The meaning of this dream is obvious - as the dreamer slept the sounds of her son crying in real life were incorporated into her dream.

THE DREAM I am walking down a long hallway in what appears to be and old abandoned hospital or an "insane asylum" like from an old horror movie. It has grey concrete walls with peeling paint puddles of icky water on the floor and flickering fluorescent lights (again kind of horror movie-ish) It also is lined with doors on either side with the barred windows.

Any way, I'm walking along and it is quiet. Someone is with me, and suddenly they say "listen, you need to listen" I stop and listen and don't hear anything and say so. "That's because you're not listening!" Suddenly, as if over loud speakers, I hear my oldest son crying. The sound is so loud that I have to cover my ears. I look around for speakers, but there aren't any. The person I am with pries my hands from my ears and repeats,"listen!!" By this point, I have decided that I have gone crazy, and that must be why I am in this asylum, so I say" No, I am not listening, this is not real!! And it's too loud!!" The person is angry with me and shoves me and says "Hey stupid!! You need to listen" I hear my son wail "MOMMY" and then I wake up.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION I lay in bed for a second and listen, sure enough my oldest son is wailing "MOMMY" but through walls and closed doors I can barely hear him, although my dream mind amplified the sound to the point that I had to cover my ears. Also, the dream felt like it lasted for half an hour or more, when I apologize to my son for taking so long to get to him, he said he had only been crying for a few minutes.

Okay, so no real dream analysis need for this one, I just thought it was neat, so I thought I'd share.

Posted at www.Dreamsymbolism.info October 26, 2012, 07:05 by hauntedlily

Unclesirbobby (POSTED October 27, 2012, 06: 6: 44)
I call these distraction dreams. We are distracted by some noise or something happening in the real world. I always think of the old cowboy films where the gunmen used to sleep with a gun in their hand and would wake up at the slightest sign of danger. We have to be able to listen during sleep and tell if anything needs immediate attention. You have got to be able to hear for suspicious noises (such as a burglar) or noises which suggest a crisis is taking place (like your child crying)

I understand what you say about the dream needing no interpretation but its actually dreams like these which I like to interpret more than any. The reason being is that I know what has caused the dream. Its merely a matter of understanding the symbolism. Its from dreams like these that we can start to see how the dream mind truly works.

Here's some thoughts on the symbolism.

ABANDONED HOSPITAL. An hospital is a an obvious symbol of care and attention - that a mother gives to 'nursing' a child - making sure they are healthy and happy

The hospital is abandoned makes me think of this - a child feels abandoned in the deep an dark of the night when their mother is not there to help them in that moment.

When you hear these sounds you will tend to try to make sense of them. In this case you sensed a real problem. You thought the worst - perhaps this linked to the horror movie - an overly dramatic situation.

Much of the dream feels like a conversation going on inside you. Whilst asleep you are saying things like "What's that noise. Its probably nothing. But it keeps repeating and it sounds like my son crying. Actually he sound very upset." So eventually you gather the evidence and decide if its important enough to wake up for or if you should ignore it. In this case you obviously decided that this was a real crisis.

Thanks for posting.