Significance In Thai Dreams

This might be a long one but please bear with me.

My Thai wife keeps on coming up with all sorts of weird and wonderful interpretations of dreams. I mean, they are totally off the wall. Personally, I have no religion, don't believe and am not really superstitious. I do, however, have tolerance for other peoples' beliefs and religions and the last thing I would do is laugh at my wife's interpretations of her or other peoples' dreams (I'll get back to mine later). Having said that I try to keep an open mind, after all, Far Eastern culture seems to be generically more superstitious and attributes far more to dreams than we do in the West and they can trace their history back better and further than we can, at least, so I understand. Additionally, I am of the belief in the old adage that there is no smoke without fire. So, where does that take me?

"Nowhere really' is probably the answer.

If I were superstitious: this evening I chose to watch for the second time at home 'Knowing'. Not a bad film and almost imaginable apart from the alien intervention and the paradise for the kids and rabbits ending (in other words we may well all end up frying). Only just noticed that the date of that particular disaster, 19th October, is the same date as my birthday. So far so good. Whilst watching the movie I recalled that a couple of days ago I read in this very forum, that someone had heard and seen a pick-up driving around, here in Pattaya I believe, with a gloomy foreseeing of a tremendous storm happening on 12 June. Today is 15 June and there is one heckl of a storm brewing outside. Of course an inverted '5' can look like a '2'. I thought I'd take the time therefore to put pen to paper before it all gets too late.

Since I was a child I have had dreams and nightmares endlessly. Recurring dreams in one evening through segregated periods of sleep are common and my dreams are as real as I could possibly imagine they could get. I can more often than not remember them and if I had the inclination to write short stories I'm sure I would make a fortune. I put that all down to a vivid imagination and possibly some bad eating and drinking habits (I imply too late rather than too much) . Strange thing is though that on my father's side of the family there is a history of this, together with the sleep-walking, sleep-talking, etc. My father at least did not drink or smoke (nor take drugs). My young children demonstrate a similar phenomenon. I put this down to sleep apnea caused by hereditary physical attributes myself which is the most sensible scientific explanation of it that I have so far heard.

I would like to see my wife try and interpret my dreams but that is not what I have in mind. Here's the rub; strokes are a common cause of disability and death in older people - I won't even try and quote facts and figures. When I am awake nothing much panics me too much and I have a pretty cool head. When I'm asleep my nightmares pale into insignificance anything likely to scare me when I am awake and I cannot control them. My dad had several strokes and they ultimately contributed significantly to his passing away. He had them in his sleep and woke up without even knowing what had happened.

What if those strokes had been brought about by dreams? Does that mean my biggest nightmare is actually the very fact that I need to sleep? Never really worried me before but now that I am getting older and into that stroke prone age...

This will mean nothing to most of the people reading this but I would be interested in the views of those who have had or experience similar phenomenon. A non drug related cure for my dream problem would be a fantastic bonus. If it is too late for me then maybe my kids might benefit.

Thanks for taking the time to read this; troll I am not and this is a very real issue for me