Sleep deprived...?

... not me.

Butch has been remarking of late, on how my

sleep and dream patterns work. She's amazed by
it, and concerned that I might actually have an issue
that needs professional consideration and perhaps
intervention. (She worries about her Tubby Bear).

Let me explain... and it's hard to know where to
start, but start we will.

When I sleep properly, and by that I mean that I'm
in bed all tuckered out and tucked in, I end up in a
deep sleep and I'm not easily roused from it. No
surprises there. When I'm in REM sleep I dream
rather vividly... and not only that, my dreams, in the
main, are rather off beat as well. And I would guess 
that most of us have a similar experience, albeit 
to varying degrees.

As you know there are various stages of sleep and we
usually get to the REM stage after about 90 minutes
and then we head off to our own nocturnal cinema
for a private showing of our latest dream epic.

By vivid I mean that there's no dreamlike quality to
my dreams... they're as real to me as you reading 
this post is to you right now.

And another thing... whilst reading this post I bet you 
still have other things ticking over in your mind... in 
the background to what you're doing you would 
usually have a narrative, or your 'inner voice', going 
on at the same time and that you're only paying half 
attention to. You sometimes listen to that background
noise, or you might engage with it, or indeed ignore it
whilst all the time carrying out what it is that you're
focussed on. As far as I know, and I'm prepared to
be corrected on this, we don't have that narrative
running in the background mind of our 'dream' us...
that is to say that whilst we are dreaming and acting
out what's going on in the dream, we don't usually
have our disengaged inner voice rabbiting on at
the same time in the background.


Well actually... I do.

I'm usually aware that I'm dreaming, and not only that,
my inner voice is sometimes assessing the credibility
of what's going on in the dream... to the point where
my inner voice says something like... "Come on, that'd
never happen..." and the conscious part of my mind
influences the subconscious dreaming part to change
what's going on, or failing that, my conscious mind
changes channel and I start an entirely new dream.
I've actually had my inner voice say, on more than one
occasion "This dream is getting ridiculous... " and I either
start a new dream or I wake up.

I guess it could be categorised as lucid dreaming.

That's all well and good, unusual maybe, but not the
whole story...

I also nod-off... I don't just nod-off, I nod-off at the
drop of a hat... and I very often have no warning that
I'm about to nod-off. In fact I can nod-off and be well
asleep in a matter of seconds. And the strange thing is
that I have no idea that I'm about to nod-off... don't 
get me wrong... I do feel weary and sometimes quite 
tired, but that condition doesn't necessarily result in 
me nodding-off. No, it most often happens without 
warning... and not only that, but I start dreaming 
immediately when I nod-off. In fact I go seamlessly
from thought to dream... and I therefore I don't 
notice that I'm asleep.

By that I'm not suggesting that I go directly to 
REM sleep, but I do go directly to dreaming.

My nod-off dreams are different in that they aren't
as lucid as my REM dreams... I know I'm asleep
and dreaming when I'm in REM, but I have no idea
that I'm asleep and dreaming if I've just nodded off.

When do I nod-off? I could be at the computer and
have interrupted my typing to think about what I 
would type next, and I nod-off. Or I could be reading, 
or watching TV or even carrying on a conversation, 
and without realising it my eyes will close and the 
activity I was engaged in, whether it be thinking, 
reading, watching TV or listening to someone speak 
to me, just rolls on as a dream. At that point I 
no longer aware of what I was doing 
just seconds before and my mind cranks up the 
movie projector, and in a seamless manner switches 
to a manufactured continuation within my mind of
what I was doing just moments before. But it 
doesn't end there because these dreams can be
quite bizarre. I mean really strange.

Quite some years ago I was sitting in the family 
room with a couple of the kids and we were 
watching some talking head type show on TV 
when I nodded off. One of the kids nudged me a
few minutes later and I woke up and immediately
launched into a review of what I was dreaming.

The kids didn't believe me.

So we sat there for a few minutes and they noticed
that I had again nodded off... nudge... and another
explanation of what I was dreaming... and 
further fascination. It was that exercise that showed
me that I not only started dreaming the moment sleep
took hold, but I realize now why it is that I don't have
a clue that I'm even lightly asleep.

When you're sitting there thinking, you don't mistake it
for being asleep and dreaming. And I guess when you 
nod-off you just slip ever so lightly into sleep that you're
still aware of your surroundings to some degree. When
I nod-off I'm fully dreaming the next phase to what I 
was thinking and I have no idea that I've nodded off.

When I wake under these conditions i have total recall
of what I had just been dreaming... when I wake after
a proper sleep in my bed, I still have a very high recall
rate.

I wonder if I do need looking into as Butch suggests...
maybe I should sleep on it.

Goodnight.