My dreams are becoming more real as of late. My ability to discern between fantasy and reality lessens and the lines between the two become blurry. I have woken up many times, wondering if what happened the night before was real. It felt real, I felt conscious, I felt awake, albeit a little drowsy.
It wasn’t long after my previous day dream, the one where the man in alley looked at me and said I wasn’t one of them, whatever that meant, that these surreal dreams started happening. In these dreams, nothing bad happens. I hear a noise in my house and walk around it with my guard up like a south paw boxer. What made it different from normal dreams was that I could feel the carpet on my toes, I could hear the fish thank gurgling, my dad snoring. The detail was too real. Other dreams were more like watching a movie where things happen and the actors are talking directly to the camera.
At first, these dreams were harmless and seemingly pointless. Most were of me wandering around my house, the yard, or my own room. Occasionally I would be at a friend’s house, but they were never up. I would ask my parents the next morning if they heard me walking around the house last night, and they promptly said that they hadn’t.
Was my mind getting the better of me? Was I going mental? Did I have some condition? Thank you universe for the internet and the creation of webmd! The closest thing that I could come up with was a REM sleep behavior disorder. Usually with REM, the muscles becomes slight paralyzed through the brain is as active as it is when you are awake. What ends up happening is that the individual acts out their dream. There body moves as they move in their dream. As I understood, that meant that the person would be seeing one thing in his or her mind, but acting out in the real world.
The exact cause of RBD is unknown, webmd said, except for those who had serious illnesses like Parkinson’s or were coming off of hypnotic-sedative withdrawal (whatever that was) and anti-depressants. I wasn’t on any medication and my health was fine. I was almost certain that I had RBD. Then I got a phone call from my best friend on the other side of town.
Last night, I had another surreal dream that I had gone over to visit him. He had filled his hot tub on the back porch and with my unexpected visit, asked if I would want to join him in a quick dip. I agreed to it, changed into a spare swimsuit he had. While in the hot tub, I know I jabbed at him, asking if he was the one who put the money in it and where he was working. He remarked that the servants, which he often called his parents, had done most of the installation and it would be taken out of their pay.Then I woke up.
“Hey man, what’s up?” I said.
“Not much. Just sayin’ that was pretty awesome of you to stop by last night! We should do stuff like that more often?”
“You mean… the hot tub?”
“Yeah man, that! On a school night too of all things! Gave us time to talk without worrying about homework and junk.”
I hung up the phone.
It wasn’t a dream. It was real. But why did it feel like a dream? I had some control over what I did, but as dreams are, it was unnatural, like being on autopilot except for emergencies.
Something was wrong.
I woke up a second time. My neck and face were covered in sweat. It was still dark outside. I pinched my cheek, and feeling pain, assumed I was awake. The movie “Inception” came to mind and I had wondered what exactly happened. The research on the internet and the phone call from a friend, it was just a dream. I couldn’t recall when I started researching or how I got to the computer. I did remember laying down the night before, but how did I know about RBD?
I opened my laptop and checked my search history. Webmd.com was on the list with a search heading of RBD. I checked my phone. My friend had called me and the call only lasted thirty seconds. There were two other missed calls after that.
I did the only thing any sensible teenage boy would do. I went upstairs and knocked on my parent’s door.
“Mom? Can I talk to you? I think I’m sick.”
It wasn’t long after my previous day dream, the one where the man in alley looked at me and said I wasn’t one of them, whatever that meant, that these surreal dreams started happening. In these dreams, nothing bad happens. I hear a noise in my house and walk around it with my guard up like a south paw boxer. What made it different from normal dreams was that I could feel the carpet on my toes, I could hear the fish thank gurgling, my dad snoring. The detail was too real. Other dreams were more like watching a movie where things happen and the actors are talking directly to the camera.
At first, these dreams were harmless and seemingly pointless. Most were of me wandering around my house, the yard, or my own room. Occasionally I would be at a friend’s house, but they were never up. I would ask my parents the next morning if they heard me walking around the house last night, and they promptly said that they hadn’t.
Was my mind getting the better of me? Was I going mental? Did I have some condition? Thank you universe for the internet and the creation of webmd! The closest thing that I could come up with was a REM sleep behavior disorder. Usually with REM, the muscles becomes slight paralyzed through the brain is as active as it is when you are awake. What ends up happening is that the individual acts out their dream. There body moves as they move in their dream. As I understood, that meant that the person would be seeing one thing in his or her mind, but acting out in the real world.
The exact cause of RBD is unknown, webmd said, except for those who had serious illnesses like Parkinson’s or were coming off of hypnotic-sedative withdrawal (whatever that was) and anti-depressants. I wasn’t on any medication and my health was fine. I was almost certain that I had RBD. Then I got a phone call from my best friend on the other side of town.
Last night, I had another surreal dream that I had gone over to visit him. He had filled his hot tub on the back porch and with my unexpected visit, asked if I would want to join him in a quick dip. I agreed to it, changed into a spare swimsuit he had. While in the hot tub, I know I jabbed at him, asking if he was the one who put the money in it and where he was working. He remarked that the servants, which he often called his parents, had done most of the installation and it would be taken out of their pay.Then I woke up.
“Hey man, what’s up?” I said.
“Not much. Just sayin’ that was pretty awesome of you to stop by last night! We should do stuff like that more often?”
“You mean… the hot tub?”
“Yeah man, that! On a school night too of all things! Gave us time to talk without worrying about homework and junk.”
I hung up the phone.
It wasn’t a dream. It was real. But why did it feel like a dream? I had some control over what I did, but as dreams are, it was unnatural, like being on autopilot except for emergencies.
Something was wrong.
I woke up a second time. My neck and face were covered in sweat. It was still dark outside. I pinched my cheek, and feeling pain, assumed I was awake. The movie “Inception” came to mind and I had wondered what exactly happened. The research on the internet and the phone call from a friend, it was just a dream. I couldn’t recall when I started researching or how I got to the computer. I did remember laying down the night before, but how did I know about RBD?
I opened my laptop and checked my search history. Webmd.com was on the list with a search heading of RBD. I checked my phone. My friend had called me and the call only lasted thirty seconds. There were two other missed calls after that.
I did the only thing any sensible teenage boy would do. I went upstairs and knocked on my parent’s door.
“Mom? Can I talk to you? I think I’m sick.”
