Had a dream with boring content but an interesting (recurrent) feature. The locations all had a specific orientation; i.e. there was an objective "front" side to every room and area.
The strange thing is that I don't think the "front" directions actually lined up in the dream. It seems like I left one building in a certain direction, and then when next I got a strong sense of directional orientation from an area, it conflicted with the direction that was "forward" originally. I didn't notice this in the dream, but I did afterwards when I was trying to map out the landscape. The "forwardness" turns out to be the strongest motivation for how I mentally map an area, but it's not the only consideration, so I tend to have moments of confusion when trying to reconcile how the areas with conflicting definitions of "front" connect to each other.
Come to think of it, this is really enlightening. I think it explains why I tend to get lost over and over again when I have to navigate new (or even partially familiar) buildings, even with a map. I mentally create a "forward" vector at certain locations in the building, but it often has nothing to do with how the vectored locations line up. However, my brain assigns more weight to the forward tag than to the connections between locations, jumbling my understanding of how the building is really laid out, and confusing me when I go down a staircase and exit from a different wall of the building than I anticipated.
Staircases are ripe for mis-labeling because they tend to double back on themselves or rotate at landings, sometimes multiple times. Also, they are often sparsely windowed and walled off from the rest of the building, isolating stair-walkers from outside reference points. Thus, it is frequently the case that the first floor and second floor of a building will have conflicting forward vectors in my mind, causing disorientation whenever I cross from one to another by a different staircase than the one that prompted the incorrect mapping.
Reality check. Now the real trick is seeing if I have a better sense of direction once I isolate and eradicate the tagging habit.
Reality check. Now the real trick is seeing if I have a better sense of direction once I isolate and eradicate the tagging habit.
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