Giganotosaurus
Dreaming of Electric Sheep
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Sleep paralysis is theorized to be the origin of several myths, in particular the Alp, a demon that would sit on peoples chests while they slept and drink blood from their nipples. Last Summer I had a moment of sleep paralysis where I thought an Alp was sitting on my chest and blowing air on my nose. In reality the air was from the fan I kept on at night to keep me cool.In my late teens I had a pretty bad drug problem. I was doing a lot of speed. I'm not proud of it, but it's part of my history. Anyway, when I would finally sleep, I would have sleep paralysis, or whatever it's called when you think you're awake, but can't move or even scream. My closest friend at the time, also strung out, once turned to me and said, "I've been having dreams that I can't move." I'm sure it was the drugs. I've heard of similar things happening to people with drug problems, and even eating disorders. And when you think about it, being a speed freak has an eating disorder kind of built into it.
That guy hit me up on Facebook a decade or so ago. I was amazed that he was still alive. And happy to hear that he is now a boring, responsible suburbanite, just like me.
I used to have crippling anxiety and the meds they had me on caused frequent and realistic dreams. They became so regular that I began to map out a shadowy otherworld populated by people. They all looked like the blast shadows that people vaporized by nuclear weapons leave behind.
In one dream of particular note I was forced to marry a girl to solidify a business deal between our parents, and then subsequently tried to flee with her from the town hiding for what felt like several weeks in a forest of giant sequoias.
I actually still have the rough map I drew of the dream world sitting around.
Eventually I stopped the anti-anxiety meds and my dreams stopped being as vivid and regular. Occasionally I get ones like the one previously mentioned when I'm under a lot of stress, but nothing as real feeling as before.
Our brains are weird.