Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite

You’ve been tucked in bed; your parents came in and read you a story. All your homework is done, which consisted of coloring a page of dinosaurs. Today there was a new friend at school. As long as he shares his toys he is automatically your best friend forever. The pretty pink dress sits on the dresser waiting to be worn the next day. Eyes heavy and ready for preschool the next day, ready for sleep now. Then the thought comes. It’s watching you. It’s in the closet, or under the bed. Its waiting till you fall asleep and then it’s gonna come and eat you. There’s no way you’re getting back to sleep now, but you’re so tired. If you fall asleep the big, hairy four-armed beast will surely come and jump on you. Though the fear is overwhelming you, sleep takes charge. You drift off into a soft cozy sleep. Then you scream. You bolt upright in your bed; parents run into your room to make sure everything is okay. You try to explain to them that the monster was attacking you. Your parents tell you that it was only a dream…

What are dreams? Thoughts that occupy our mind when we have no control?  Often when there is something nagging at the back of your head while falling asleep, or something you saw briefly, your brain will recollect it while you are sleeping. No one can know for certain what happens when one is sleeping, but there are people who dedicate their lives to figuring out what goes on in the mind when dreams take place. Even these dream experts are uncertain as to what exactly happens to make dreams what they are. Most people will spend one third of their life sleeping, and 6 of those years dreaming. It’s weird to think that the same amount of time a 1^st grader has lived, a senior citizen has spent in a state that nobody fully understands. 

I have noticed that when I eat just before I go to bed, my dreams are more vivid and I am able to remember them far better than other nights. After discussing some forms of art that revolve around dreams, such as short stories in English class, and movies that have recently come out, I have been thinking a lot more about what happens when I sleep.

Some interesting facts that I found about dreaming:

1.       Blind people DO dream images.

The particular images in the dream can vary depending on whether the person was born blind, or whether they became blind after already knowing what colors were, and what the world looked like.

2.       Men dream most often about other men. Women dream about men and women equally.

3.       Babies are unable to dream about themselves.

Until the age of three or four, one cannot dream about oneself. One can only dream about other people or things.

4.       90% of dreams dreamt are forgotten within minutes of the dream ending.

5.       The majority of people experience reoccurring places in dream, or reoccurring dreams, otherwise known as “Deja Vu dreams.”

Have you ever been dreaming, and known that you’ve been down that hallway before, or been in the same situation years ago? I don’t think anyone can explain how our mind comes back to the same location that we only know when we are snoozing. In most cases one will not even remember that once they had a dream about, say, a beach with black water until once again while sleeping they come across the same charcoal waves.  Have you ever experienced that? I know for a fact that I have returned to a place in a dream that I have only ever visited in past dreams.

Sometimes in a dream I will be at my house, or somebody else’s. The thing about being at those locations is that it’s not actually the same location as in real life. The structure of the imagined building looks nothing like the one I see while awake. Yet somehow in our mind we know whose house it is. The idea and feeling of the setting is the same even when the place looks completely different.

Dreams are unexplainable. One night you could dream that you’re on top of the world (literally if you desire) and the next you could be trying to escape from some daunting fate. Everyone has experienced what it is like to dream. Even though we don’t always remember our dreams they are there.  They happened, but they didn’t really happen…

…It was only a dream.

Beginning of the Inevitable

               My grandfather constantly reminds me that I’m getting older.  At this point in my life that’s not such a bad thing. One of the main concerns that he has for me, is that I won’t remember what it was like to be a kid and to be in high school. Pretty much every year the same aging man presents me with a journal with direct instructions to write down everything. Though I have tried hard to fulfill his wishes, I am laden with piles of blank journals that sit around gathering dust. It’s not that I don’t want to remember this time and what I am now, but I have no real motivation to sit down every night and write “Dear diary…” But now that I have begun, I believe I must finish.

                Task one—Introduction: I like astronomy. It amazes me that the earth is pretty much insignificant compared to the vastness that lies beyond our atmosphere. When I go out at night and look at all the bright dots in the sky, I realize that I used to just see them as stars, and they were so pretty and ornate, but now I see them as Cassiopeia and the Summer Triangle and they have more meaning to me. Though I love stars that twinkle I am obsessed with those that act. Movies and plays consume so much of my free time. I am not that strict of a critic but I am very partial to movies that are good (other’s opinions may vary). My favorite movie by far is The Iron Giant. If you yourself have decided that you do not like this particular movie, then I advise you to visit another site. If you find you have never seen this film then I would have to tell you to get off the computer and watch it.

                Though I seem to have made myself out to be a couch-potato star-gazer I would hope that through other posts it will be clear that that is not all that I am. I love soccer, music, traveling, fish, piano, food, dogs, running, books, sleep, photos, swimming, bracelets, hiking, paper, plaid, water, pasta, dandelions, the color blue and so much more. There are few things that I actually do not like, like mushrooms. I guess there is no real theme or whatnot to this blog, and I will mostly just be writing all sorts of different random things. Whatever seems to be occupying my mind at the time will probably find its way here.