Heavy Blankets and Horses at Night

Occasionally I have a good nightmare. I define a good one by its ability to transcend my sleep state and enter into reality-land. It must manifest itself audibly, physically, or both.

On Saturday night I was being chased by a man I had just helped after a bad go-cart accident. I ran to my grandparents' old house and began to bang on the door because I knew help was inside. I was screaming, "Help me, Help me!" Monica then woke me up telling me I was having a nightmare. I wasn't yelling "Help me" in the outside world, just unintelligible noises.

She cuddled with me for a few seconds, turned over, and fell asleep--leaving me to the post-nightmare, paralyzed fear state in the dark. How dare her! I was also really hot and way too scared to leave the safety of the covers to change the temperature.

Monica's home stager training is finally here this week and we are both excited; however, she'll be gone three nights to the young adult TN mecca Nashville. This means if I have a good nightmare, I will have to resort to the "pulling the covers over my head for a false sense of security" method. I've found the heavier the blanket the better the false sense of security.

I also have some nightmare reduction techniques:

• No violent or scary multimedia watching after 8 PM.
• No falling asleep with the TV on, even good TV.
• Dealing with daily stress before I go to sleep.
• Reminding myself that I can trust my dog to warn me of any problems on the outside world, and for her to tell me if anyone is under the bed, especially since she already sleeps halfway under it.
• Whatever I do, don't fall asleep, especially right at midnight (thanks Mr. Krueger). I don't really follow this last one.

If all else fails, I can always remember how "nightmare" is a funny word. I mean really, I'm afraid of a horse at night? A wolf or a bear, maybe, but I think I can handle a horse.