The One with the Dream Within a Dream

I had a dream within a dream this morning, and what was strange was that the second dream was more normal than the first.  In the first, the only thing I really remember was being in a parking lot outside, and a group of kids with a couple of adults doing some activity with dolls and all of a sudden they took all the clothes off the dolls, but the dolls had realistic breasts and that was really funny in the dream.

At that point, I remembered I had a dream and started writing about it.  In the second dream, my friends Meredith and Greg were in California stuck on highway 1 (which they are in real life, and were in "real life" in the 1st level dream).  While they were stuck in the 2nd level dream, they went to some restaurant and were taking a ton of photos and videos of them doing funny things.

There were about 7 people and they had 4 people in a booth and 3 in a small table and they kept moving the small table around - close to the booth, further, and taking all kinds of pictures of them laughing.

Then they were trying to catch bubbles in their mouths in the parking lot and there was one video where the bubble popped and got soap into a girl's mouth and she gagged (well more like dry heaved) and it was the most hilarious thing to watch in the 1st level dream.

Dream Themes: Loose/Missing Teeth

I had a friend ask me about dreams where your teeth are loose or falling out and I knew that I had several dreams with this theme, and have even heard references to it on shows like 30 Rock.  So, let's look that one up:

"Lose a tooth and you are afraid of losing a loved one.  Lose all of them and you are full of anxieties about the future." (1)

"Dreaming of teeth falling out may represent insecurity. These dreams often occur at a time of transition... When you lost your milk teeth, you also gradually lost your childhood innocence. Losing your teeth today therefore shows that today you have similar feelings of uncertainty and self-consciousness as you did in childhood. The dream could also highlight your worries about getting older or your sexual attractiveness." (2)

"Im Tofeeq, a Palestinian woman, told me that among the Arabs it is believed that if you dream of losing teeth it means your brother or son is in trouble. She had a dream in which three of her teeth fell out. The next day she received a call from America to say her son had been shot in the head three times by a gunman." (3)

In my own experience, I always had a sense of fear during these dreams that I would be ugly, so I'm guessing in my case it's insecurity about how I look.  My other insecurities tend to play out in my dreams in other ways, I guess, like being chased or being in perilous situations.

(1) Grant, Russell. The Illustrated Dream Dictionary.

(2) Hamilton-Parker, Craig. Remembering & Understanding Your Dreams.

(3) Crisp, Tony. Dream Dictionary: An A to Z Guide to Understanding Your Unconscious Mind