Comments on: Dream a little dream…

By: cathryn miller

cathryn miller — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:57:45 +0000

I have a friend about your age who is a Lapp by heritage and married to an Iranian. (Canada is most definitely a multiple ethnic society.)
I was delivering some text for an article (hard copy/lines were down) and her younger son answered the door.
He was half awake at 10:30 in the morning, and half dressed.
When he opened the front door I lost the capacity to speak!

There should be a law against young men being that beautiful when I am delivering boring papers to their mother!

I have forbidden his mother to tell him how I felt, and I presume he was so sleepy he won’t remember me!

Young men answering doors should not have the capacity to melt panty elastic!

But I bet both your sons can do the same. Where were these gorgeous boys when I was on the hunt?

Having celebrated another big birthday: well, others think it is big–I hope that you are enjoying a good day.

(P.S. I have made it to 58!)

Love your posts and your pics,

Huge non-nightmare hugs,

Cathryn

By: Diane

Diane — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:13:49 +0000

Ah, so that’s what the horse is supposed to represent – I did wonder. I rarely have ordinary nightmares – just these ‘sleep paralysis’ episodes every now and again. Fascinating you learned that coping mechanism. I agree there is nothing sexy about the incubus figure, it’s just a feeling of terror at having a stranger in the room.

Thanks for the compliment! I sure don’t feel old enough to have two sons that age! #2 son does still have those eyebrows and he is pretty irresistible to the ladies (some of my friends go a bit weak kneed at the sight of him!) #1 son looks completely different but is also just as gorgeous! I make great babies!

By: cathryn miller

cathryn miller — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:31:21 +0000

The sleep paralysis thing is really creepy: I have about one episode a year for no apparent reason. I started having them when I was 8 or 9 along with really bad nightmares (which is, of course, what the horse in the painting is) and they have continued since then. As a way to help myself with the nightmares, at about the age of 10 I developed what I later learned is called “lucid dreaming”. I can rewind a bad dream and “fix” it, or wake myself up because I can tell that I am dreaming. Doesn’t seem to help with the “sleep paralysis” though: on one occasion I had to wake myself up through three different layers of the “dream”. I don’t get an “incubus” and there is definitely nothing the least bit sexy about the experience. It’s just a sense of sheer panic along with an inability to move or call for help. Horrid!

So enough already! The book looks very handsome in its new incarnation. And it must be hard to believe that you have two children graduated from Uni! You sure don’t look it.

And if #2 son is still sporting those wistful eyebrows I bet he’s awfully attractive to females his age.

Hope the knee is all better soon. I can tell it wasn’t a tick bite because the tick stays.

Cheers,

Cathryn

By: Diane

Diane — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:10:20 +0000

It’s an attempt to get ‘bikini fit’ for the summer, probably doomed to failure, and I shall just have to be satisfied with ‘one piece swimsuit fit’.
I blame it on a couple of rainy weeks in Switzerland – nothing to do but eat cheesy food (fondue, raclette) and drink very tasty Swiss wines :-)

By: totaltransformation

totaltransformation — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:32:55 +0000

You’re on a diet? I didn’t know you were out of shape or overweight.

By: Diane

Diane — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:01:27 +0000

Mark – After a particularly random dream about someone I haven’t thought of for years or a person who is on TV or some such, I do wonder if dreams are just the brain filing away information – having a sort out down at the library as it were. Although I do have very deep yearning type dreams (mostly about my last ex) which are rather obviously deciphered.
These nightmares are so infrequent and different to ‘normal’ dreams and nightmares they must have a different trigger – be it physiological or psychological, I can’t say.

Jenny – glad you like what I managed to do with the book. The lady was pleased with it, I’m glad to report!
It sounds like the same sort of dream – check out the University of Waterloo link above, it tells you so much more about these scary episodes…

Padma – likewise you should check out the link too. There are lots of variations of this dream experience ( and they have posted an online survey for people to describe their own episodes.) I too didn’t tell anyone about my nightmare until I heard the explanation on the radio. It quite reassuring to hear so many people all have these episodes and that there are explanations/opinions about why it happens. Which you believe is up to you of course…. :-)

By: padma

padma — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:27:12 +0000

I found your site via your visit to mine and somehow ended up on this post. I must admit, I have been struggling with an experience like this over 10 years ago and to this day I’ve repressed it because I wasn’t sure what it was and as I got older I thought maybe I was crazy.
Well, now that it has been brought up, I am so glad to see a possible description. Mine was a bit different, there was no dream, only the sounds of a lot of deep voices and growling. I was laying on my stomach and couldn’t move for what seemed like an eternity. I thought it was my dog growling, but he wasn’t even in my room. Eventually, it was gone and I was terrified. At the time, I thought it was demons, but to be honest I have no idea what it was.
Keep us posted if your research brings anything else.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:46:40 +0000

That’s amazing what you did with that book, Diane! You’re a genius.

I’m on that same diet and exercise regime! What a coincidence!

Sometimes, fortunately not all that often, I “dream” that I cannot breathe and that I’m suffocating, and I cannot move and can’t wake up. It’s terrifying and it seems so real, when you wake up you can’t believe it didn’t actually happen.

By: creechman

creechman — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:53:59 +0000

Very thoughtful post. I myself am not of the B.F. Skinner vein, where everything our subconscious reveals is a transformation of external stimuli, although that is a large part of it. I think human beings are informed from within as much as from without, something science is not about to solve soon.

Dream themes, of being afraid, or neverending trying to “get somewhere” until U R exhausted, not sure why the mind feels it necessary for restoration of sanity in the morning, but that’s how it is.

What a disturbing painting.

By: Diane

Diane — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:23:40 +0000

It’s a grim painting isn’t it? Can’t figure out what the horse is supposed to signify….there are no horses in MY nightmares :-)

Well, at least the book is now in one piece. Just hope she keeps it away from the dog :-)