To Sleep Perchance to Dream

Drunkeness level 1/5

Sleep is a strange thing. Since moving, my sleep pattern has not really improved. In reality it's got a little bit worse. A lot of this is to do with my overloaded conscience, and the rest is due to the bed I've got. The creaks and groans it makes when I turn over are loud enough to wake me up! (As well as all my neighbours and their pets. There is a goldfish living next door who is now receiving therapy for the amount of times I've disturbed his rest)

As I can't fall into deep sleep anymore, I tend to remember almost all my dreams, several per night. There is a wide eclectic mix of subject matter... rude, funny, scary, emotional and the truely bizarre. The people involved range from individuals I've only ever met once, family members, close friends, famous actors and complete strangers.

I remember when I was about 14 an art teacher at school got us involved in an experiment about thinking and dreaming, but it's only now I've realised what he said was true. Which side of your body you lie on, determines the time-frame of your dreams.

If you are right-handed, and sleep lying on your right arm, you will dream of something that might happen in the future. If you sleep on your left arm, you think of something that has already happened. If you lie on your back you dream of the present and if you lie on your stomach you might suffocate on your pillow! :o)

As a lefty, lying on your left or right arm is reversed (so left arm is for the future, and right for the past). I can now confirm that all this is true.

If I find myself dreaming of schooldays, or someone I knew at college, I will be leaning on my right side. If I turn over, I find it impossible to get back to the same dream, and I drift into some future fantasy instead.

Last night was quite funny. I woke myself up from a beautiful story involving a girl I used to have a crush on many years ago. As I tried to drop off again, I had turned over and I just couldn't get back into the same train of thought. I decided to force myself to turn over and there she was in my head waiting for me! It's good to know that if I want to deliberately dream about old times, all I have to do is lie on my right side!

What to try it yourself without actually going to sleep? Look up and think hard about the earliest Christmas you can remember...think hard...concentrate on everything and anything you can remember about that time (good or bad)

Which way did you turn your head whilst you were concentrating? If you are right handed you probably turned your head slightly to the left. Leftys turn their head slightly to the right.

...I've absolutely no idea what happens if you're ambidextrous.