Every so often, bridge sneaks its way into my dreams.

I’d imagine that it’s not a phenomenon unique only to me (or only to bridge). A little further investigation shows that it’s officially called the Tetris effect – and that any pastime followed to the point of obsession might inspire dreams about the pastime itself.

Generally, my dreams are a mixture of the logical and the bizarre. Most of them start out making sense, but then become completely illogical towards the end. While the Tetris effect might be useful to some, it hasn’t provided me with any solutions or insights that I couldn’t discover with my eyes open (yet).

Most of them are about as useful as the one where you’re standing at the ready for a speech or performance and you’ve forgotten your words, you’re late, you’re naked – or all three. I’d think they’re caused by the same fears and anxiety’s, though: Consciously, I don’t want to play badly (and subconsciously, the dreamscape forces me to).

During one, I was tasked with protecting an original manuscript by Ely Culbertson (but from hands of the secret service, for some reason). During another, I partnered up with Zia Mahmood for a game and – somehow – played a Joker, to Zia’s utter crushing disappointment.

I’ve also had dreams about playing against cats, who were somehow fine with clawing at their cards instead of holding them, and one dream where I was inexplicably playing honeymoon bridge against a pigeon in a park at night. (And the pigeon actually played a decent game.) 

There are a few typical ones that you could call recurring: The one where I’m late to the bridge game, the one where I’m lost on the way to the bridge game.

Do you have any dreams about bridge? Have they ever presented you with an answer to a complicated question?