Night Screaming

My poor husband… I don’t know how he does it – how he can sleep in the same bed with me every night. You see – I have a horrible habit of talking in my sleep, flailing about, moving/walking, and even waking up screaming. I’ve always had very vivid dreams for as long as I can remember. Periodically as a kid, I’d talk or walk in my sleep – one time I even changed clothes! But the “waking dreams” and screams didn’t start until my late teens. My “waking dreams” as I call them are instances when I wake up and look about, but instead of seeing the “real world” I still see the dream. Either completely as if I’m still immersed in it or partially where I just see certain images from the dream mixed in with reality. A lot of times I just wake up very confused and I have no idea where I am or what is going on. Then the worst is when I wake up screaming – no warning or build up. I just start screaming. I first remember experiencing these dreams the summer before I went to college. Once I woke up and there were decapitated heads surrounding me all over my bed. Another time I saw a 4-foot rat next to my pillow. My poor college dorm roommate had to deal with me too – I nearly scared her to death the first time I woke up screaming, not to mention the time I saw a zombie sitting at my desk. The dreams come and go. I may have 3 in one week, and then nothing for 3 months. It’s completely random. I think the scariest one so far was the time I was living alone in an apartment and saw a dark figure standing over my bed. He had no substance, basically just a silhouette. I had to get up, walk across the room, and turn on the light to make it disappear. That was usually the only way I could make any of them fade away. Luckily, I now have hubby to shake the dreams off of me. He was introduced to them when we were still dating. I remember waking up and instead of seeing the bedroom wall; I saw a daylight street scene with a man in a Hawaiian shirt looking at me. I kept slapping the wall asking who he was. Poor hubby had to shake me awake. I remember once grabbing my cat (who was asleep on the pillow next to me), sort of shaking her, and asking over and over “what is this?!” I don’t remember what kind of creature I thought she was, but I did NOT see my cat! I’ve seen my son standing next to the bed, people and things that aren’t there, you name it. Last week I even tried to climb my black iron headboard – I dreamt it was some sort of ornate gate. Apparently I’m on a roll now with the dreams. I’ve been having them more and more lately. Hubby said I woke up screaming again a couple of nights ago. Poor thing has gotten to the point where he just yells at me “Wendy go to sleep!” – and whacks my arm. I just grumble grumble, roll over and go back to sleep. More times than not, I don’t remember anything the next morning. I’ve thought of having another sleep study done to investigate them, but there’s no rhyme or reason – no pattern to them. Most likely I’d sleep like a baby in the lab.

This morning I offered to sleep in the guest bedroom so hubby can sleep in peace. He hasn’t taken me up on it yet, but it’s still a possibility. Poor thing, this is just one more thing on my list of crazy quirks and habits. He really had no idea what he was getting into when he met me! LOL Well, like my mama always says – life with me will never be boring!