Despite what I’d heard from friends, sleeping with an APAP machine (like a CPAP machine) has not really brought on a welter of nocturnal weirdness: most nights when I sleep, I may dream but I don’t recall much, if anything. I’d say the frequency for my remembering dreams has risen from maybe once a year to maybe once every three months or so.
Last night was a little different, though.
I distinctly recall two specific dreams, both of which were weird in their own way.
The first was weird because I woke from it with a profound sense of déjà vu. It was a dream about a… school? University campus? I’m not sure, but it was some kind of educational institution’s buildings that had been abandoned at some point, and stood empty and in disrepair. I was at the rear of the main building, and a path led off to the left, down a hill, and into some woods. I knew that if I went down that hill, I’d end up in thick forest growth before the path turned back to the right and circled back up the hill and to the front of the building.
The weird part is: it’s not a real place, but I had this bizarre sense of familiarity with it. It felt as if I’d lived in the area for years on end, even though it was clearly not a place I’ve actually been in real life. That said, it kinda reminds me of the layout of the campus where I used to work and live up in Bucheon, especially during my first few years there, before a gargantuan new building was constructed right in front of the building I’m thinking of. Meanwhile, the path kind of reminds me of the mountain path I used to walk daily, over on the other side of campus. I think my brain mashed the two areas together and somehow, and that accounts for the sense of familiarity.
The other dream I recall was of my wife and me in Seoul, apparently before our son was born, trying to track down the World Saxophone Congress that was apparently going on in Seoul at that time. We ended up at a theater/arts complex (which I seem to have completely made up), asking for details and getting none, and our searches on our phones turned up nothing. (I assume that’s because the World Saxophone Congress has never been held in Seoul. Seoul made a bid to host it in 2025, but lost to Harbin.)
The weird thing is that with its heavy focus on “conservatory” saxophone (i.e. “classical saxophone”), I tend not to be that interested in the World Saxophone Congress. They do have jazz events or “sessions” but they’re sort of a side thing, from what I gather. Honestly, I’ve never been to a World Saxophone Congress (or even a meeting of the North American Saxophone Alliance) and I haven’t thought of either for many years now.
But from what I recall, I mostly just wanted to walk through the dealers’ room and see what neat stuff was for sale—which makes me suspect it was this Youtube video by Saxologic that stuck around in my subconscious and prompted the dream, months after seeing it—but anyway, my wife and I couldn’t seem to figure out where it was being held. We tried a few different ways and ended up giving up on it, much to my disappointment.
I’m not one for “dream interpretation” though I can pretty easily say how both of these dreams could relate to things going on in my life right now. (I’ve been practicing saxophone hard, but have plateaued in terms of progress, and the semester’s about to start at work.) I’m less interested in dreams that I can so easily interpret, though, and more interested in the off-the-wall weird stuff people seem to dream about. I think it’d be fun to have a little more surreal nonsense in my life that doesn’t matter—in contrast to the surreal nonsense that does matter. But, alas, the APAP machine hasn’t really changed much when it comes to that.