Sleep Tight

This was a very interesting subject for us to study because I find sleep to be one of the most complex topics we've covered. Although I'm diagnosed with it, I'm almost positive that I have insomnia because it takes around One and a half to two hours to fall asleep. I go to bed at around 11:00 or 12:00 every weekday and wake up around 7:00 or 8:00 every weekday, but no matter what I can not fall asleep easily. During the weekends, I stay up until I feel tired and then I'm able o fall asleep almost immediately. When I wake up I feel exhausted. So I'm tired when I don't get enough sleep, I'm tired when I get too much sleep. I guess my body is programmed to some odd specific time amount that I'll never be able to find. It also confuses me what allows us to remember dreams. I'm assuming it's all based off of the time that we wake during the sleep cycle.

I too really enjoyed the sleep and dreaming unit. I find it so interesting that our minds are almost able to go to a different, internal world that no one else can go to. Everyone's dreams are unique, specific, and one of a kind that only they can access and revisit. I also find it interesting how dreams are fairly short and that there are multiple in a night. I really value dreaming because it feels like it's the only time during the day that I can totally escape and go to my own little world that I control.

Sleep is one of the more fascinating areas of the human mind. It is like you said, we are conscious but not. I also think it is interested that while in this semi-conscious state, we are still able to perceive things that are happening around us, like if your friend tries talking to you and you actively register they are there but continue on in your sleep-mode. I think also very interesting the way people used dreams to determine personalities in the Freudian style, because we are conscious to the fact we are unconscious and so I think a part of our personality would come out there.

That picture of that peacefully sleeping baby makes me so envious!! :)

This was probably one of my favorite sections to learn about. I like that there is a lot of mystery still involved with dreams and understanding how and why they work. Dreams are such a weird concept. For me, it feels like I have absolutely no control over my dreams. And I rarely remember what happened in them the next morning. I always wish I could somehow re-watch my dreams and see just how weird they are when I'm actually conscious!

The topic of sleep and dreaming is very interesting to me too. I usually have vivid dreams and have a lot of them in one night. The paralysis thing while dreaming is also interesting. I've woken up before and been paralyzed for a second or two until my body realized I wasn't dreaming anymore. Another thing that I've always found interesting is lucid dreaming. I've had only two lucid dreams that I remember and they are a very weird sensation.

I also found this topic interesting. When I came to college, I discovered my roommate, on occasion, would sleepwalk. She would climb down from her lofted bed and leave the room. At first, I just assumed she was using the restroom. But after a couple of times, I asked her and she had no recollections of ever leaving the room. I remember reading in the chapter on sleep about the one guy who got up in the night, got in his car and drove several miles to a house where he shot someone. He was declared innocent because he claimed he did the whole thing in his sleep. So weird!!