Talking in My Sleep: I’ve got a bad case of somniloquoy — and no idea how to fix it

 

There’s an old song by The Romantics called Talking in Your Sleep that was always one of my favorites. I have been talking in my sleep since childhood. I like the song because it makes sleep talking sound exciting and fun. It’s the opposite of what really happens when you’re sleep talking:

1. The talker is heard clearly by the guy next to her while they’re sleeping.

2. The talker is making complete sense about how she feels.

The truth is, most of us who talk in our sleep are making no sense whatsoever. (Some people can actually be understood, but I don’t think it’s a majority). My husband Pierce tells me what he hears is a mumbo-jumbo word salad, impossible to sort out. I wish I could speak brilliantly or come up with good dialogue or even let my guy know I love him, like the subject of The Romantics’ song does.

Instead, I make weird ghosty sounds, like a high-pitched, shaky “Hoo — ooo” sound in the Scooby Doo episodes that were popular in my guy’s childhood. Seriously, that is exactly how Pierce describes it. Nothing sexy there, let alone romantic. I can hardly bear to think of waking him up to this sound, though thankfully, he says it usually lasts less than a minute.

I’ve been trying to figure out what I might be dreaming about, to come up with sounds like these. I’m sure I must be having some sort of anxiety dream or nightmare, but what is it? 

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Spring Forward, Fall Back: Make it Stop

I swear it was five minutes ago I turned my clocks back and hour. I REALLY needed that hour, where did it go? Seemed to evaporate by November and now they want to take ANOTHER hour away from us? Are you KIDDING?

Theodore Roethke's poem The Waking keeps prancing through my head. "I wake to sleep and take my waking slow," he says, and I agree with him. Morning is slooooowwww for me, and I only really start waking up when the sun goes down.

I once had an employer who said she loved night people because they were more creative. Whether that's true or not is anybody's guess, though I loved hearing it. Last night I was ready to dance around the moon at 2 a.m. Not so much this morning.

I shouldn't be surprised that my son is a night person, too - and has wicked insomnia. My question is, WHO started this whole daylight savings thing and why do we have to keep changing it around? Can't we just keep ONE time and not fiddle so much back and forth? Daylight savings time gets earlier every year anyway. Falling back an hour seems later and later, too.

Aren't these time changes for an earlier time, say, when people were living off the land? I know it's nice to have light earlier in winter (if you have to get up earlier). But... losing and gaining hours is making me crazy. Especially the losing part.

And when you're desperate for more time, as most people are....it shouldn't be that hard to keep things even and stop adding and subtracting every few seconds. Or months.

Okay. Rant finished. Thank you for listening.

I also want to thank Midwest Book Review for the wonderful review of The Beat on Ruby's Street this month:

You can find more here:

Also have to thank the amazing Pam Labbe for creating the graphic you see here.

And if you need an hour or two to read the book (or do whatever you want) -- I hope you find it soon.

Big clock: Scott Edmunds
Graphic: Pam Labbe