The State of Strange and Weird

What are the images and dialogues that run through our head at night when we sleep? What is their purpose? Why is it that our brain delivers millions of imaginative pixels through our mind, telling stories that we would never think of in consciousness? Why are some given the ability to remember certain events that our brain thinks of, especially in such detail?

Since the beginning of time, dreams and nightmares have taken over the minds of innocent people who lay their heads to sleep. Even the dullest person can experience the thrill of living on a rainbow or dancing in a field of flowers. Even the sweetest person can undergo burning in flames and falling through an ice cliff. Once someone's eyes close, their mind opens. It opens into a world different from reality. It’s a world were they can live through anything and everything.

All sleep is experienced in patterns. Non-REM sleep occurs within three stages. The first stage may only last up to ten minutes, but is the moment in our rest when our eyes first begin to droop and the harrowing pressure of exhaustion creep in. The second stage is a lighter sleep where the heart rate slows and our body temperature begins to drop. Our body is preparing for its great dive into deep sleep. This third stage is where the excitement builds. It is the stage we enter into before our body decides where or not we will slumber away in dark silence or where we will be thrown down the Rabbit Hole. Regardless, arousal from this stage will result in disorientation and behavioral disgruntlement. These stages are essential. In sleep, our body works hard to repair and regrow tissue, build bone and muscle, and strengthen the immune system.

Rapid Eye Moment (REM) can begin ninety minutes into sleep. The heartbeat quickens and breathing becomes more erratic. Our eyeballs flutter beneath our lids, spinning in circles as our minds begin to explore a percentage of our brain that can never be touched during the alert moment of consciousness. The average human spends only 20% of their sleep in this REM stage. But the percentage of people who remember the visions they experience is far less.

So do these dreams and nightmares of ours have a meaning? Or do they simply occur to entertain us even when we rest? This is a book full of the most random and unconnected dreams and nightmares of me, a woman who sleeps, just like all others. Though, what makes me different from some, is the gift of remembering and being able to recall and write them down in such detail, that you would think you’re asleep again.

Every person dreams, whether they don’t remember or wish not to admit to it.