The Dream Animation

In the wee hours of Christmas Eve, I lie in bed, dreaming. In my dream I reach up with my right arm to grasp something. The situation is dire, lives are in danger, and I almost jump off the ground as I reach up over my head. At the same time, my actual right arm mimics my dream arm and my hand hits the headboard forcefully enough to awaken me. Sunrise is hours away. I lie in the dark a long time, thinking I might go back to sleep. But sleep does not return. I walk to my dark living room. I sit in my chair in front of the dark TV. For a moment I consider turning on the TV. But I leave it off.

Aren’t we supposed to be immobilized during dreaming just so that kind of thing doesn’t happen? I’m sure I read that somewhere. But sometimes it – the paralysis system – doesn’t work properly. Hence, sleep-walking, and sometimes sleep-eating or even sleep-driving. Sleep-walking and other sleep activities happen when part of our brain is awake and part is asleep. The part of our brain that makes us conscious and aware is fast asleep, but the rest of our brain is awake, enabling us to perform many kinds of activities while asleep. I had a college roommate who would get up in the middle of the night, pee on the floor, then go back to bed. I would be awakened by the sound of urine hitting the floor. By the faint light coming through our dorm-room window I could see his silhouette standing in the middle of the room and peeing on the carpet. Of course, it fell on me to get towels and soap and clean it up as best I could. My roommate slept through the entire event. Later, when I accused him of wetting the floor, he was adamant that it never happened. He insisted that he never sleep-peed. If those days were now instead of then, I would video him doing it and prove to him that he was a floor-wetter. But that was long ago, before home camcorders and video players existed, and long before smart phones with cameras were invented. Fortunately, it didn’t happen often.

Birds that migrate long distances fly non-stop for days. They sleep while flying. They have the ability to put one half of their brain to sleep while the other half is awake and navigating. Then the part of the brain that was asleep awakens and allows the part of the brain that has been awake to get its nap time. I wonder if birds dream … and what would they dream about?

Anyone who has owned a dog knows that dogs dream. My last dog, Shadow, used to dream. Her feet would twitch as if she were running, and she made whimpering sounds or growls as she ran in her dream world. I don’t know if she was chasing or being chased, but it was intense to her. When she awakened she apparently knew she had been dreaming, just as you or I would know. Sometimes dogs sleep-walk. I saw a video of a dreaming dog that stood up and ran straight into a wall. The dog awakened looking slightly sheepish, as in, “Did I really do that?”

I pondered all these things in my dark living room. Feeling a gnawing hunger in my stomach, I fixed a hearty bowl of oatmeal. Oatmeal is said to be a “stick to your ribs” food. Which means it’s satiating – “filling”. Oatmeal has complex carbs that produce serotonin, and the milk I mix with the oats contains sleep-inducing tryptophan. But to be sure, I followed up with a shot of liquor. I turned up the heat in my chilly house and lay on the sofa. I went to sleep right away, and I dreamed. My dreams were long and complex and interwoven. Must have been the oatmeal.