QOT...W ~ June 10, 2015 ~ I HAD A DREAM ~

QOT...W ~ June 10, 2015 ~ I HAD A DREAM ~ when my parents were visiting from Nova Scotia last week, they brought me a Buckwheat Hull pillow that they had purchased for me from The Cumberland Perfect Sleep Company, which is located in beautiful Joggins, Nova Scotia. The company practically guarantees a better nights sleep, reduced migraines and  snoring, and a much more comfortable sleep.

My Dad has one of these pillows and my Mom swears that he is waking up less through the night and more importantly, sawing far fewer cords of wood!!

Knowing that I have been suffering with severe chronic neck pain for over seven years and debilitating migraines for as long as even she can remember, my Mom felt that it would be worth it to at least TRY the pillow (and believe me, after more than 7 years of battling this horrible chronic pain, I would try ANYTHING to maybe take some of the pain away)!! ~ I would probably even grind up the roots of dandelion stems with the wings of 4 bumble bees, 7 rose petals, leaves from oak, maple and elm trees, oyster shells and cornflakes, roll it up in seaweed and smoke it if you told me it MIGHT help!!

I may have mentioned that I have been on a merry-go-round of insomnia for days and days on end, (seriously, I was awake for over 76 hours straight a few weeks ago) and then I would "crash" for a couple of days before the insomnia struck again. 

Unfortunately, despite the lack of sleep, me "crashing" consisted of only being able to stay asleep for a couple of hours at a time, if that, then I'd be awake for an hour or two, and crash again for a couple of hours. Lather, rinse, repeat.

To give you some idea, here is a glimpse of what a typical day looks like for me:

~ up at 7:00am to get my son off to school

~ depending on my level of pain, I may or may not lay down and try to rest for an hour or two after he leaves and/or for an hour or so before he comes home from school at 3:45pm

~ After school, I would get Matthew a snack, play, snuggle and watch tv or a movie, do a craft or watch Matthew on the 4 wheeler 

~ by the time my husband gets home from work around 5:30pm, I am usually so spent and worn out, (simply from battling the pain) that I go and crash, usually telling myself that I will only lay down for an hour or so.

* I really wish I was more like my Mom. She can tell herself that she is going to lay down for 20 minutes and like magic, she hops back up, refreshed and wide awake exactly 20 minutes later. I have never been able to do that, no matter how hard I tried!

~ The past several months, if not the past year, has seen me laying down around 5:30pm, crashing until 8:30-9:00pm, getting up to take my meds, and crashing again until midnight or 1:00am.

~ I would then make lunches for my husband and son (and daughter if she needed one), lay back down and toss and turn until it was time to get up at 7:00am and start all over again.

That seems to have been my consistent cycle for the past several months so I was very much looking forward to trying the buckwheat hull pillow!

That first night, last Tuesday, June 2nd, I laid down around 8:00pm and slept for the first time in longer than I can remember, until 4:00am ~ that's a normal, regular eight whole hours!!! Hubby wasn't even upset that he had to make his own lunch since I didn't wake up to make the lunches!

And not only that, but I dreamt!! I most certainly cannot remember the last time that I was able to sleep deeply enough to reach REM sleep, during which, as most people know, is when we dream.

For years now, if I do manage to get to sleep, I whimper, moan and groan and clench and grind my teeth in my sleep. An indication that even in my sleep I can't entirely escape the pain. I haven't been sleeping quite as well as I did that first night with the buckwheat hull pillow (and no fault of the pillow ~ I have just been experiencing an incredible and horrendous run of pain and migraines). HOWEVER. . .when I am able to sleep, I AM DREAMING AGAIN!!! 

And talk about vivid dreams!! I have always dreamt in colour and in great detail and I'm sure that the recent full moon is playing some part in the vivacity and clarity of my dreams lately.

I have always loved to dream, even keeping track of my dreams by jotting them down in barely legible handwriting while I'm still half asleep. My Mom even got me a book on interpreting dreams.

Which brings me to my QOT...W ~ DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS? ARE THEY IN COLOUR? DO YOU HAVE RECURRING DREAMS? WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE DREAM? WHAT IS YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE? 

I will start by answering my own questions. I have had several recurring dreams, going back to when I was really young. I have only for the past week been able to sleep deeply enough to dream and although I don't remember all of my dreams, I can usually remember most of them, if I have dreamt at all. Often though, like most people experience, the more awake I become, the quicker my dream fades from my memory. 

Did you know that you can train yourself to remember your dreams? It's not really all that hard, but it does take some work and you have to keep at it for the first little while until it becomes like second nature. The easiest way is to keep a notebook and pen on your bedside table along with a dim flashlight or lantern. Don't worry about your handwriting, just jot down as quickly as you can, whatever you can remember about your dream. Don't worry, if you have enough little details, the rest will usually fill in for you as you remember more and more about your dream.

As for my favourite and worst dreams, I've decided that I should save those for my FLASHBACK FRIDAY post, not only to have something to write about this week, but because once again, Ramblin' Rose has made an appearance and this post is quite long enough!

I am very much looking forward to hearing all about your dreams. And please, let me know if you would like for me to try to interpret your dream for you. I am neither a psychic nor a medium, and this is all for fun. Sometimes it just takes that one word or short explanation to make things fall into place and to perhaps have a better understanding of what our dreams may be trying to tell us.

SWEET DREAMS EVERYONE and God Bless!!

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