Last night I offered to do the overnight feedings. It was in part, my attempt to make up for a mix up earlier in the weekend where I got a little angry around 5am when I shouldn't have. And also to try and let Andrea get a good nights sleep, as she would have Megan home with her for the first time in two weeks.
The funny thing is, when my brain wakes up every 2 hours, I have the most insane dreams, because I am basically being woke up during REM periods. From what I remember, REM dreams are often much more intense, emotionally charged, and vivid then NREM (Non-REM).
In short, REM dreams come from a totally different part of the brain then NREM dreams: the limbic system. The limbic system is also referred to as the "center of emotions". As a result, REM dreams have certain characteristics that set them apart. In the past, I've had dreams of such emotional intensity that I will actually wake myself up crying.
Last night was no exception. The dreams I had were intensely emotional and to be honest, nothing that I could share with anyone except maybe a shrink. And since I'll never have one of those... Anyway, the crazy part was at one point in my dream, I "woke up" and thought, oh man, I have to write this stuff down, I could make a movie out of this (I used to keep a dream journal to assist in dream recall). So I'm going through the "dream" I just had in my head, trying to write down the strongest emotional details, which were quickly fading as dreams often do upon waking. Only then I realized, I was still dreaming. At that point things went from intense, to insane, as I slipped right back into the dream I was previously having, only now, I was fully lucid. (I know, try stay with me... but visit the Wiki links to understand the depths of my dreaming rabbit hole)
By morning, I had gone through such a roller coaster that I was in a weird place. The rational part of my brain tried to remind me that dreams are just super charged emotions played out in picture form. Your brain picks an emotion, juices it up, then picks a memory of something that you associate with that emotion. The two together combine in a way that cause people look for "meaning" in their dreams, where there is none to be found.
But on the other hand... for the first time in a long time, I started to wonder. How many emotions have I suppressed, repressed, or otherwise bottled up? Is it going to bite me in the end, or will be in control over the long haul? Strong emotions do strange things.
Did I mention that dreams fascinate me? Also, in case you didn't already know, Stephen Laberge is one of my hereos.
2 comments:
That false awakening thing happens to me sometimes. My question is: if I am several layers deep in false awakenings, at that point am I lucid dreaming since I think I'm awake and controlling my actions?
Yes, that is a type of lucid dreaming. But at the core, lucid dreaming is about self awareness. Although you may walk around your house in "control" the same way you would while awake, you still are not aware of the fact that you are dreaming. Once you do that, you are able to control not only your own actions but the entire environment around you. (Yes, just like Neo in the Matrix)
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