Jump!

Sorry It has been over a year since the last post. Here is something to cheer you up.

The Science of Sleep

Stéphane: ¡Un, dos, tres, cuatro!
[Stéphane plays the drums, then the piano, then moves the cameras. "Stéphane TV"]
Stéphane: Hi, and welcome back to another episode of "Télévision Educative". Tonight, I'll show you how dreams are prepared. People think it's a very simple and easy process but it's a bit more complicated than that. As you can see, a very delicate combination of complex ingredients is the key. First, we put in some random thoughts. And then, we add a little bit of reminiscences of the day... mixed with some memories from the past.  [Stéphane Adds two bunches of pasta to a pot.]
Stéphane: That's for two people. Love, friendships, relationships... and all those "ships", together with songs you heard during the day, things you saw, and also, uh... personal... Okay, I think it's one.  [Red smoke comes out of the pot.]
Stéphane: There it goes. Yes! Yes. [He coughs.] Okay, we have to run.

That was the opening scene to the movie "The Science of Sleep."  I still have not finished the movie but I wanted to post this quote regardless.  I have very weird dreams and so the I am certain that the quote is accurate and that dreams are a  very complex process.  Maybe its time I do some research?  For your enjoyment, I will end this post with a strange dream I had last night:

For whatever reason this dream takes place in the Swiss Alps.  The first part I remember is running up a snow covered mountain with a girl, who was supposed to be my sister, in her late 20s (my real sister in only seven years old).  We stopped to catch our breath, when the men who were chasing us began firing their guns at us.  Luckily we found a cave to hide in and the men passed us by.  As many of you know you can't go too many days without food or water, even in dream world, so my sister climbed to the top of the mountain and got a job at the mountain's only structure, a Mexican Cantina.  After a few days in became clear to both of us that the only way for either of us to get off the mountain was for me to break into the cantina and sneak into the basement (I never figured out why this was required of me, but it was).  I made it into the cantina fine but when I opened up the basement door the alarm sounded.  We, for my sister had magically appeared by my side, ran outside and quickly boarded a plane.  In the planes cargo hold we discovered an illegal shipment of tequila and hand grenades.  Obviously, the next step for me was to fly the plane.  Take off went smoothly however we could not get above the trees and this was a problem.  My mother (who must have been hiding with the hand grenades) came up to the cockpit to tell me that I should fly higher.  I then began to sing "It's a trap, It's a trap, It's a trappy trappy trap.  It's a trap, It's a trap, It's a trappy trappy trap. . . ."

I then woke up to my roommate informing my other housemate that the internet was back on.  Obviously I had been successful in dream world.

Snooze Button Dreams

Have you ever noticed that you dream (or remember dreaming) a lot more in the 10 minutes that pass until you have to hit the snooze button again? I dream a lot in the normal way now, but in high school I could never remember any dreams except the ones that happened between 7 and 7:10, and 7:10 and 7:20, and so on.

They're like quick hits or something, cheap thrills that can't really haunt or overwhelm you, but I love them. Especially on Saturdays, I not infrequently make the choice to keep sleeping in the hopes of having more of these dreams. I had a friend who developed some type of addiction to lucid dreaming, and I'm starting to get worried. [The Sleepy Parts of the Brain] may be trying to take over.

One More Sleep 'Til Christmas

The Postal Service - Sleeping In

National Sleep Foundation

Did you know there is a National Sleep Foundation?  Well, I didn't.  They have all kinds of polls and articles about sleep.  Definitely expect to see some of their stuff talked about at [The Sleepy Parts of the Brain]. In the mean time head on over there and take a look!

Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock

Here is a pretty sweet alarm app for the iPhone.  You place the phone in your bed and set a time range in which you would like to be woken up.  Once you've done that you place the phone in your bed.

Now here is the cool part.  When you sleep, your body passes through various stages or cycles.  When you wake up durring a cycle of deep sleep, you will feel less rested. The phone measures your movements in bed and from there determines which sleep cycle you are experiencing.  It then will wake you up during the preset window but will do it at the time you are likely to feel most rested.  While measuring sleep cycles with precision is much more complicated, this is the first time people have been able to purchase such technology for 99 cents.