Insomnia Non Sequitur

Monday nights Matt has class until 8pm. Usually this means I get lots of time to do whatever I want and yesterday I got all geared up for the awesome blog I was going to do. It was going to be major-epic-off-tha-chain-yo! And then I inexplicably woke up at 4am. WHAT THE FRUITLOOPS? Actually, I have been having trouble going to sleep for about a week but thought that daylight savings time had solved my problems. Alas and alack, this was not the case. And Mondays tend to be busy at work. Especially today Monday.

There's no reason why I should have insomnia, at least that I can put my finger on. I've had sleep issues in the past but I could always immediately pinpoint the problem. Oh I'm stressed about this or worried about that... Or I'm sick/in pain/addicted to playing Bejeweled. This time there really was no good reason. I'd even taken a melatonin to help me ease my way into sleep.

Admittedly, I am tired but not zombie tired. Still, this can't be old age? I mean, I know you need less sleep the older you get but 4 hours seems a bit extreme. I'm really crossing my fingers I can get some quality sleep since I've got things and stuff to do and lots of it.

So there you have it. You missed out on the blog of a lifetime all because it's all "exit" Sandman at my place. Dang-nabbit.*

*Let's hope I get some sleep. Apparently tired Amber is totally uncool and says weird things.

Dreams

I read an interesting article about the purpose of dreaming in Psychology Today not too long ago. It was by Jay Dixit and was called "Night School". It talked about a new theory which says that we dream in order to rehearse and prepare ourselves for situations. "Dreams are a training ground in which animals and people alike go over the behaviors that are key to their survival."

This actually makes sense to me, more so than any Freudian or Jungian theories. It also explains why the vast majority of my dreams are frightening. I shall be the most prepared person if a psychopath starts chasing me with a knife since I've been through that dream a million times.

I always thought that dreams gave your brain an opportunity to sort things out. Which is why someone I'd been thinking of or something I watched would show up in my dream that night. What about people who don't remember their dreams? Do they still get the benefits of the rehearsal? I suppose it would be subconscious.

What do you think? Do you remember your dreams? Does dreaming help prepare us for real life crisis? What about those dream books that tell you what a certain item in your dream is supposed to represent?