No matter what time I go to bed, I most often wake up at 3:00 AM - almost always on the dot –
even the morning after we all “spring ahead” or “fall back”. It’s annoying and more. Is it because of the witching hour of
lore? I have no idea, and I don’t really
spend too much time these days thinking about witching hours. The thing is … it is not actually the waking up part that is so bothersome – it is the dreams that come
after I fall back asleep -- if I do.
Even while I am having them, I know I am dreaming and think about how
stupid they are. I know that I try to
wake myself up on purpose sometimes just to get away from them. Then again, I sense, at other times, that I
am trying to bring them to a satisfactory ending. You know – like those dreams
when you are looking for something like your underwear or trying to get back home and the hallways are an endless maze. You are somehow compelled to find the lost object or get back
home safely. Who knows why?
Case in point about these predawn dreams …. This week I had a dream where people of
varying ages – all strangers (one of them had a mustache that needed to be trimmed) – were in my face shouting at me about vitamin
supplements. I was trying to shout back
at them to “Stop shouting in my face”, but I couldn’t make any sound. It was frustrating and I was angry. My throat was tight and strained. Seriously.
Picture that. Been there?
From that I went to the unexpected and joyful discovery
of a large hoard of regular mouth canning jar lids. Not only were they the size I have been
looking for during the past two years, but they were Ball and Kerr – my
personal faves. So – I went from
screaming angry to most happy all within what was probably a few minutes of
stolen sleep in the wee hours of the morning.
Oh – and get this. It has been several years now, but... I
once had a recurring dream that I was driving along a country road and when I
blinked, my eyes won’t open and I was driving along blind – just hoping for the
best. It was awful. As I mentioned -- it was a recurring dream...a recurring awfulness. I contemplated just staying awake forever, and ... I avoided road trips for a while. Truth. This nightmare disappeared immediately after I told someone about it. The same thing happened when I was a kid and
had a recurring dream of tripping and falling down my neighbor’s basement
steps. The sharing saved me. That’s what I do now that I know the secret. If I have a
particularly scary recurring dream, I share.
Sharing makes them disappear. I have no idea why. I consider it a gift. Then again… hope I am not passing them along. Sometimes I share dreams before they have a chance to reoccur ... just in case.
Anyway -- no wonder I am sometimes tired when I wake up in the
morning. Dreams are a strange phenomena
for sure and can be exhausting. Just another part of the human
condition – I guess. It might be interesting to delve a bit into dream interpretation. Then again -- maybe just best to leave it alone. Ah -- the witching hour. I still wonder if that has anything to do with this whole issue? I just don't wonder about it a lot. There are enough unexplained/unexplainable things sometimes.
