Wednesday, January 7, 2009

To Sleep, Perchance to (NOT!) Dream

Some kind of disease was affecting scores of people, and unless a cure was found, they would all die. Somehow I had contracted it.

Medical advances are amazing. Just as the future was looking bleak, a group of doctors devised a life-saving treatment involving the removal and replacement of the affected individuals' heads. The new heads looked remarkably like artists' clay and were molded similarly. Time was running out. Did I want to undergo the procedure? Or die? The decision felt paralyzing. And just as I was leaning toward having my head removed, word came that the results of the surgeries performed so far were not quite what the doctors had hoped. Many of the patients failed to recover anything approaching normal brain function. Now what?

I struggled awake and looked at the clock. 4 a.m. I felt hot. Was I sick? My stomach felt a little queasy. Eventually I got back to sleep and woke up this morning feeling fine--more or less--except for the effects of a less than restful night's sleep.

Why did I have such a weird dream? Coincidentally, Yahoo featured a story today about dreams. If you're interested, click HERE. The story listed six reasons people have bad dreams: (1) anxiety/stress; (2) eating spicy foods; (3) eating high fat foods; (4) alcohol intake; (5) drug/medication intake; and (6) illness.

Hummm. Anxiety/stress. Well, I DID go back to work yesterday after a relaxing time off, and I AM teaching my first quilting class next Sunday, but I'm not feeling particularly stressed. On the way home from work last night when I stopped at the quilt shop, I had a nice little visit with a couple of quilting friends, and then I had a relaxing evening quilting and thinking up a new project idea. So, no, I don't really FEEL stressed, but I suppose I may be--it could be expected, I suppose.

The rest of the stuff on the list? Nope! I can rule all those out easily.

Did I watch a scary movie or read a murder mystery before bed? I have to answer "yes" as to the murder mystery, but it's not one that can be confused with real crime drama--it's written to be amusing, and it is. Nothing graphic.

So, I don't know why I had the weird dream, but it's awfully vivid still. I hope I sleep better tonight. I took a couple Tylenol PMs to help ensure a better night's sleep. Of course, that was before I read the part of the article about drugs/medication causing bad dreams. But at least if I have another bad dream tonight, I'll know what to blame it on!

Time, now, to go take my bath before the Tylenol kicks in and I drown in the bathtub. If that should happen, I'd like to go on record here saying that if I'm found alive but gorked out and unable to make decisions for myself, I DO NOT want my head replaced with a clay one. Okay?

I hope all your dreams are pleasant ones! Thanks for visiting!

9 comments:

  1. Oh, Oh. #3 Eating high fat foods - chocolate! I bet the hot chocolate is to blame, or the chocolate chips, or the little snickers bars at work, or a mocha latte something or other....

    I for one have to close up the bag of Guittard, real semisweet chocolate chips and get to bed, and pray for sweet chocolate dreams instead of your disease one.

    Nighty, night.

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  2. I think Gran is right, it was that last piece of chocolate you had befopre goinng to bed.Sure hope you wake up with a much better dream in your head.

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  3. wow....what a terrible dream! hope you have a better sleep tonight!!! I took some pain killers for my neck/shoulder pain the other night and had some really weird dreams that night....so good luck with the Tylenol! LOL

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  4. Fasinating how our minds work, isn't it? Very bizarre dream! Would be interesting to see if you some sort of repeat dream tonight after the Tylenol PM. Let us know!

    Jen

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  5. oh kim....you always make me laugh.

    Wonder why my DH always dreams of the first house we bought? Could it be because it was haunted? or the chili I served for dinner?

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  6. I've had some doozies but never head replacement with clay! You can keep that one. I wonder if the suggestion will make anyone else dream that tonight?

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  7. for some reason I always have bad dreams if I eat fresh strawberries after dinner... maybe I need my head replaced?

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  8. I have a lot of weird dreams due to medication but...if I have mushrooms for dinner I have bone-chilling nightmares. So you know I love mushrooms with just about anything. Life is strange.

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  9. I never know what I will walk into when I open you blog... but, I always happy that I did. You are a hoot! I may have to go read that article... I wonder what it means when you have the same dream and for several years. hmmmmm have a great rest of the week!

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