“To sleep, perchance to dream.” – Hamlet/William Shakespeare
So apparently, Hamlet is speaking about death rather than actually sleeping and dreaming but it seemed like a fun way to intro this latest installment of 20 Days of Me.
I’m not sure what this says about me but my dreams generally fall into one main category and one other more nightmarish (and luckily less frequent) category. Good dreams? Can’t remember the last time I had a dream that I would classify as good. Never-ending slog full of obstacles? All. The. Time.
Never-Ending Stories
Most nights – or so it seems – I spend what feels like an eternity trapped in a never-ending sequence of events. The location and task vary but essentially I spend forever trying to get somewhere or to get something done but I am met with obstacle after obstacle and NEVER reach my goal. So frustrating!
Needless to say, I often wake up feeling already exhausted after a long night’s work.
Nightmares
My other recurring dream is what I call my 9-1-1 Dream. These dreams are similar to the never-ending stories in that I can never reach my goal but much scarier because, in this case, my goal is to successfully call 9-1-1 to save me from the “bad guy or emergency of the night.”
For whatever reason, no matter how hard I try, I can’t get through to 9-1-1. Either the phone is broken, or I repeatedly misdial, or the operator hangs up on me or… you get the picture.
When I wake up from one of these dreams I do whatever it takes to not fall back asleep into the same dream. I’ll usually turn on a podcast to distract my brain as I go back to sleep.
Wishing for sweet dreams
Am I doomed never to have good dreams? I asked Google and it led me to a WebMD article about a 2004 poll about sleep and dreams.
According to the poll, 65% of the 1,000 respondents report usually having good dreams, and among the people who were satisfied with how much sleep they get, 75% say their dreams are good. Bad dreams are more frequent among those who have a harder time sleeping. I generally get enough sleep but unfortunately, I’m still in the bad dreams pool.
Interestingly, only 1 in 9 people dream nightly. And bad dreams are more frequent for the nightly dreamers.
So looks like just bad luck for me. I definitely dream very frequently, and I can’t remember the last time I had a good dream. Oh well… such is life.
Here’s a nice quote I found about sweet dreams. Maybe I should post it near my bed to influence my sleeping brain to be a little nicer to me!
How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.
Bram Stoker
More from the 20 Days of Me Series
You can find other entries from the 20 Days of Me Series here:
