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Experiments with Sleep (and its Deprivation)


Meteo Xavier
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Since we're talking about dreams, I had the most bizarre thing happen in a dream the other night.

Like most of my dreams, it was all disjointed, but somehow flowed together. I remember this very vividly. I walked out of a mechanics garage (my car needed breaks or something) and walked onto a busy street. Everything was totally blurry and I couldn't make sense of anything. In my dream, I realized I was not wearing my glasses. After I fished them out of my front pocket and put them on *IN MY DREAM* everything came into focus.

Seriously, what the hell is that? While I do wear glasses/contacts everyday, I can get by just fine with out them. In my dream it was like looking through an old warped window, which isn't nearly as bad as my vision usually is. I told this to a few people and they either said I was A. bull shitting them B. think it symbolized something deep having to do with "perception" of... whatever. or C.Just think it was a cool dream. It was seriously though one of the coolest things that's ever happened in a dream. The rest of that dream I got lost in a city and stumbled into some sort of underground people trafficking situation.

No idea...

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I rarely recall my dreams, but of those that I do remember, they're almost never nightmares. They almost never have anything to do with real life, either -- it almost always involves something I was watching/reading/playing/etc. Quite possibly the nerdiest dream ever: I recall fighting Vegeta inside Sealab (of Sealab 2021 fame) for some reason. I can't remember why (or even if there was a reason, really), but I do remember that I kicked his lily ass. And then Sealab exploded, because Sealab always explodes.

I've had a handful of zombie dreams too, but oddly enough they've never been nightmares. One I remember was me sitting in a big skyscraper of some kind (I think it was a hotel?) on a second-floor walkway above a huge lobby. There were zombies swarming all over the ground floor, but we'd destroyed the staircases between the first and second floors (good zombie survival strategy, that) so we were safe. I was sitting next to someone on this balcony-walkway with a rifle in my lap, looking out the lobby windows (which took up the whole front wall, naturally) at muzzle flashes and explosions going on at the other end of the city. I had a brief conversation with the guy next to me, along the lines of "I guess the army's retaking the city." "Yep." "Should be here by tomorrow, you think?" "Yeah, probably." "I hope they don't shoot us because they mistake us for zombies." "Yeah, that would suck." And that was the end of the dream.

Another I recall involved me boarding up a house because zombies were on the way. It wasn't my house (it wasn't any place I recognized) but I was trying to board up all the doors and windows to make it zombie-proof while at the same time watching people outside run around in a panic. I was trying to board up a window and look out of it at the same time (which even in a dream didn't work very well) when I saw the first zombie come walking down the street. A guy stepped up to it with a shotgun and was about to blow it away when he stumbled, so he shoot it in the foot instead of the face. That slowed the zombie down, but it kept coming. I guess the guy with the shotgun must've been out of ammo, because instead of shooting again, he cocked his arm back and hurled the shotgun like a javelin, straight through the zombie's chest. It lodged there, sticking straight through out of its back, and then the zombie fell over dead. Even in the dream I remember going "Holy shit, that was awesome!" That's about when I woke up.

So yeah. I tend to have dreams that are weird, but cool. Or at least, the ones I remember are.

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But I do get that terrible leg fatigue when I run in my dreams... or worse are the dreams where I get too tired to run so I have to crawl, and then when I wake up I really feel THAT physically tired.

Sounds like Restless Leg Syndrome. I know some people who suffer from it. You really should go see a sleep doctor, as it can seriously effect how much rest you get when you sleep.

As for dreams where you actually feel things physically... well, I've only had one nightmare in my life. Basically, I was in a holding cell, and someone kind of officer or something was questioning me. That person left, and sent in one of my friends... someone whom I trust and look up to very much. I was very relieved to see him, but he didn't say anything: he just put his hand on my arm... then he took his thumb and started applying in VERY hard to pressure points on my arm (that don't exist IRL, but did in the dream.) It hurt like hell, but the feeling of betrayal was even worse. When I woke, my arm was extremely sore in all the spots he had pushed on. One of them even bruised later.

Normally when I wake, I can dismiss all of the emotions I experienced in the dream as being based on fiction, but I just couldn't shake this one. I was in this weird rut all day. Even years later, I wonder if the dream had some sort of significance, as if it was more of a vision than a dream, because it was much more vivid than any dream I've ever had.

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One of them even bruised later.

Okay, I'm all for "The Power of Suggestion," but this just sounds like an exaggeration. Now you've gone too far! After all, a dream is a dream. To be completely obvious, dreams aren't real, and anything that happens in them doesn't happen in real life. But we all knew that already...

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Okay, I'm all for "The Power of Suggestion," but this just sounds like an exaggeration. Now you've gone too far! After all, a dream is a dream. To be completely obvious, dreams aren't real, and anything that happens in them doesn't happen in real life. But we all knew that already...

Yes and no... it's common to have dreams where you're conversing with people, and you are in real life. I've bruised my arms and legs before after punching/hitting things in my dream, because my physical body jerked and hit things. It's not really that uncommon.

Now I wouldn't go so far as to say he ran a marathon in his sleep. :<

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Sounds like Restless Leg Syndrome. I know some people who suffer from it. You really should go see a sleep doctor, as it can seriously effect how much rest you get when you sleep.

It's no biggie; the leg fatigue goes away just minutes after waking up... maybe it's more of a temporary semi-paralysis thing. And if something was seriously affecting the amount of rest I get while asleep.. with the amount of sleep I get, I think I'd know about it ;p

But that wikipedia article does sound kind of like me (though it could just be the "OMG I have everything in the book!" reaction). I always assumed it was because I don't have a lot of muscle in my legs, and a lot of chairs aren't build for my bony ass.

Yes and no... it's common to have dreams where you're conversing with people, and you are in real life. I've bruised my arms and legs before after punching/hitting things in my dream, because my physical body jerked and hit things. It's not really that uncommon.

Sounds like the most likely thing to me... probably jabbed your arm with your hand or ribs or something... I dunno =/

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I used to experiment when I was younger (hey, didn't we all?) with sleep deprivation; I believe I had some grand scheme to write something about it and get it published.

I went through three days of no sleep before I simply couldn't stand it. Not out of exhaustion, oh no; that wasn't what made me give up.

It was the goddamn noises.

Think of it not unlike Ulver's "We are the Dead." Night after night of staring forward, lacking anything of real substance to do, the only thing to keep you company being the horribly warped radio and the single, red eye belonging to it.

I became acutely aware of sounds; the little noises of the night that few people seem to hear. Insects, nocturnal animals roaming along the outside, distant cars, planes flying overhead at all hours, the creak of the house settling. At first, I admit, it was utterly fascinating--staying up in silence, listening to all of this and hoping for something new.

But eventually I couldn't stand it any longer. I cannot remember why; perhaps it was some combination of total exhaustion, the collapse of most of my mental faculties by that point, or something else entirely, but I just didn't want to hear those nightly noises any longer. During the day is fine--I'm awake, doing things, performing errands and working and whathaveyou. But at night? That's all secret; hidden sounds not meant for me.

I sleep with the radio on now, to drown those out.

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It's probably the chairs thing. If you're really thin/bony like me then sitting on unpadded chairs will press in places that can cause muscle fatigue.

I'm actually a big fatass... however, it does seem possible that I was hitting something with my arm. Surprised it didn't wake me up though.

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