DREAMS - perils of BLOG and sleep DepRIVE

No not our hopes and aspirations, the ones we have whilst sleeping! I like dreams, I like how wacky they can be, in alternate realities, how they jump parallel universes in a nanoseconed. How you can be in two (or more) places at once. One minute you are in country A talking with friend B, the next minute you are country C talking with acquaintance D. I like that you can fly and swim underwater, and do all kinds of things you can't in waking life. I sometimes teach people who fall a lot in their flying dreams how to fly better. I like it that there are people in my dreams, dream people that I don't know, that I have never met, and maybe won't. People who I will not admit I am attracted to in waking life will definitely turn up in erotic dreams! There are some imagined landscapes from childhood my dreams sometimes return to.

I like the way when I am editing my mind works on it whilst I am sleeping. Like a computer program running in the background it somehow searches everything and produces, errors and omissions, contradictions, similarities and differences which would play nicely off each other, and even technical solutions. Apparently we remember things better after we have slept.

I am aware my dreams often reinterpret the last things I saw on TV before I went to sleep, changing the location, and replacing the characters with me and people I know. I like the way people I should call or write, who are going through transitions, appear in my dreams to let me know.

It's much easier to remember your dreams if you are able to wake up naturally, without an alarm clock - the latter of which too suddenly springs you awake. Waking up slowly you can remember your dreams, and often be aware you are dreaming, and alter how the dream is going, in light of your wishes in the waking world - lucid dreaming. Everyone does dream, just observe the paw, whisker, and tail twitching of a cat or dog whilst dreaming. If you don't remember your dreams you can train yourself to by telling yourself you are going to, trying to wake up slowly, and writing them down straight away. Dreams do seem very gossimery and easily flit away. Sometimes I interpret friends dreams, no not in any encyclopedia of myths and symbols way, in the idiosycnraticness of peoples own lives way.

Sure I've had my share of nightmares, but not these days. In my 20's I was afraid to sleep because of the nightmares - the least of which was the dream about trying to leave the country. I would get to the tarmac, and there he was, everytime, to confiscate my passport. There is a symbiosis to changing your life and your dreams.

The thing about keeping a dream journal, is it makes you curious about the nature of dreams So according to this website on the subject of sleep, the above image represents your sleep and dream cycles, as related to entering deep sleep, or REM (rapid eye movement)-thats when you dream. They go on to say:

'At about 70 to 90 minutes into your sleep cycle, you enter REM sleep. You usually have three to five REM episodes per night. This stage is associated with processing emotions, retaining memories and relieving stress. Breathing is rapid, irregular and shallow, the heart rate increases, blood pressure rises....If REM sleep is disrupted one night, your body will go through more REM the next to catch up on this sleep stage'

Apparently kids have a lot more REM/DREAM sleep than adults as they are learning and consolidating more information. Older people may sleep more lightly, but are able to enter REM sleep much quicker, so also spend more time in REM/DREAM sleep.

According the this website 'The first period of REM typically lasts 10 minutes, with each recurring REM stage lengthening, and the final one lasting an hour. The five stages of sleep, including their repetition, occur cyclically. The first cycle, which ends after the completion of the first REM stage, usually lasts for 100 minutes. Each subsequent cycle lasts longer, as its respective REM stage extends. So a person may complete five cycles in a typical night's sleep.' Who knew!?

Which brings me to the subject of sleep. Or as someone said the other morning, what are you doing up, it's daylight. Considered wisdom has it that sleep is dependent in some internal time clock affected by light and darkness. I can tell you that, if'n I have had a good sleep, 8 or more hours, I feel almost human after 12, 17 hours is my record without peeing! I will feel like falling asleep 15 hours later. If I am not able to go to sleep then, due to work or appointments or whatever, it will be much harder to get to sleep later. Internal time clock yes, light and darkness, not so much. And yes I did once live 'off the grid' with no electricity at all, and once have a job that started at 6 a.m.! All the former got me was a lot of time staring up in to the darkness, and the latter, having the other half of my sleep when I got home at 2pm! In reality I negotiate with various disabilities and side effects which keep me from sleeping. I did see on TV once that after only 4 hours sleep, you brain is operating at only 60%. This includes your brains ability to process information, remember, react, your judgment and decision making ability. So don't BLOG and sleep DepRIVE! SAVE DRAFT was invented for a reason. Sometimes it's best to sleep on it.

Okay feeling sleepy go test your sleep deprivation by putting sheep to sleep courtesy of the BBC. Although for the record I am NOT in favour of tranquilizing sheep. This little test does require sight, and bear in mind your response time will also be affected by your motor skills, and how fast you have set the responsiveness of your computer mouse. But it's fun anyway to try.