I’m not talking about hopes and dreams. I’m talking about leg twitching, straight up Freddy Krueger or dancing in a field of cotton candy dreams. And how to get back into them. And conquer them!
First, a little background on me and sleeping (not napping… I can write another blog post on that topic). I have a problem with hitting the snooze button. It’s no joke.
One of my ex-boyfriends got me a t-shirt with a Sony Dream Machine alarm clock on it that read “Keep the Dream Alive.” It replicated the exact alarm clock I had growing up.
My snoozing is a serious problem. My dad used to have to wake me up after I’d hit the snooze button 7 times. He was afraid that when I left for college I wouldn’t be able to wake up in the morning, so he bought me the most obnoxious alarm clock he could find – a Nickelodeon alarm clock:
He figured there was no way I wouldn’t be able to wake up off of this thing. Yeah, not so much.
Here’s the issue with me. I dream. Like crazy, every night. And in my dreams, the alarm sound is incorporated in the story. So if someone is singing “Nick-nick-nick-nick-nick-nick-nick-nick… Nickelodeon!” It’s like a barbershop quartet concert in my dream and I just keep on listening to those boys sing.
When I finally do realize that I am sleeping, I press ‘snooze’ and hop back into my dream.
Yes, I hop back into my dream.
I didn’t realize there is an actual term for this phenomenon… Dream Continuity… which is a step within Lucid Dreaming.
Usually the way it works best is if your alarm goes off at the end of a REM cycle, or even the last REM cycle, as it is the longest – about hour five or six in the sleep cycle. If you can fall back asleep, but now know you are dreaming, you can hop back in and complete whatever is needed in your dream. For me, it’s usually finding something/someone. Getting that baseball to Ricky Schroder. Finding my ticket to the Milk Festival. Whatever it is, I want to and need to finish it!
Try it if you can. Some people just hop out of their beds when the alarm sounds. If you’re on the lazy side, trying getting back into that dream. It’s pretty cool when you have the upper hand upon re-entry and know you are dreaming. You have some great control in there. Just be prepared to hit snooze a lot and not want to get out of bed.
Speaking of dreams… this video would make for an AMAZING dream. Ah, yes, a girl can dream.
Running on Empty (Revisited) from Ross Ching on Vimeo.
Life, Love and Yoga 