Where Were You Last Night?

I'm thinking of starting a new series here. A series about dreams. Not the lofty, what would you do if you won the lottery dreams, but the nightly and very wacky dreams that happen in my head every night while I try to get a few hours of uninterrupted unconsciousness.

I've read that people who are sleep-deprived go directly into R.E.M sleep and bypass the other stages that one normally cycles through when achieving a deep sleep. The reason is because the body learns that if it doesn't cut the BS and get right down to it, there is a very good chance someone will be standing next to them within minutes or hours tugging on their pajamas or demanding something unreasonable like water and it will lose the chance to dream.

I've also heard that studies show that people who spend too much time in R.E.M. or who are awakened in the middle of it, tend to suffer from mood disorders, as the area of the brain that is responsible for dreaming is also the area that activates and sends neurons into a jitterbug when someone is feeling angry or aggressive.

Boy does this all make perfect sense to me.

I almost never, ever, sleep until I wake up on my own. I am always woken up by someone or something and I am almost always dreaming vividly when it happens. I dream in color, I dream every night and during every catnap. I have dreams that play out like films with sequences that make sense and I have dreams that are disconnected snippets of reality and ridiculous fantasy.

When I first wake I can tell you every detail of what I was just experiencing. As the day unfolds the edges tend to get blurry and the thread begins to unravel, unless the emotions of the dream were particularly intense. Warm and soft love dreams or the ones where I am very angry tend to stay with me for a day, sometimes longer, leaving an imprint somewhere. I am not clear where they linger but I can summon those feelings from the dream long after the minor details have vanished. They float just below the surface. 

I have considered keeping a journal next to my bed or speaking them into my iPhone when I wake simply out of curiosity, but since it so often happens that I get woken up when I really should be and need to be sleeping, I'm afraid that would start my mind turning and I wouldn't be able to fall quickly and easily back to sleep.

I don't know if this will work but in the one I was having when I was so rudely interrupted last night/morning seemed like a good one to share. It had some of your favorite bloggers hanging out. There was also beer, driving over big scary bridges, my mother wearing some six-inch heels, the Dali Lama (he was fast asleep) and shopping at a popular chain store.

Seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up.

Comments

[Susan]

I dream so vividly and epic(ly)?, that I wish I had a way to hook up my brain to a recording device.
It sounds like you and I dream alike... in color, all the time and long story lines. Could be why we could relate. :)
I still remember some dreams I have had, even years ago. I love those dreams I have that involve being in a giant old mansion... even if it is delaptated and has odd spots in it where you have to cross over a plank because the 3rd story floor was missing... or the dreams where I visit an entire city that is comprised of tiny little islands in a giagantic body of water, and their expressway system is more like an elaborate rollercoaster made of steel and mesh and you travel high above the water throughout weird twists and turns.
This could be an interesting blog... I should probably start keeping a journal... but then again, I am feeling a bit too lazy from that. ;)

[mayberry]

I always think, if only I could better remember these dreams, I could write a kick-ass novel or screenplay! I am so much more creative when I am sound asleep.

[breedemandweep]

Oh, that is so wild, the link between sleep and mood disorders. I am always amazed to find people who insist they don't dream at all. I seem to dream every night, and every dream is fraught with intense emotion. I wake up in a cortisol haze.

Yeah, that's healthy.