Lullabies

I hear music in my dreams sometimes, vague repetitive melodies with some backing instruments and reverb. The kind of song that could plausibly be in the background of a movie. I think it's quite realistic, until I hear actual sound again and am reminded that sound is not made up of impressions in the brain, but a tangible experience in the world.

It's startling, realizing that the hyper-real sounds of a dream are less real than audible sound. The complete opposite of visuals, emotions, and memories, which are so much more vivid in dreams I have coping mechanisms to ground back to reality.

This is a very useful property. Because it's less real than reality, I can fake it. If I'm in the right state of mind¹, I can make up a tune and start feeling around for how the impression of it in a dream would feel, rather than how it would actually sound. This is exactly mentally stimulating enough to keep me from thinking about the fact that I'm not asleep yet, but not so stimulating I have to focus awake. Most of the time, that slips me right to sleep.

I have no idea if anyone else dreams of music, or has the same mental mechanisms to make it work as a sleep aid. But for me, it works better than sheep.

- Rew

Nightly Notes

I forget, when I'm in a rut, how good proper sleep feels. I could do anything today.

- Rew