GETTING LOST IN THE DREAMS: adding flavours to plain and boring sleep

I saw this dream last night. I am going to a hospital where I used to work many years ago.  I am late and hurrying along the different corridors, finally I come to a lift and take it but it only goes up to third floor. My operation theatre is on fourth.  I know how to go there but cannot figure out the exact stairs to take. I take one and arrive at an open roof. To go to my theatre I have to jump through a very long and narrow gap in the wall. I hesitate but as there is no other way, I finally jump and make it to the other side.  Then I realise the theatre entrance is on the other side. I panic and I open my eyes, relieved that it was just a dream.

I see this dream quite often. The place where I am going may be different. It could be a shopping mall, a school, a cinema hall etc. One thing is always there that the places seem very familiar to me as if I have been going there often as a routine. I know the way but cannot somehow find it. In the dream, I also know that the same problem has happened before but I found my place eventually.

Of course, the dream is never this coherent. Halfway through, places intermingle, the level and nature of obstacle change, the urgency to reach the place and the reason to go there alters. The people around me look familiar as if I know them for quite a long time.

When awake I do tend to reflect on the meaning of the dream and I do think of some quite satisfactory psychoanalytical explanations. A man’s lifetime experiences are so varied, that one can rationalize almost anything. Explanations of dreams by others always seem to be based on the experiences of the explainers rather than the dreamer.

Do the dreams really mean anything or are they just the background noise in different areas of brain, which normally do not reach the level of consciousness?  During sleep, these impulses breach the threshold of cognition. One probably sees just random things in the dream but the mind fits it into some sort of a story that makes perfect sense in the dream but feels very bizarre when awake.

You can say that the background noise in the brain does depend on the bits of memories one forms when awake, thus making the dreams related to our wakeful hours. Whatever the truth, one thing is sure; the dreams do add some interesting flavours to the otherwise plain and boring sleep.

SLEEP: PLEASURE, GUILT AND SURVIVAL

I wake up in the morning around half past six. By wake up actually I mean just open my eyes and see the time on the wall clock which is very strategically hung on the wall.   Usually I feel like closing my eyes again and continue with the sleep. Most of the time I let myself do it and then get up after an hour or two. Now that I am retired getting up this late does not cause any problem but when I was working it did. I hated to get up at seven but I hated more being late for work.

        Once I am out of bed I feel ok and ready to tackle the day. It is just willing myself to get out of the duvet is the difficult bit. Some people are up and about by six or even five in the morning, not by compulsion but by choice or even inclination. Sleeping in a warm, comfortable bed under a soft duvet is so blissful. Why would anyone get out of it without a threat, I cannot fathom.

To get out of the bed I need to bribe my brain; promise a reward, give an incentive or sometimes even threaten it with cold water or fire alarm. When I was working the incentive was not to be late for work. Nowadays I dangle a big carrot: promise for a freshly brewed cup of Darjeeling tea. The moment I open my eyes in the bed I just conjure up the aroma of the tea and imagine the feel of the warm cup in my hands. This works a treat. I am up and in the kitchen in no time.

       Sleep is absolutely necessary for survival of the species. If our hunter/gatherer ancestors did not sleep well, they would not feel fresh and not be alert in the morning.  They would have been gobbled up by the predators they had all around them.   No further propagation of Homo sapiens! No me or you. This in fact is true for every animal species. Those who did not sleep well were gradually eliminated from the gene pool.

      To make sure of the continued existence of species, any action that is vital for survival gradually gets hard wired in our brain to be intensely and immensely pleasurable. This happens over thousands of years by natural selection.

          No wonder why it is difficult to abandon the sleep. I can put all the blame on Charles Darwin. I certainly feel less guilty now.

Disclaimer: Only part of the discussion is scientifically proven.