Driving back to my childhood house.
The front door’s open. The garden’s gate too. It’s a dark blue hour, and the sky is murky deep purple.
Heart sinking, beating like a wounded wild animal, I run everywhere inside and out of the house. I’m calling my kiddo’s name.
Kiddo’s gone. Kiddo’s lost. I have to find my baby. I have to. I will. But please, not at the bottom of the pool. Please. NoNoNo. No. Please.
And I woke up. It was a dream. Just a dream. The worst end to any story, right!? Otherwise the most wonderful one to our worst nightmares!
As you might have suspected, dear fellow writers and readers, no way I was able to fall back asleep after that. Nor was I able to read a little. I settle for the words and see where they would lead me.
As I sat down in front of my laptop friend, I soon realized this dream was one among many other strange ones I had lately. None so awful, thankfully.
It got me thinking about this power within the Dream Worlds. Was it especially good for writers, poets, and artists of all kinds? Does it help or rather feed creativity to have a vivid dreamworld nightlife?
Why We Dream the Dreams We Dream?
If there’s a question frequently asked by pretty much every human on Earth at one point or another during their lifetime, which we wish to be long and prosper, is why do we dream?
Even more frequently: why on Earth did I dreamed about that?
There’s no clear answer, and scientists are still looking for answers, but there is some theories upon wich they tend to agree. By the way, you’ll find the links for my tiny non-exhaustive research down below.
- Since dreams seem to have an evolutionary function, we dream about weird or scary things to prepare us for real-life threats… and weird situations. Same thing goes for our social skills. In short, our dreams help us become better humans!
Dreams help us solve problems, consolidate our memory, and regulate our emotions. - We might forget our dreams, but our brain doesn’t. Some of those images and strange situations created by our subconscious are stored away somewhere in there. Maybe nearby where our imaginations live?
- Dreams may mean something in our day-to-day life. Some might even be premonatory… but scientists have yet to explore the interpretation side of dreams.
When it comes to finding our dreams meaning, it seems wise to be careful about the info we find online or in books. After all, the way we interpret dreams varies from culture to culture, from decade to decade… and from business to business.
Let’s Sleep On It. Really. Let’s Do It!
Among all the scientists, and from a mama who now knows better, there’s one common ground: sleeping is wonderful.
More so: a good night of sleep is A-MA-ZING.
Ask any university student, any new parents, or any person who suffers from insomnia: sleep deprivation is hard.
A few weeks without a good night of sleep has physical effects: intense fatigue (dah!), headaches, attention deficit, memory loss.
It also affects our appetite and our moods. We’re more likely to eat more to compensate for the tiredness. We’re also at risk of feeling depressed or anxious. Even burned out.
Yes of course, on some levels, we all know how sleeping well and, incidentally, dreaming is crucial for our creativity.
Then again, we all try to write a few hundred more words, we all read one more chapter, we all watch a screen before finally going to bed.
Lately, I got back to a good sleeping routine, adapting to the fact that every. single. night. kiddo is crawling in our bed, moving around, spreading all limbs in every direction.
I started to get to bed early.
At first, I was a bit « grrr » about that, thinking I was loosing the few free hours I have in a day to write but, after a few weeks, I really, really feel the difference.
And it shows in the words, in my focus, in the ideas swirling again in my brain.
Feeling great feel goods… Well, it’s not my most clever one, but it’s so true.
May all the good words flow your way, dear fellow writers and readers. Thanks for stopping by.
Until next time!
Sources
Sleep on it Canada – A French version of this article is available on their website.
Marie Alice Writes & Reads 