Nightmares & Dreamscapes

As many of you know for several years (at least that I've known about) I have had on occasion extreme nightmares that often spill out of just my sleep and sometimes wake other people up. I just figured that all they were was nightmares. Then a month or so ago I was re-introduced (through facebook) to a person that I had known in my childhood. One day I noticed that she had joined a group about a sleeping disorder known as sleeping paralysis. I was curious, ended up looking at the group to see what it was about and then went on to explore other sleep disorders. One of which was something called Night Terrors. Most of the symptoms fit what happens to me, so on self-diagnosis I would say that this is something that I have.

One of the symptoms is that the dreamer usually doesn't remember what happened the night before in the morning. USUALLY.Sometimes though if woken up in the middle of the night because of the terror, they can remember small portions or impressions. A few nights ago, this was exactly the case.

Even though I wasn't fully conscious I knew I was out of bed and fighting for my life. As soon I was free from those trying to entangle me, I bolted out of my bedroom into the hallway only to spin around and face my bedroom when I reached the end of the hall. Bending at the knees and curling my hands into fists, I waited for the enemy to come boiling out of my bedroom door towards me! I was ready and waiting for them. My heart was pounding and I was sweating freely. As I waited, the fog started to lift and I realized that I was crouched in the hallway waiting for a completely imaginary foe. There was nothing in my room trying to kill me and there was certainly nothing that would be coming out after me. Even though I was now fully awake my heart was still pounding and I was breathing as hard as if I had just fought a real battle. Because of the reality of my feelings I grabbed a flashlight off of my desk and went back into my room to make absolutely certain it had all just been a dream. As I flashed the light around I saw that everything had been stripped off my bed and was lying tangled on the floor; sheets, blankets, pillows, all of it was strewn across the room. I remade my bed but was honestly to scared to get back in right away. So I tried to remember what I had been fighting.

I knew from past experience that if I didn't try and remember right then what I had been dreaming I would forget all about it in the morning. First was the overwhelming sense of evil and harmful intent, second was that they were soft and fuzzy. The more I thought about it the more I could piece together until I was able to mostly remember. The enemy I had been fighting were evil leech-like washcloths with tongues like frogs that they would shoot out, attach to me, (then using that pull themselves in) latch on to me and start drinking my blood. Needless to say a fearsome foe.

Finally after a few minutes I got back into bed and fell back asleep only to wake up a few hours later to my alarm going off and telling me I had to start another day.

What Was I Thinking?

As many of you know I am sometimes given to vocalizing in my sleep. Sometimes coherent words, sometimes not. Well this last Tuesday night, something happened that made me wonder even more about what is going on in my head when I'm asleep.

Tuesday night I got home from class, got things together for the next morning and drifted off to sleep. Before I knew it, I snapped awake glanced at the clock and saw numbers that I shouldn't have. I missed the alarm when it went off and now I was running late! I ran into the bathroom, still half asleep, and jumped into the shower. As the hot water slowly started to wake me up I realized that I hadn't turned off my alarm and the radio was still playing. Normally not a problem except that my condo buddy sleeps right next door and I didn't want to wake him up. Then as I started to think about it, I couldn't remember if my alarm had actually gone off at all.

As I dried off, becoming more awake and alert by the moment, I became more and more distressed that indeed I had not actually heard my alarm go off. I couldn't be sure though, because I am definitely not a morning person. I was listening intently as I opened the bathroom door. No sound yet, but that didn't mean to much. Then my bedroom door, still no sound. Either I had shut it off and couldn't remember it, or... Then I was far enough into my room to see the clock. 12:42! I couldn't believe it. Once more my mind was making my dreams waaayy to real. Silver lining to the cloud, I had extra time in the morning to read my bible since my shower was already all taken of.