It is amazing the dreams people have, and how real they may seem. Sometimes our dreams don’t stay in the boundaries that have been set inside our heads but spill into real life resulting in talking, crying, or walking while we are still slumbering. Casual onlookers may become confused, or even laugh at the funny, nonsensical things we say when we are under the power of sleep. N8 and I have continued to share moments like these since we were first married. We’ve even had conversations with one another while we are both in the middle of dreaming.
Last night, for example, while I was in the middle of dreaming, N8 started pushing me and urgently saying, “Get up, get up.” I immediately obeyed and got out of bed. I was pretty out of it, but I stood next to the bed watching N8 pat around the mattress as if he were looking for something. Then he got up and walked over to the light switch. He switched on the light, looked at the bed and around the room, then looked at me with a very confused expression on his face and asked, “Why are we out of bed?” Reality crept into our minds as we realized that it was all part of his dream. Laughing, N8 told me how he was dreaming that we were standing on ice that was too thin to hold us up. We had a Halloween display that was on the ice as well that was going to fall in. Luckily, N8 pushed me off the ice (bed) in time. I’m not sure if he saved the Halloween display though.
N8 and I never know what we are going to get when we go to bed. One night, shortly after we were first married, we had our first experience with sleep talking. We had gone to bed with a lot on our minds. We were facing some of our first challenges with being married. I didn’t fall asleep right away because there was so much on my mind, but N8 was sawing logs before his head hit the pillow. As he slept, he dreamt that we were on the cruise ship we were on for our honeymoon. We were on the top deck surrounded by everyone’s luggage. In his dream (and in reality) he put his arm around me and said, “How are we going to get around this?” I heard him say this and thought he was talking about the challenges at hand, so I snuggled up to him and said, “Do you want to talk about it?” Meanwhile, in the dream, N8 got really frustrated about the luggage that was in the way. In discouragement he said, “Oh. . . just forget about it!” and (in reality) rolled over in the other direction. I started to cry, which woke up a confused new husband who was not quite sure why I was in tears. At the time it wasn’t so funny, but now we laugh about it.
Another time, N8 had been playing a PS2 game called, “Simpson’s Hit and Run.” In the game there is a black van that parks across the street from the Simpson’s home and spies on the Simpsons. One night after playing the game, I was awakened by N8 telling me that there was a black van in our driveway. Scared, I asked N8 if we remembered to lock the front door. He got up, went down stairs, checked to make sure the door was locked, and came back to bed. The following was our conversation as he crawled back under the covers:
“Is it still there?” I said.
“Is what still there?”
“The black van.”
He gave me a funny look and asked, “What black van?”
“You just told me there was a black van in the driveway!”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that?!”
We’ve had many other adventures besides melting ice and black vans. One night I was awakened by N8 taking all of the covers off the bed, wrapping them around his shoulders, and marching down the hall toward the entry way. When he returned I asked where he was going. “I thought the house was on fire.” If our house ever started on fire, at least we know the blankets would be saved.
N8 also will forget who I am at night. He will wake up feeling like he is in so much trouble because he is in bed with a strange lady. This happens frequently. It cracks me up. Once, N8’s mom flew all us out to Disneyland. N8’s sister Pookie spent one of the nights with us in our hotel room because we had two queen beds. She had the special experience of witnessing one of these occasions where N8 was not sure about who he was in bed with. It was pretty funny.
Dreams can be pretty crazy things. They can dwell with you throughout the day or you may forget your dream in an instant. They may feel as real as real life or be just as good as any action packed movie. Over the years we’ve gotten used to the sleep walking/talking. We just figure that since we are married and share everything with each other, we might as well share our dreams too.
