I soon realized that the broadcaster reminded me in some ways of my mother. I then recalled how I often felt when my broadcasters offered negative news (especially the death of someone I cared about in public life). I remembered my mother telling me that my grandfather had died. I was deeply disturbed when witnessing my mother’s grief. My hypnopompic attention suddenly shifted to another time and place. I recalled the moment when Walter Cronkite, one of my other favorite broadcasters, reported on the death of President Kennedy. I found Walter’s own grief (a hitch in his voice) to be disturbing. I suddenly decided that it was time to wake up, having faced these disturbing memories from my past, as they swirled around my hypnopompic psyche.
I suspect that a positive ideational train was produced or at least enhanced by the Christmas Carol I heard before falling asleep, or a host of Christmas Carols that were playing when I was awake. The hypnagogic state that was engaged as I was falling asleep would have contributed to the ideation and led to the dream involving my mother and the broadcaster. The Christmas Carols, memories of Christmas, and dreams about a loving mother would have been stitched together by a positive affective tone that accompanied and perhaps helped to drive the ideational train.
During my post-sleep hypnopompic state, I experienced a car on my ideational train that was much less pleasant. I would speculate that our ideational trains grow much longer as we age. There are many more cars (themes, feelings, images, memories, etc.) that attach to the trains, leading to a much richer and more diverse set of emotions when we reflect on past experiences. We do indeed dream as we grow old. And the dreams are in full cinemascope!!!
Ideational Trains and Christmas
Distinct memories of Christmas and other Holiday events often attend Ideational trains that are driven by emotions associated with this holiday season. I suggest that these ideational trains frequently play an important role in the creation of challenging psychological conditions for many older people during the December holidays. Christmastime dreams during our senior years are often filled with powerful, emotionally laden content and images. One need only reflect on the disturbing dreams of Ebenezer Scrooge, as portrayed in Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol. These dreams, along with the hypnagogic image of Ebenezer’s ghostly business partner in chains, led to major revelations and reforms in this stingy man’s life.
Many elderly adults commonly experience depression during this time of year when we are all supposed to be “jolly.” The depression might relate to their spending the holiday alone or without cherished family members. Family members and friends who have passed away are remembered at this time of year. This depression might also be induced by nostalgia for the experiences of childhood Christmases. For some older people, depression might relate to early, challenging events that commonly occur in many families during the holidays.
All of this comes together with the deeper affective trail left by the ideational train that is traveling through our aging psyche. The passengers on this train would not only be the rich and abundant memories of childhood (producing nostalgia in us), the grieving for loved ones no longer with us, and the negative conditions from childhood of unfulfilled Holiday-related expectations (the gift not received, the joy not experienced). These emotional memories would exist alongside difficult family relationships that inevitably arise during our affectively heightened interactions with parents and siblings during this time of year.
