About a year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. I snore. Go figure. However, I'm a shallow breather, that is to say, I take such shallow breaths that my body constantly wakes me up to take a deeper breath while I'm sleeping. When I did the sleep study, I was waking up to take a deeper breath 59 times per hours. Needless to say, I wasn't getting much restful sleep and not much dreaming.
Now, I don't wake up much at all. I sleep like the proverbial log. Dreams are a nice side effect of this as well. It's like having a movie in your head and you're part of the picture, but you never know how it's going to turn out.
Other dreams however, I control. For example, because of my age and how many years I've been employed, I find myself dreaming of retirement. It sometimes gets very tough when you see co-workers leaving, because their situation makes it easier for them to retire or they're slightly older than you and it's their turn to leave. Eventually, that will happen for me too.
This year, I decided I wanted to try it again. So far, that has fallen flat. I don't pick my camera up nearly enough right now. I know what I want to take photos of, but I can't, because work is getting in the way. That happens, so I dream about when I can go out and just take photos for a day, just to see what I can get.
It's fun to dream. P.J. even wrote about dreaming what he would do if he won the lottery. That's three quarters of the fun, because we all know we're not going to win, but it's fun to dream about what could have been, or what will be should we ever get lucky. My retirement dreams are a little bit different than that, because somewhere down that road, those dreams will come true.
I think eventually I'm going to have to do one of those sleep tests. I might have something like that. I snore and know my restful sleep isn't that great. There are times when I wake up and I am so tired and know I shouldn't be.
ReplyDeleteAs for dreaming, I do still dream some. But I don't remember a lot of them.
You really should, sooner as opposed to later. My doctor, when I met him for the first time a year and a half ago asked if I snored and immediately ordered a sleep study. He said some snorers just snore, but it's always safe to rule out more serious things right away. I don't get nearly as many headaches and I only get up once in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Before, I'd get up, 6 or 7 times a night and then take a half hour to get back to sleep. Now, I get up, pee, get back into bed and like that it's morning.
DeleteSo glad you are sleeping better and more healthfully. Dreams, as long as they aren't scary, are interesting. Mine are often like a comic strip in that there is this segment, and the next and the next like frames in a comic. Best wishes on your retirement dreams.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much.
Delete