A few nights ago I sat up in bed, yelling. I would say I woke up screaming from a nightmare, only none of those things are true.
I didn’t wake up: I can’t say I was asleep yet. I was in that twilight state when the baby chickens walk around the bedroom.
It wasn’t a nightmare, it was just an image. Specifically an image of Gary slipping and falling at his mother’s house.
I was yelling, not screaming. Specifically I said “Noooooooooo!’ And then I sat up.
“Yeesh,” I said, “That was awful.” Then I dropped off again.
This time I was standing in the freezing cold snow outside someone’s front door, and they threw a bucket of cold water on me and I froze.
This time I didn’t yell, I whimpered. But, somehow I dropped off again.
When it happened one more time I called for Gary.
I whined, “Gary, I’ve had three night terrors in a row. First you slipped and fell at your mom’s, then someone tried to freeze me to death.”
He said, “What was the third one?”
“… Oh. I just fell against the the whiteboard again.”
And it’s true, I don’t know why my subconscious decided that would be the coda to two near-death experiences. I do know that since then I haven’t had a good night’s sleep.
2 responses to “Night terrors”
Oh I hate those! Once I remember dreaming of this evil woman laughing (can’t even remember the dream, just what she looked like and the dreams), and when I was able to finally wake up I could swear I could hear her laugh echoing down the hall. Those don’t leave you easily. On the other hand, the hubs (Dennis) swears he doesn’t really dream, but on the very odd occasion he does he swears my dreams leaked out my ears and into his brain, lol. But I totally get you. When they’re happening it’s so unnerving!
Lisa – when I stopped using an alarm, my dreams trickled to almost nothing. That was around the time we moved to separate beds, so maybe Gary’s ears are dream portals like yours.