I was standing in a room full of people I didn't really like listening to this idiot talk about how cool a nickname "Zanario" was (pronounced like "scenario.")
This was infuriating because that's not how it was supposed to be pronounced. It was supposed to be "Zanarino" and this doofus was clearly dropping an N. I wanted to say something, but I figured it wasn't worth causing a scene over it. Still, I was extremely irritated.
And then I woke up.
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This is not a post about achieving my big dreams. This is a post about the actual dreams I have in my sleep.
And how much I hate them.
By and large, my sleep has been pretty dreamless for about ten years - not coincidentally around the same time I had my first child. Sure, in sleep deprivation I would have crazy dreams about a baby crying or whatever, but most of the time my sleep was completely, blissfully, empty void.
There are five exceptions.
The first three are recurring dreams that happen with varying intensity and frequency. One is that I somehow have to go back to high school and fix some credits I missed. One is me in a massive hotel that I've been to many times before. I can never remember what I'm doing there, but I know a few times I was riding a go-kart on a gravel path next to a very high cliff.
Then there's one where I'm fighting a white mountain lion.
The fourth exception is just general stress dreams that everyone gets when work is piling on. That usually takes the form of me being some version of my current job in some amalgamation of the different schools I've worked at with various combinations of different students and colleagues I've had. Those are irritating too, but everyone has stress dreams.
The fifth exception is the one time dreaming was actually useful and I dreamt the whole story of I summoned a ghost to be my girlfriend.
Other than that, not a lot of dreams going on.
Until recently.
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From 2011 to about 2016, I was able to run off of 4 hours of sleep.
Around 2016, I started needing 6 regularly.
Then when I got COVID last year, that 6 seemed to turn into 7.
It used to be that after 6, I would wake up, and if I somehow slept past that (like into 7 or 8 hour territory), that's when I would dream. Just the usual nonsense, meaningless dreams that leave you more confused than anything. It didn't happen that often, so it didn't bother me that much.
But now for some reason I wake up after about four hours after having a really irritating dream, like this morning's zanario/zanarino nonsense. Then I have to try and go back to sleep for a couple more hours, and sometimes I have ANOTHER dream!
I wonder if this is because I'm actually taking care of myself. My stress levels are way low right now thanks to my new decision and dedication to slow productivity. I've also noticed I'm not needing to be as constantly distracted as before. I sometimes turn off podcasts while I'm walking the dog. Sometimes I drive in silence.
I wonder what other side effects from this new way of doing this will have.
...though if there was a way to get rid of these stupid dreams, I'd be happy about it.