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Episode 118 – ADHD and Dreams – Do We Dream Differently?
50 Plays9 days ago
Hey there, welcome to ADHDville – the podcast where we embrace the beautiful chaos of the neurodivergent brain!
Your hosts Paul and Martin (ex co mayors of ADHDville) are both riding the combined-type ADHD train, and we’re here to chat about all the weird, wonderful, and downright WTF parts of the journey.
This episode? We’re diving into DREAMS. And not the boring ones.
Ever wake up feeling like your brain just ran a marathon through a Salvador Dali painting? Yeah, us too. ADHD dreams are next-level weird. Vivid, emotional, bizarre, and sometimes straight-up exhausting.
So why does our nighttime cinema get so… intense? We’re breaking it down – the science, the nightmares, the lucid dreaming moments, and why you might remember dreams that feel more real than your actual Tuesday.
We’re also sharing some of our own most unhinged dream stories (let’s just say one involves a royal scandal and another features a superhero complex). If your dreams feel like a Netflix series directed by a hyperactive squirrel, you’re in the right place.
Grab your headphones and join us. Subscribe so you never miss an episode where we make sense of the chaos, one brain detour at a time.
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Theme music was written by Freddie Philips and played by Martin West. All other music by Martin West.
Please remember: This is an entertainment podcast about ADHD and does not substitute for individualized advice from qualified health professionals.
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Transcript
Adjusting to Early Morning Recording
00:00:00
Speaker
Let go, blimey. Okay, back in the room. Oh, back in the room. Back in the room. Jesus Christ. It's 9 a.m. m It's 9, 19 a.m., and we normally record on in the afternoon for me. Yeah. So I'm i'm i'm still fresh fresh awake, which I guess it is ah is appropriate for this episode on dreamings. On the dreamings. Yes.
00:00:27
Speaker
um So this is going to be a bit of a mental struggle for me. But anyway, let's... I might struggle because I've just had lunch. So I've got a belly full of of pasta.
00:00:40
Speaker
Carbs. Carbs. Carbs. So I'm sleeping about half an hour. That's the effect carbs have on me. I'll like poke you awake if you start to doze
Host Introductions and ADHD Diagnoses
00:00:53
Speaker
off. Right.
00:00:54
Speaker
um let's Okay, so with all that, kind of poking tooky poking with all those caveats out of the way, ah let's go to a place where the distractions are landmarks so the detours are the main road. Welcome to an HD reel.
00:01:14
Speaker
Poking with a stick, poking with a stick Barting, poking with me, is the party, poking with me, is the big stick, carbohydrates making me very very sleepy Is it two?
00:01:30
Speaker
I hydrate, have a problem? Hello. Hello. I'm Jennifer Lawrence. And when I'm not picking up film awards for best female actress, I'm pretending to be Paul Thompson, ah with ah who who ah got diagnosed with combined a ADHD about two years ago.
00:01:53
Speaker
And I'm Neil Patrick Harris. um And when I'm not ah doing magic tricks and appearing on the odd a show here and there, like how I met your mum, I am tending pretending to be ah Martin West, ah who who was who was diagnosed with combined ADHD, poopy platter, in 2013 and we start off in our dream pub in the dream town of ADHDville and we're glad that you're here with us pull up a chair join us around our table yeah a chair a stool a pew
00:02:39
Speaker
Exactly, although we won't be hanging around here for long because you're going to have to kind of get your drink down, you, because we're going to head off to talk about dreams. Where should we go, Paul? Where should we go?
ADHD and Dream Experiences
00:02:53
Speaker
was thinking of going to the spa, Marty.
00:02:57
Speaker
Oh, that seems like a relaxing place to kind of like the spa maybe fall asleep. All right, let's jump in the tractor. Oh! oh reliable oh betsy fires up right dreams dreams and adhd pool good lord i you know what
00:03:35
Speaker
This is like one of the things where I did a bunch of of research on it, and then we were supposed to record on last Thursday, and then it kind of got pushed and pushed and pushed for various reasons. And then in that time, everything kind of sort of went away.
00:03:53
Speaker
it just drained away out of my head. Okay. Okay. Did it drain back again, or was it gone? I was trying to stuff, i was I was trying to get all my research off the floor and then stuff it back into my head earlier on. Right.
00:04:10
Speaker
So. Okay. Did it work? Well, let's you and i find out, shall we? We find out. Let's find out. Let's find out together.
00:04:21
Speaker
All right. Well, I think i think we can start off by kind of like saying and what dreams are. So I'll just kind of like just tee up dreams as as it were so we can just kind like settle in into this. So dreams are not like just random dreams.
00:04:40
Speaker
ah movies that kind of play in your in your head that they actually are a window into what's going on in your in your mind in your mind Freud used to keep a daily diary of his dreams Yes, I believe he said um that, well, I think that most of dream pych's psychology is still based on part of his stuff, which was that dreams are a reflection of your subconscious. um
Dream Theories: Freud and Emotional Processing
00:05:13
Speaker
Yes. i think that kind of
00:05:14
Speaker
i think I think we've moved away from all the symbolism stuff. Yeah. but yeah I've heard people say, um you know, like people talk about their tree. Some people say, oh God, it's so boring. this I was like chatting to someone the other day. and they're just like going on and on about their dreams.
00:05:36
Speaker
like dreams It's almost like they're taboo that you don't talk about your dreams. It's like in the 1970s, you didn't turn up at someone's house and showed them give them a slideshow of your holidays.
00:05:46
Speaker
right oh It's on that level. i think dreams about I think dreams are really bloody interesting, personally. Absolutely. ah it's Incredibly revealing.
00:05:58
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, like, um so, I mean, dreams are best understood as a conscious experience, i.e. when you're awake, of the brain's kind of offline processing work, crucial for memory and emotional balance, which, you know. Emotional balance? What's that?
00:06:18
Speaker
Well, yeah exactly. You see, and that's the thing. If you're like, or if you're ADHD and or autistic, what dreams do is is that they, well, one of the things that they do is they help process what's been going on.
00:06:35
Speaker
yeah um You know, like, ah so, you know, if you've had a sort of, you know, they help process your emotions. Yeah. that are going on at the moment. It's like having a little having having you have having a little a little therapist in your head for free. Totally, yeah.
00:06:55
Speaker
It goes, hmm, tell me more about your mother.
00:06:59
Speaker
yeah so you you know That's cueing a Thomas Dolby song. Oh, yeah, and I know. So dreams ah happen, ah you know, like ah REM, REM, the band.
00:07:16
Speaker
Apparently, according to my research, the band REM has something to do with sleep. but they're in No, hang on. Wait, wait, wait. No, REM, rapid eye movement.
00:07:29
Speaker
that's when that's That's the stage of your sleep when most of your dreams happen. Not all of them, okay but the ones that you remember.
00:07:42
Speaker
um And, you know ah one you know, some of the key characteristic characteristics are, you know, you know they – well, oh we don't consciously choose our dreams very often.
Emotions, Stress, and ADHD in Dreams
00:07:56
Speaker
No. um which Which is sad because ah i hope because if it was more like a Netflix – you know, like the – yeah, a more of a Netflix or or a or a a blockbuster – experience where you could just kind of go with your little into your dream thing go i think i'll dream about sausages know like yeah ah sadly you don't get to choose like your parents you don't get to choose your parents no no same dreams yeah i don't have dream parents either um but
00:08:33
Speaker
I couldn't possibly comment.
00:08:37
Speaker
you know Anyway, anyway ah dreams yeah are often sensory. So you know like you know they are primarily visual, but we can also like you know see or hear things and then they touch things. They they kind of like yeah they they yeah they involve all of our senses, which you know if you have issues...
00:08:59
Speaker
yeah that kind of That can kind of become heightened um from ADHD brain. ah Dreams often carry strong emotions, fear, joy, anger anxiety. And I think you know that's what we were saying.
00:09:15
Speaker
Anger. ah Yes. So, you know, part of it ah is um if you've got these emotions running around, you can actually experience them in a more of a safe way.
00:09:29
Speaker
so so okay so so you know, like if you're having a really bad dream, like a nightmare or you're scared or anxious, you know, um it can be like it's a ah it's a way that our brain is trying to um work through stresses. Okay. In the background, yeah. In the background, in um in a more safe way.
00:09:57
Speaker
yeah rather than, you know, um out front. and wait because that's My question is, okay, if you're thinking and cogitating, especially because most of your dreams you don't remember, right?
00:10:15
Speaker
Yeah. I think probably at least half of the dreams we don't remember. What is your brain doing on a subconscious level? Is there a level of training? You know, is it is there level with your you absorbing your dreams, learning by them, or whatever your reaction to those dreams are, is the brain reacting in some way and therefore being affected in some way by the dreams?
00:10:47
Speaker
yeah Yes. Or is it more superficial? I suspect not. I suspect it's not superficial at all. Right. There's no, there's never been conditioned by the types of dreams we have.
00:11:01
Speaker
Right. So in the background, our our little subconscious mind is like, is, ah well, and our brain is kind of using that dream time to kind of, to kind of ah process memories, you know, and because, you know, like we've, we have, ah you know, our memories aren't that, go aren't that, aren't that great. Our short-term memory Or reliable. They're not always of reliable. They're often just vastly distorted by our perception of how our memories are opportunistic.
00:11:40
Speaker
of how
00:11:45
Speaker
opportunistic
00:11:48
Speaker
Right. So it um it helps ah with all of that. So it kind of like tries to kind of order it all and um you know and and it will strengthen what it thinks are in in important memories and it will kind of like push down anything that it doesn't think is is actually important, which is kind of why you don't remember.
00:12:15
Speaker
Everything. There's a level of so subconscious suppression. Well, yes, you know you know, like you doing the dashes the other, you know, like 15 years ago on the 3rd of May, it won't it won't remember. all All of that junk just kind of gets like yeah pushed pushed away in your sleep.
00:12:40
Speaker
Dumped. Dumped. Because it's all in there somewhere, isn't it? it's Your brain is essentially a database. Yeah. yeah Yeah, but it it it doesn't have – it can't store everything.
00:12:54
Speaker
No, it can go crazy. So in your sleep, your yeah you' your dreams are part of ah that kind of like ordering what it thinks is good and what it thinks is bad.
00:13:07
Speaker
ah What about fever dreams? Fever dreams. That sounds like a song. um to <unk> and Fever. um Fever dreams.
00:13:18
Speaker
oh oh you Oh, you mean like when you're when you're ill, those kind special dreams that you have. My favorite dreams are fucking out there. They're out there.
00:13:30
Speaker
Weird shit going on. Yes. Yes. It is. i i think it's because your brain is... is trying to cope with what it thinks is like it's all going peat on. It's all going wrong. It's all. Yeah.
00:13:50
Speaker
if Everything is like on on fire. Your whole system is shot and it's trying to kind of like sort it out. And it's just it gets trippy.
00:14:03
Speaker
It gets essentially gets quite trippy, at least in my little world. Yeah. Quite trippy, LSD kind of effect, almost.
00:14:14
Speaker
Yeah, I know. i i I don't remember any of them. but i know it know but we're like oh you oh you Oh, you do? Yeah, I remember most of my dreams.
00:14:28
Speaker
o Even the fever ones.
00:14:33
Speaker
Any good ones? come on to that. Oh, yeah. right All right. All right. Okay. We'll come on to that. We'll come on to that. Oh, okay. but a little carrot for us.
00:14:44
Speaker
Yeah. um You know, like there is a ah part of dreaming. but yeah ah unit union You know, like if you've got like a test coming up or you've got ah an important thing coming up or you're trying to learn something and then you dream of that thing.
00:15:06
Speaker
Yeah. um You know, like you're... brain ah during dreaming can actually kind of like almost sort of role play and prepare for what might come.
00:15:20
Speaker
So it might think if you've got something coming up, like a pitch or ah something, and it and it's a de dis disaster, for example. yeah You know, like you're doing a pitch and you look down and you're not wearing any underwear or pants and it's like, oh, my God.
00:15:38
Speaker
Right. That's your your brain kind of right preparing itself for what it thinks might be a really what is the worst case scenario. So that if something bad happens, your brain has already kind of done a bit of... It's managing potential negative consequences.
00:16:02
Speaker
Yes.
Bizarre Dreams and ADHD
00:16:04
Speaker
So it's kind of helpful. In that way. Okay. All right. Okay. Which I like. Which I like. um ADHD is quite, and when you pull that into it, it's kind of quite interesting because that's because I believe, um you know, we our dreams tend to be more vivid, bizarre, and emotional. Right. Right.
00:16:33
Speaker
would you do you Do you feel like you have that your dreams are sort of vivid? Massively. when When you wake up, do you kind think, whoa, that was like a... I've got a certain reputation, Martin.
00:16:52
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. mean the third Earl of Windsor, with my reputation? Yes. Of having particularly bizarre and vivid dreams amongst my friends.
00:17:06
Speaker
like My friends say they've never had anything like as bizarre and wild and just out there. Nice.
00:17:19
Speaker
Yeah. i'm I'm looking forward to hearing some of these in a bit. um So do you, for instance, like for hey do you have the same reputation, Martin? Are they wild and and vivid?
00:17:38
Speaker
They are when I'm in them. And then I wake up and I'm mostly, they like evaporate away within like, Yeah, for me too.
00:17:49
Speaker
Like, they're just gone. um I mean, like, even even last night, um I was in... You know the film ma June?
00:18:00
Speaker
Yeah. um And the sequel Terrier June.
00:18:06
Speaker
The sequel. Terrier June... um Okay, well, obviously only i'm the eight eight i' need only Brits of a certain age will. Right. of that's ah That's a niche deep cut right right there.
00:18:25
Speaker
Yes. Oh, yeah. So the film, Jude, I was in June. Like I was film. Writing a worm. i was in the film but writing a wor But it wasn't the modern, no, well I wasn't, um unfortunately, I wasn't doing the big sandworm thing. I was in the David Lynch version that came out in the 80s. Now, I don't know if you've seen the David Lynch. I have, yeah. With Sting in it. Yes, it is.
00:19:01
Speaker
And i I watched it like a couple of days ago, which I think is is why I ended up in in in the David Lynch dune. But it is a bizarre film.
00:19:13
Speaker
It is off its chump. Right. I think i' I'm going to have to watch it because I i watched last week by cool like incredible coincidence, I watched the second part of June, the modern June. Oh, yeah. Last was week.
00:19:32
Speaker
Yeah. Nice, nice, nice, nice. So be good to watch the original. ah Yeah. Was it the nineteen early eighty s It's like 84 or something, some somewhere around there.
00:19:44
Speaker
But, ah ah makete ma mate, mate, mate, you cannot prepare yourself. I mean, i mean ah i mean ah i mean a David Lynch, right, he's got a – he is a filmmaker of – Yeah.
00:19:58
Speaker
He does – it is –
00:20:02
Speaker
Nuts. Visually, not it makes them the modern Dune films look very bland, I would yeah say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
Interesting fact about David Lynch that I heard last week. There's a lot of coincidences, Martin, if you're thinking about it. But anyway, fact factoid about about David Lynch. In the last 20 years of his life, even though he's incredibly famous and you know um um won a lot of awards, he's a really important film director in the last 50 years.
00:20:45
Speaker
he he um He couldn't get funding for a film in the last 20 years of his career. Couldn't get funding for one of his films. Bizarre.
00:20:57
Speaker
That is bizarre. Madness. That is. Considering success he had, you know. Right. I mean, he did a lot of films that were kind of nightmare-ish.
00:21:08
Speaker
Yeah. If I seem to remember. we Which is interesting, and a nice little pivot back onto Nightmares. um yeah So there's some there's some research that shows that individuals with ADHD report significantly higher frequencies of nightmares, bad dreams, and dreams with negative emotions. This is linked to daytime.
00:21:32
Speaker
emotional uh reactivity and and anxiety so we have more anxiety during the day i think this goes with autism as well you know that and then that plays out in our dreams and we have more bad ones the nor Is it people partly because ADHD people, of autistic people, they're more receptive to that experience? It's like um people will say, for instance, if there are people that go on, um and they test.
00:22:07
Speaker
There's a lot of testing going on for at the moment, going in research, where people um volunteer to get tested for micro doses of LSD, right?
00:22:20
Speaker
People generally are more um have a more open mind about where certain drugs could take them. that Generally, they will find drug taking easier than neurotypicals.
00:22:37
Speaker
Right. I mean, definitely like 80. More receptive, more open to experiencing that, therefore more likely to remember it too.
00:22:47
Speaker
Yes, I think, you know, with ADHD, obviously we are, we, we will take risks and we will do, and we will do psychedelic drugs as part of a research program. You know what I mean?
00:23:02
Speaker
we are we will put ourselves out there more. And certainly, like, in real life, right, we will, you know, um you know ADHD, if it you know when it takes hold, we'll be like, okay, well, let's do this mad cat crazy thing.
00:23:18
Speaker
Yeah. yeah um And then you end up um trying to kind of, in the in the at at night, our our brains that have to kind of process all of that craziness that that went on. Yeah.
00:23:32
Speaker
that you know absolutely And then you end up with kind of like weird, bizarre, crazy dreams. Yeah. so rub ah Robin Williams said he never did drugs before he performed because it made him too normal.
00:23:49
Speaker
all right cocaine normalized him too much yeah i had this conversation last night my my well there was some coke coke there was some there was a cocaine scene going on on ah on the to tv okay and my my um my wife was like oh when was the last time you you did cocaine and i was like oh man that was like That's a long time ago now.
00:24:15
Speaker
and she was like, well, what what was it like? And I said, honestly, I just felt normal. Yeah, yeah. I'm the same.
00:24:28
Speaker
It kind of climbed my brain down. was like, oh. and and ah And I can remember thinking, oh, is it? Because thought people were like going off their tits on cocaine. I just thought, I'm just like, I've just carried on doing my thing. i was like, oh, this nice, but but not really a big deal.
00:24:49
Speaker
like Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, totally. I've been in a situation where people, ah big me and people around me have been doing stronger than cocaine.
00:25:03
Speaker
And looking them going out of their minds, I'm just like, oh, hell, you know, yeah whatever you know, yeah but You're hardened driven druggy.
00:25:19
Speaker
ah love that. But yeah, it goes just leveled out, really, which is very common. monday amongst ADHD and autistic people.
Exploring Lucid Dreaming
00:25:30
Speaker
Now, ah lucid lucid lucid the dreaming, is this something that ah that you can do? have you Have you ever realized when you're in a dream that you are in a dream?
00:25:45
Speaker
You go, oh, hang on a second. i'm ah I'm in a dream. I can make things happen. I can do whatever I want. I had that the night before last. Oh, nice.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah. And I was drifting in and out of sleep about 20 times in the same night. And just like every time i woke up and went back to sleep again, going back into the same dream and having almost like having an overview of myself in the dream. Oh, wait, wait. Oh, this is in so inception.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah. stuff is is yeah I was like watching myself being myself in a dream. oh a dream inside a dream. Yeah. And I literally woke up at least 50 times.
00:26:37
Speaker
was like, what the hell? And then, you know, after about 10 or 15 times, I was like, okay, this isn't a coincidence anymore. Hang on. I'll go back to sleep again.
00:26:49
Speaker
And there I was again, watching myself having a dream. that's fantastic. And it it would it must have been 50 times, maybe more times that I woke up and fell back to sleep in that state.
00:27:05
Speaker
Whoa, that's fucking mental. That's mental. And the sort of point to the point where when I finally woke up, I was destroyed because i hadn't really slept at all.
00:27:18
Speaker
that I thought maybe I'd had a fever in the middle of the night and didn't realise. It was like I went into a fever and came out of it. within you over a period of about three or four hours, and that's why. Okay.
00:27:33
Speaker
That's mental. Mental? I mean, less so, I mean, just, you know, there are some studies and anecdotal reports that do suggest that that ah people with ADHD do tend to have more lucid lucider dreams. Yeah.
00:27:50
Speaker
i've I do sometimes, and that and it's always just when I'm waking up, it it is almost like, as you say, like I'm having a dream and I kind of wake up in the early hours, like, so, you know, 6 a.m., say, and then I kind of go back into it. And then...
00:28:10
Speaker
And I've done that where you kind of say, oh, yeah, I remember a dream and now I'm going back to the dream. But rather than seeing me, I'm just more aware that I am in a dream and I can kind of change things a bit more.
00:28:25
Speaker
ah yeah get okay yeah Okay, well, let's not go down there. Let's go down this path over here instead. So there's bit more control. but I was listening, but even in the awakened state,
00:28:38
Speaker
i I've had experiences in the past where I can listen to myself listening.
00:28:47
Speaker
Right? So if it's like of a pool in a parallel universe, or in ah an awakened state, pool in a parallel awakened state, listening to myself listening, right?
00:29:02
Speaker
to something or listen to myself talking and, and making judgments over myself, literally I'm talking. yeah That's crazy.
00:29:17
Speaker
And I i was, there was a podcast recently. It was an ADHD podcast. I can't remember which one. Oh, it was Robbie Williams saying he once, oh, yes, he once was as in the middle of a concert in Germany, okay, and he was singing, okay? It was his concert, so he would be singing, right? All right.
00:29:42
Speaker
He was literally singing, but he suddenly got to the end of the end of the song, realising that all of that time that he was singing that song, he was listening to himself singing.
00:29:54
Speaker
and making judgments and going on a kind of a ah ah kind of um a different conversation that had nothing to do with his song his song or himself or the concert. It was all about him, the fact that he was singing in the town of Nuremberg and he was having a whole conversation in his mind about the Nuremberg Nazi trials.
00:30:23
Speaker
And when he finished the song, he suddenly burst out with some kind of speech about the Nuremberg trials and got booed off stage. ah Fucking hell.
00:30:35
Speaker
That's madness. Yes, that is madness. That is madness, isn't it? It is. He had bit of a bit bit of a PR problem going on because he was bringing up fascism during a concert. Yeah.
00:30:51
Speaker
as it As you would. People probably weren't expecting that at a Robbie Williams concert. I bet not. Right. the Medications. If you take ADHD meds, they can affect your dreams. So they can so they can suppress r REM sleep initially.
00:31:12
Speaker
so so So you end up with less dreams. ah But as they wear off in the night, um you can so you can you know you can kind of have this sort of what they call this REM rebound effect where intense dreams kind of suddenly pile in ah in the early hours of of the of the morning. And I know that you know i like some some meds cause insomnia, which obviously breaks your your sleep patterns up and then that fucks up your dream cycles.
00:31:44
Speaker
there this There's already existing technology, I think it's a wearable device that you can wear, where you can set your alarm clock to wake up in the morning, but that that device knows when you're if you're in deep sleep or in shallow sleep.
00:32:01
Speaker
So if you decide, okay, I'm going set my alarm for 6.30 in the morning, your wearable device will wake you up, not quite at 6.30, if it thinks you're in a deep sleep.
00:32:13
Speaker
It will wait five minutes, so you wake up in a better state of mind. All right. Okay. It's cool, isn't it? Yeah, because, you know, if you're having a good truth good good dream, because I'm going to get on to some dreams that we've had, which looking at the clock. Okay.
00:32:33
Speaker
I'm curious, Martin, about your dreams. um okay well i'm curious martin about your dreams You know what? Come on, like give us, load it on us. Come on. Serve it up.
00:32:48
Speaker
I've been like racking my brain for like a week to pull up interesting dreams that I've had and and I've really failed. Really? Yeah, yeah. All I can say is like when I was young, I had a lot of nightmare dreams of being chased, a lot of that. Right.
00:33:08
Speaker
And then as an adult, like certainly over the last like 20 years or so, my my dreams have literally just becoming ah just been about, ah don't know, I have a feeling that I've lost something and I'm just wandering around. It's so almost like having a dream that you can't find your glasses.
00:33:27
Speaker
You're just like wandering around going, are they here? and And that's the dream. But I would say over the last... ah six months, eight months, like almost like since Trump got got back into office, if I'm honest, list ah my and anxiety has shot up and I'm having a lot more nightmares again, which I never used to have for years. yeah And now i'm now I'm getting like those bad fucking yeah David Lynch style dreams now.
00:34:04
Speaker
Right, yeah. Well, I mean, it's it's happening all around the world, isn't it? Not to get too heavy on this subject, but there's a lot of anxiety around it. We don't live in the States, for fuck's sake.
00:34:15
Speaker
You know, i don't have ah ice agents wandering around the streets spraying peppers with pepper sprays. I'm pretty sure... how do that If we did a, I'm sure there are more nightmares going on right now than there have been for a long time.
00:34:34
Speaker
Yeah. You know, trying to sort out their anxiety. So what what what dreams do you have, Paul? Give us, I mean. oh I've got, well, um,
00:34:48
Speaker
um I'll tell you about one. We've spoken about this in a different episode, but there was one dream I had that was with you. When we were in um Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
00:35:02
Speaker
Yeah. And I was Superman. oh And we were standing on the sidewalk and... Just like standing there in a relaxed way.
00:35:13
Speaker
Like as if... as Standing there as if waiting for a taxi but not actually hailing a taxi. Me standing next to you and me turning to you and saying basically, what the fuck? I'm a superhero.
00:35:29
Speaker
And you're not... You're not in the least bit impressed. And you're completely... nonchalant about it. It's like, what the hell?
00:35:40
Speaker
What have I got to do prove to my mate Martin that superhero? Aww. That makes me cry inside. There I was standing in my lycra.
00:35:53
Speaker
oh Aww. Probably, you're so tight you could guess my religion. Wahey. Well, you're a superhero to me, Paul. There we go. You're a superhero.
00:36:06
Speaker
But my yes my my repetitive dreams, and I had a one literally last week, and I've had them for about the last 30 years, levitation.
00:36:18
Speaker
Levitations, what you need. What you need. if you want to be the best. If you want to the best. Levitations. What you need. And I can levitate at will.
00:36:30
Speaker
And it was it starts off as a party trick. And I said, well, whoa you know I can levitate. Of course. I'm Superman. I was six for that not dressed as Superman. I wasn't levitating as Superman, but could have.
00:36:45
Speaker
All right. Yeah. But it's more flying. That's different. I ah could just levitate. I would just, at will, as I did last week, decide to lift myself off the ground with the with just a little bit of concentration. like, okay, levitate, Paul. And I would rise up Yeah. And that was it.
00:37:07
Speaker
Oh, and then quite often I would go up and down the stairs without touching the the steps. All right. I think I tried that. I would just glide or hover down or up steps.
00:37:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think i I tried to do that as a kid, like when I was about 10. I've had this dream so often that there have been times where I thought, maybe I've done it once.
00:37:37
Speaker
Oh, right. Maybe i have actually levitated once. And you're just remembering, maybe in a previous life, fight you're ah you were a you were a flying flying a wizard.
00:37:52
Speaker
But there is there is something, a repetitive treatment that I have that is much more linked to in now reflecting on it since my a diagnosis for ADHD, um repetitive
00:38:10
Speaker
dreams that, not necessarily repetitive, but all very, very, very commonly on the theme of frustrated ambition. A bit like with you not being able to find your glasses you know in order to do complete a task or something.
00:38:27
Speaker
For me, it's um most commonly in the workplace. So I've been given a project to do and I and i can't finish it for some reason. oh There's something out in my way or someone or something that's stopping me finishing the job.
00:38:46
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Or it could be sport. Frustrate. So I think frustrated ambition in terms of I get related to my ADHD and autism.
00:38:57
Speaker
I can quite you could easily make a connection between that and autism. You know the frustration of fucking hell. Why do I get bored with a job? or relationships, you know, another three to four year or cycle, you know, if I didn't have those frustrations, I could have maybe been more successful personally professionally, you know.
Recurring Dreams and ADHD
00:39:22
Speaker
That's my take on it. All right. Yeah, because it kind of, it would sound to me like, because you' have Because you're quite anxious about getting things done on time, like being on time, finishing on time, not being late. People-pleasing.
00:39:39
Speaker
That you have this kind of anger this and anxiety that just runs full time. yeah again And then that's your brain kind of going...
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, you're you're anxious. You're feeling like yeah this thing might go wrong because something's in the way it's just processing all that Totally. Obstacles.
00:40:08
Speaker
Obstacles. Yeah. All right. Well, we've got 20 minutes left in. Oh, okay. So unless you've got, like, anything there that you kind of feel like, I've got to say this, or I'll get it.
00:40:21
Speaker
Well, only one. It's a fairly quick one. Have you ever had a dream where they kind of turn into a reality?
00:40:30
Speaker
Dreams to know. I'll give you example. I dreamt that my bed was on fire. Oh, one of those, yes. And then the next... and then the next About two minutes later, or what felt like two or three minutes later, I was standing outside of my bed, not in a dream, in a wakened state, padding down my duvet, thinking it was on fire.
00:40:55
Speaker
Oh, yes. I mean, obviously, yes. Okay. so Right. It's more like... Patting or patting? Patting down? Patting down?
00:41:07
Speaker
For me, it's like, oh, those fucking dreams. Those fucking dreams where you' you've dreamt that you've dropped some vase or vase or something. You've dropped something. You've damaged something.
00:41:21
Speaker
Yeah. In some way. And then you then you then you wake up in a panic because you think you've broken it. Yes, exactly. Oh, it was a dream. It was a dream. Oh, thank God. Thank God. ah I literally ended up, I was standing at the end of the bed, outside of the bed, in a frenzied state, patting down the duvet because I thought it was on fire.
00:41:45
Speaker
Right. Right. Yeah, that's fun. That's quite rare, though. I can remember, like, once in a while, I'll have a dream that I had sex with someone, like an affair. Yeah.
00:41:59
Speaker
And then I'll wake up in a complete blind panic. And then it's like, oh, thank God. Oh, Jesus. It was just a dream. I had sex with Princess Diana.
00:42:13
Speaker
spicy. Spicy. In a shower cubicle. All right. In a shower cubicle. And we got interrupted by King Charles.
00:42:24
Speaker
as Well, then it was Prince Charles. that's And he apologised. He opened up the shell cubicle. There was me with his missus, Brianna. And he apologised. Sorry about that. Sorry about that. That just was tried for him We got back into it.
00:42:46
Speaker
yeah Just carry on. Just carry on. Never mind. Carry on. Carry on. I'm so sorry. Oh, blimey. I don't think I've had a sex with... Dream sex with a celebrity. It's usually like an ex, which makes things like really complicated.
00:43:08
Speaker
i by company Then I had sex with Princess Diana again in the back of her Rolls Royce.
00:43:17
Speaker
Nicely, you just raised it up. Right, shower. low Paul, would you like to use my rolls? Yeah, sure, mate.
00:43:28
Speaker
Thanks, Charles. Thanks, mate. That's very generous of you. Come on, die. Let's give it back and do it. Do you want to borrow my wife?
00:43:41
Speaker
and it was on the dual carriageway between Wrightgate and Lower Kingswood. All right. Home home turf. Do you remember that view? Home turf? Yes. yeah it It's very boring. It's a very boring stretch of road. It's a very boring stretch of road. so I'm glad you had something to do. Exactly.
00:44:02
Speaker
ah Oh, dear. All right. Well, that was worth it. That was worth it. Oh, fucking hell. All right. Well, I'm going to click the... Let's rate dreams and nightmares. Oh, yeah. Let's do that. Let's do that. So here we go. Let's press this button that says ratings.
00:44:24
Speaker
Bajo. Bajo.
00:44:30
Speaker
Dreams and nightmares, are they a dopamine hit or are they a burnout score? i i so i think on the burnout score, it would be like if your dreams, know, if you have dreams that kind of carry over your mood for the rest of the day, you know, like some dreams, you wake up and you're like, oh, God, i it's just sucked the life out of me, you know. Yeah. you know Because we didn't talk about nightmares.
00:44:56
Speaker
Well, there are a lot of those were about nightmares. Well, Princess Diana, love her. She wasn't a nightmare. ah That's good. that's good as long as She was in a long way. She was a long way from being a nightmare.
00:45:09
Speaker
um But yeah, burnout could relate to nightmares. Some people have a lot of nightmares. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's this therapy that if we have like like PTSD style yeah dreams where you're kind of like you're having this rip repetitive traumatic dreams, um you're supposed to, when you...
Techniques for Altering Nightmares
00:45:35
Speaker
you and you You can do this if you have bad if you have if you have repetitive bad dreams anyway, is that you can wake up. Then the first thing you have to do is replay the dream, but then have a different ending to it.
00:45:51
Speaker
so what So if you're being chased by a guy, then... you know just rip It doesn't matter what the ending is, but the guy you know falls down a big hole and he's lost forever or he you know he turns into a squirrel or something. You know like you can yeah you have to have to kind of train your brain to to tell the story in a different way. you have to do that over and over and over and over over again. and That apparently is very good if you have repeated nightmares.
00:46:25
Speaker
Okay, cool. Anyway, dopamine hit. Yeah, Princess Diana, come on. For me, they're often a source of of um a lot of of intrigue for me. Intrigue, curiosity, and just kind of wow factors like, blimey, that dream that I had last night. Blimey.
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah. um So it's quite high for me. I'm going to give it ah ah a steady eight and a half, Martin. Oh, yeah. that have to go I think I will go like with ah with a nine. like Okay. like she like know Because i like my own dreams if they're good. But as you were saying right at the top of the episode, to use ah technical terms there, mate, when someone tells you their dream, it is like catnip to me. i just
00:47:25
Speaker
I love hearing yeah other people's dreams. Yeah. Because it i i know because it kind of it gives me like a bit of an insight. and and ah And I guess that's that's why people don't share their dreams very often, because it is quite personal. you know because it Some people quite anti-human.
00:47:47
Speaker
quite an discussions about dreams. I can't remember who it was. I remember someone saying that they found it really boring, people talking about their own dreams.
00:48:00
Speaker
I'm the total opposite. thing Yeah, come on. it dreams even to us yeah because it's usually people people will tell you dreams that are that are that they find in interesting themselves or different or and unusual so those are the ones that they tend to share which which are always the fun ones all right so but i but i know someone who net has never ever remembered one of his dreams
00:48:32
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I struggle now, to be but to be to honest. Yeah, they kind of, as I said, they kind of drift. They just melt away. okay Boringly. Burnouts.
00:48:46
Speaker
How about you for burnout, Mr. West? I'm going to go you know what, I mean, um I'll have to take it generally and and say that they don't tend to affect me too much. So it's it's like a three.
00:48:58
Speaker
i mean, my dreams have been getting worse, but not but but the feeling of the dream doesn't carry on in into the day. i don't I don't have a bad dream. I don't feel like the rest of my day is shot.
00:49:13
Speaker
so ah Well, you're you' of a certain age, Martin, so you're less affected by it. fine Maybe, maybe, maybe. eight yeah Anyway, you. Me, I'd have to say burnout for me and an association with dreams. If I'm having a fever, which is very, very, very rare.
00:49:37
Speaker
But I don't get fevers enough. A doctor told me that it's bad, the fact that i hardly ever get a fever, because it means that my body isn't responding in the way it should, i.e. regulating your temperature.
00:49:51
Speaker
But if I do have a fever, it means I'm very ill and I have terrible nightmares. m yeah Repetitive, usually.
00:50:02
Speaker
And I can't get out of the repetition, even if I wake up several times and go back into the room repetitive state. Yeah, that's nuts. So anyway, this score. So score two, three.
00:50:17
Speaker
Three. All right. So therefore, were we both both are very much pro dreams. They're very much in dopamine. dopamine winner.
00:50:28
Speaker
All right, let's jump back into the tractor.
00:50:42
Speaker
Spooky, spooky, spooky, spooky music. Slightly spooky. ah Yeah, Alexandra's left a note for us, ah as she often does, which we are so grateful for.
00:50:56
Speaker
um And we were talking about last week, we were talking about autism and ADHD and I was kind of saying how much they are sort of like, you know, sort of sort of squabbling, squabbling the siblings.
00:51:10
Speaker
Yeah. I described them as she says ah in in in a comment somewhere, autism and ADHD are messing with each other for sure. But they also kind of make, in a weird way, both function a little better. They're definitely like siblings. I feel more comfortable in my autism, actually. But then it gets a bit boring and ADHD says, okay, let's do something about it. And autism prays it, it won't be too crazy. it then And for her, it never is. Yeah.
00:51:44
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I'm more ADHD forward and autism second. I think I fish i am too.
00:51:56
Speaker
Yeah. I think I am too. Yeah. and And i can't remember where i oh I can't remember where it was, but Carol, our Minister of Snacks, um ah made a comment on our Cars episode sort of recently. I think that was the one before last. um and Because one of the reasons why I picked Cars was because I knew that she was a car head So it kind of thought, oh, that will appeal to her.
00:52:30
Speaker
um And she was saying how... Petrolhead. Petrolhead, yeah, yeah. She was saying how ah in her youth ah she used to do she used to do quarter-mile her friends. Wow.
00:52:46
Speaker
quarter-mileed drag races um with ah with their friends and And would do sort of donuts and all of that stuff.
00:52:57
Speaker
Wow. Amazing. Obviously cooler than us, Paul. Cooler than Yeah. Right.
00:53:08
Speaker
On to... So, ah yeah. So, um this is a good point to say. yeah Get in the comments. Right. Tell us stuff. Tell us about your dreams. Dreams. Tell us about your dreams. Have you had some good dreams? Have you got some terrible dreams?
00:53:22
Speaker
ah Recurring ones? Yeah. Just just pop them in the pop them in the comments on on on YouTube or yeah or anywhere where you know where you get your podcast. All right. Well, now, i think we're going to hit...
00:53:37
Speaker
Hit the quiz. It's the quiz!
00:53:48
Speaker
Lovely. That was the same thing that I did last week. I just cut it out. out. Cut it out, Marty. Right. last week, the score for 2026 currently stands at Paul in the lead with right so last week um the the the score for twenty twenty six country stands at pool in the lead with one and me ah coming up with a firm zero.
00:54:14
Speaker
So it's my turn. And um now you raised the bar by a by like 25 inches. um whens when When you did a your quiz was themed on things that you did, and I had to pick out things that you didn't do. It was other things like, you think you know me after 40 years of friendship. but how well do you really know me?
00:54:41
Speaker
Right. so So this is my response to that. So, Paul, you've known known me for 40 years, but how well do you really know me? Come on, bring it on.
00:54:52
Speaker
All right. So it's three three questions, three multiple choice answers. One of them is false. by The other two are true. You have to find the false one.
00:55:04
Speaker
Right. All right. So first up, One of these is false. When I lived in Beijing in China, yes did I eat shark lip salad, B, frog frog uterus pudding,
00:55:28
Speaker
Or C, starfish soup. So A, shark lip salad. B, frog uterus pudding. Or C, starfish soup. One of them is false.
00:55:41
Speaker
One of them is false. And I either ate the other two. I'm going with the lips of the shark. Shark lip soup.
00:55:52
Speaker
I ate shark lip soup. Did you? I ate shark lip salad. Yes. Yes, I had it several times because because it was really good. So sharks have lips.
00:56:04
Speaker
Well, it's actually part, it isn't actually their their lips. it's It's actually part of their fin. Oh, okay. i would I would not eat it now, ethically, I would say. Okay.
00:56:19
Speaker
But I was younger. ah ah Okay. Frog uterus ah pudding, I also did eat several times, and that was good. Uterus pudding.
00:56:33
Speaker
Yes. as a as As a a dessert. um But i did not have starfish soup. That wasn't a thing. I did i didn't have deep fried starfish.
00:56:46
Speaker
So I had that. okay funny but But not in soup form. um If you will want to know what the deep fried starfish tastes like, you know, like if you get like ah a fish a fish finger like or a fish stick, you know, those things.
00:57:05
Speaker
yeah And you almost have no meat and it's almost all crumb. Yes. That's what it's like. Okay.
00:57:17
Speaker
Yes. I think I've had something similar. I've eaten a lot of weird things, but, ah yeah, not that weird. All right. Number two.
00:57:30
Speaker
Was i a naked model for a photo shoot on a snowy New York rooftop? Or be...
00:57:44
Speaker
B, did I organize a a photo shoot of naked Stantas for a famous cell phone brand? Naked what? Did I organize a photo shoot of naked Santas?
00:57:59
Speaker
Santas? Father Christmas Santas. Okay. photo shoot of naked Santas for a famous cell phone brand. So that would be Sony Ericsson. That was true.
00:58:13
Speaker
Who are big in in Europe. That was true. Or C, did the woman who was the head of marketing at Adidas or Adidas take me to a strip club to watch naked girls?
00:58:31
Speaker
That's true. So...
00:58:36
Speaker
Did I do a... make cheeky because Are you being cheeky like I was? Was it just... Was it that it... Is it like... Is it subtle that it wasn't naked girls, it was naked boys?
00:58:48
Speaker
No. Okay. right So, was I a naked... ah ah Was a naked model for ah for a photo shoot in snowy New York?
00:59:02
Speaker
ah Or did I organize a photo shoot of naked centers? or did i Or did the woman who was the head of marketing at Adidas take me to a strip club to watch naked girls?
00:59:15
Speaker
ABC.
00:59:18
Speaker
What but didn't I do? ah You didn't get taken to a strip show by the Adidas. lighting I did get taken to a strip um strip club by the woman who was the head of marketing at Adidas. And know what? The funny thing was, right, is that...
00:59:41
Speaker
It was early because we just had an a a meeting. This was in Portland, Oregon, where where the head of Adidas is in in in in this in the States.
00:59:56
Speaker
And we just finished a meeting. She said, do you want to go to a strip club? And, you know, Being a good agency person, you always do what the client wants. So if they go, do you want to do this?
01:00:09
Speaker
You go, yes. It doesn't matter what it is. You go, I'm in. Although this seemed like it was more odd than it was like, oh, I'm i'm excited. So anyway, so we get in the cab when we go there. And it was early because we'd only just finished work.
01:00:23
Speaker
So it was empty. Right. so It was empty. Oh, weird. That's weird. empty there's a girl dancing on the stage yeah uh the the uh this woman my client gets a chair from the back yeah drags it all the way up to the front and sits down with a fucking no way sort of five dollar bills
01:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, I stayed at the back, mate. I was like, I'm not joining you up the front. Wow. You weren't supplying her dollars. Who paid?
01:01:06
Speaker
Well, she did. Okay. What about for drinks? Did you pay for drinks? I can't remember. I probably bought a round of drinks, yes, for for sure, but ah but but I wasn't. And how long did you stay for?
01:01:22
Speaker
Not too long. I think it was like maybe half an hour or so. She complained that that the girls weren't weren't attractive enough. So we ended up leaving. Sounds like she's got a bit of a fetish going on. And she prefers going when there's no one else is there.
01:01:41
Speaker
Maybe. is good Because then there's not too many men there. Oh, yeah. There we go. rob I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Right. So I did that. I i was also a a a naked model on a photo shoot photo shoote on a snowy New York rooftop.
01:02:02
Speaker
um That was some time time ago. Jack Ross nipping at your cock. Yeah, yep there is a photo of me standing up on in New York with without with the i own yeah anyway with ah with a board that kind of went. I was basically standing there in the snow with you know on on the roof. In the bath? Well, yes, and and I had a piece of board in front of me on my parts. Right.
01:02:32
Speaker
um Yeah. So I was, ah but i I did have my under underwear on behind board, so I wasn't completely naked. Okay. But I know I did not organize a photo shoot for Santas. I did actually organize a photo shoot for Santas, but but they weren't naked.
01:02:52
Speaker
They were just regular. And it got canceled, which was annoying. Okay. So I'm two down. Two down. Blimey.
01:03:03
Speaker
Blimey. I know. So I'm just playing for dignity now. Playing for dignity. Question three. Now, this is very UK TV celebrity centric, right? So this is. a So if you're American or Greek or wherever you are in the world, you won't understand these people. But just understand that they are well-known people. Well-known right to us Brits, right?
01:03:28
Speaker
Did I tell actress pat patric Patricia Rutledge that she was a god?
01:03:41
Speaker
You're a god. She's lovely, Patricia Rutledge. No, I think I'm Patricia Hodge. Right, no, she was in Keeping Up Appearances. Oh, she died two weeks ago.
01:03:56
Speaker
Yeah, she she died recently. What do? She was a god. I told her she was a god. You're god. Did I tell Irish presenter Eamon Holmes that he was god? Okay. did i tell tv tv irish tv presenter amon holmes i'm at homes that yeah but bit co apparently that he was a god okay Or did I tell TV presenter Kat Deely that she was a god?
01:04:29
Speaker
Oh, she's a god. She's a god. um she's But did you just tell her she was a god? where so's I think... I told two of them that was a god, but but one of them I didn't.
01:04:44
Speaker
I'm going to go for Eamon Holmes is the one you made up. You didn't say Eamon Holmes was a god. I definitely told Eamon Holmes that he was a god. And he laughed.
01:04:57
Speaker
He laughed. Which one was the one you made up then?
01:05:06
Speaker
I told Patricia Rutledge she was a god. And Kat Dealey, I did not tell her. She was a god.
01:05:17
Speaker
All I said was, can I have a hey a a a a a a photo of you? I was ah at ah ah at a Fashion Week event in London. in New York and I had a like I had a a thing I had a campaign um experiential thing and we in in but invited her and she came over and I got my photo taken with her but I did not say that she was gone so there we go you are nice like that it's a good format it's good format yeah so there we go we are now inch inch one akimbo
01:05:58
Speaker
Okay. So we're level peggings on that front. Even pickings, even. Right. Level pegging, even pickings.
01:06:12
Speaker
Right. So um I think i've I've kind of done these sort of your feedback is vital to us bit when i when I did the other other bit. So let's talk about what we're going to, what are we going to do next week?
01:06:27
Speaker
Well, we've got this. my headphones have need for a charger. Hang on second. Okay. Well, while he's going to recharge his headphones or plug them in, we have a long list. So if you've got any ideas about what you want us to talk about, get in the comments and just say, hey, guys, yeah know can you do an an episode of ADHD or or even an LDHD ah and something?
Preview of Next Episode: ADHD and Snacking
01:06:56
Speaker
Whatever it is, just just throw it in and then we'll we'll we we will pick out. We'll pick yes suggestions out.
01:07:07
Speaker
Our Minister for Snacks can definitely get involved next week, for next four next week. Carol, because it's going to next week it's going to be ADHD and snacking.
01:07:20
Speaker
Fantastic. Snacking. General snacking. Habits of... Perfect. All right, well, that sounds awesome. ah Can't wait fate for that. I shall have some snacks prepared, I think. I shall... Oh, good idea.
01:07:35
Speaker
Yeah, all right. So, I think if if if we both kind of come with some snacks, that would be Yeah. Well, I'll be snacking the day have to come back from Germany.
01:07:47
Speaker
So, might come back with German snacks. Right. All the sausage-related in some way. Currywurst.
01:07:57
Speaker
Yeah. All right.
01:08:02
Speaker
let's, let's, well, thanks for, thanks for being here. And just to remind you, ADHD really is delivered fresh every Tuesday. If there's a fine podcast, please subscribe to the pod and, and rate us the most.
01:08:13
Speaker
most dreamy um and feel free to correspond at will in the comments but wait there's more if you wish to see our beautiful beautiful faces and sunny for the youtubes and the tiktoks and you can also pick up a quill and email us at adhdwill at gmo.com but in the meantime fucking kind to yourself and i've besieged you fellow adhd is very well with gladness of heart
01:08:42
Speaker
Aww. That's nice. Look at what time this one. Perfect. Look. There, says the mayor. Bloody hell. That's that. Yeah. lovely