had a dream about some song which I REALLY liked and made up in the dream but upon awakening I couldn't remember how it went.

I've experienced almost the same thing. Last week I woke up after having a dream of playing a piano piece I had never heard before, but I couldn't actually hear the song as I woke up, I just had the image of me pressing the keys engraved in the back of my eyelids. Unfortunately, by the time I had gotten up and to the piano, I had already forgotten the song. (not that it was anything spectacular, but it's still a shame) I've also played a song I've never heard in a lucid dream, but had forgotten it by the time I woke up.

Those songs you put up for download are amazing, by the way. I absolutely love number 3 - it really makes me wish there was a "full" version of it. I've been listening to it for a while now and have no intention of stopping. =P

Ive had this happen to me many times before. It happens most often after Ive fallen asleep listening to my ipod the night before. But this happens all the time even when I dont.

Originally Posted by Corpse

I TOTALLY LOVE THE 4TH ONE!
Sounds kinda interesting though how it sounds creepy and sounds like you might have been nervous in your dream!

Yeah, I was on a big Thanksgiving vacation and had a lot of excitement, stress and uneasiness going on. The only image I can still remember from the dream was a huge, fiery semi tank explosion along the edge of a cliff at a mine. All the dreams felt pretty violent and unhinged.

Narbizzle is correct, in fact I remember my friend telling me one story about how this one famous violin player had a dream about the devil playing a completely beautiful violin song, so he wrote down as much of it as he could (he forgot some parts unfortunately) and ended up playing the song, however he never officially released it onto a CD, he only posted it on youtube because he was afraid of somehow associating with the devil if he did officially released it.

Neat, huh?

Wow! That sounds awesome. If you could, could you tell me who the artist is or show me that YouTube link?

Since we are on this kind of topic, I my self am considered an "artist" yet I never seem to have any dreams of me drawing anything.

I draw too, but dreams never work that way for me either. The best I can do is usually have a scene ingrained in my head and draw it as soon as possible. That's kind of the same thing for the music.

Originally Posted by Smarties

Those songs you put up for download are amazing, by the way. I absolutely love number 3 - it really makes me wish there was a "full" version of it. I've been listening to it for a while now and have no intention of stopping. =P

Aw, thanks. I really like it too, and it was during an inspiring event, that's for sure. I wish I could compose a full version, but I'd have to wait until another dream induces more verses of the song (or whatever you call it in musical terms).

I found it!
Here's what my friend wrote:

Tartini allegedly told the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande that he dreamed that The Devil appeared to him and asked to be his servant. At the end of their lessons Tartini handed the devil his violin to test his skill—the devil immediately began to play with such virtuosity that Tartini felt his breath taken away. When the composer awoke he immediately jotted down the sonata, desperately trying to recapture what he had heard in the dream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kv7sh-rDFs

Tartini lamented that the piece was still inferior to what his sleep had produced. He declared he would have broken his instrument and abandoned music forever if he could have ever reproduced it exactly as he had heard it- for there would have been nothing else to do in the world of violin music.

Although "The Devil's Trill" is easily Tartini's best known work, he never published it- some claim for fear of the Devil, whom he believed to be the sonata's true author."...

Oh yes, it happend just last night when i was trying to sleep. I was hearing theme songs in my right ear only, it was low but i heard it as if someone was playing it on a cd really low. But the thing is, i could actually control the music most of the time, I could hear the music very clearly. But i know there was no radio on because i'm the only one in my apartment.

I did once have a complete orchestral song in my head while I was falling asleep. I've never imagined a song that was more than just a melody.
Thing is, it was consistent with all of my regular thoughts: chaotic and never does what I want it to do.
I forgot how it went though.

I have done that a couple times. I go to bed (and drive) with a voice recorder to easily record such moments. Unfortunately, I play music by ear. I can neither read nor write music so the voice recorder is the only way I can preserve my creative moments.

When I was a kid, I wrote a LOT. It was most annoying, lol, because the inspiration for the stories were always dreams. I would dream each step of the story and the dreams wouldn't stop until I finished the story. That would be fine if they were ordinary stories, but I wrote horror. Sarthaz, the beast (a dragon/bear like monster/demon) haunted my sleep every night for about 6 months.

(I like the 3rd dreamsong the best- you're very talented )

These songs vibrate the very essence of my soul, I can tell what was on your mind while creating them. When I hear the song, I have this strong feeling that washes over me, and I felt in tune with it. I have the strongest connection to the 3rd song. I wish that you would continue dreaming and finish these pieces!

Thanks, Androxity! That's the biggest compliment I've gotten for practically anything!

Last night (or rather this morning), I dreamed that my mom's boyfriend was playing classical music on the piano (which does happen in real life), and while I wasn't able to get a whole song of this in my head between sleep and awake, I at least got a last part of it. Only instead of piano like you can hear here, I think the main notes were a violin and the chords were little tinkly music box chords.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/lgm4dj