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version seven. http://demongin.org |
Rapid Eye Mathematics
The shadowy science of the inverted Camera Obscura
Wednesday, 2008-05-14 | Dreams
| The poker player learns that sometimes both science and common sense are wrong; that the bumblebee can fly; that, perhaps, one should never trust an expert; that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by those with an academic bent. |
They say that dreaming keeps you sane; that it might be the only thing.
They also say that you dream even if you don't remember having dreamed.
They also say that you dream if and only if you manage to sleep long enough that you work through the lighter stages of sleep to the deep, "REM" stage of sleep.
It is commonly speculated by the lay people (at bars and on trains) of my day that 70-80% of sleep is NREM or non-REM sleep. So, supposing that you're sleeping the seven or eight hours a night that is commonly asserted by lay people (at bars and on trains) as the average amount of sleep an adult person should find in a 24 hour period and also supposing that you're entering deep, REM sleep, you're looking at a minimum of 1.4 hours of REM time (and a maximum of 2.4 hours).
Even if you're only sleeping what some would consider to be a "scant" five hours a night, you've still got at least an hour of REM sleep coming to you.
The "rub", however, is that certain types of health/well-being deficiencies or anxiety or even light interruptions from outside sources can prevent a person from ever working up a good, lathery state of rest and making it to REM sleep. I have also heard it conjectured by the lay people of my day that going to sleep drunk will prevent a fella from entering the REM stage of sleep.
I have been sleeping fewer than five hours a day in unfavorable, interruption-rich environments for as long as I can remember. I fall asleep drunk most nights of the week. I am anxious all the time and my health is, for these and other reasons, increasingly deficient.
I cannot remember having dreamed in a long, long time.
And you know what? I don't miss it.
