Sleep and Dreams

Yesterday I drove from home to Santa Barbara then sat in a meeting went to dinner. This morning I had to be in a meeting at 9am, finished at 11am, then have to wait around till 4pm to get my picture taken with my coworkers, go to a fancy dinner, then drive home and will get home around 1am. Tomorrow is a big day for my students and I have to be "up" for them to do their best and get confidence in themselves.

When I travel I usually listen to audio books. I drive a lot so I listen to a lot of books, usually a mystery novel or a war book, something that will make me forget I am driving and makes me want to stay in the car longer. This drive I decided to do something a little different. I decided to listen to Dreams by Sigmond Freud. It was only 5 discs, but I could only listen to 2 before it realized I couldn't concentrate on what the book was saying and my driving. I was very interested in the book, I think I need to sit down and read it. It was interesting to hear how they did experiments when someone was sleeping and they pinched his neck, and he dreamed of a shot ... I would have waken up and been upset! One time they dropped some water on a guy's shirt, and he dreamed he was he had run a long distance and was all sweaty ... how many of us would have waken up because of the water? Or it reminded me of putting a sleeping person's hand in warm water and making them pee all over themselves. Ok, parts of this book I think were crazy, I really think a lot of this is some guy rambling on to think of things to write about. How many of us really remember our dreams, and can tell others what we dream. My part I will remember the best was when they were really talking about sleep. The book talked about the importance of sleep. It is not just a time to rest your body, but to rest your mind. Sometimes when I have stressful jobs I take the time to close my office door, or lay down in bed for just 15 minutes, complete silence and as dark as I can, just to rest my mind. When I teach people that want to be teachers I tell them to take a 10 min break and be by themselves, away from all students, and just NOT be a teacher for a while. I know no one listens to me and they have to find out on their own. As I was listening I was thinking about when I was in college and often went to be early, my roommate tried to change my habit and had me listen to John Denver as I was in bed ... didn't change me! I think wondered if sleep balanced out in the end, If you sleep early when you are young, are you more adept to sleep late when you were older, and vice versa? Are you only allowed so much waking hours and when you max those out do you die? I love to sleep, and don't like getting up! You know the saying, "Do you live to eat, or eat to live"? I have another saying (I am starting today), "Do you live to sleep, or sleep to live"?