What is it about a three hour long afternoon nap that totally wrecks your brain for the rest of the day? Well, it’s probably got something to do with the fact that a three hour “nap” isn’t exactly a nap. It’s more like a brief session of sleep than anything else. Despite the fact that I know I’ll wake up groggier than before, I still love being able to sneak a nap in. This last week has been especially lackluster for me so I’ve been taking a lot more naps during the day than I ought to.

Lately I’ve really noticed an uptick in the craziness of my dreams, though. I love a good dream. Even the stressful ones are enjoyable to an extent because I get the same sensation as when I’m watching a film. I also have the unique ability to return to a dream if I wake up for a brief period of time. My husband always seems jealous when I tell him I went back to sleep to finish a dream, so I guess it’s really not as common as I thought.

Back when I was a kid I always used to hit the snooze button in the morning and over time I suppose I trained myself to pick up where dreams have left off, even if they were temporarily interrupted by an alarm. The only way I can describe the process is like pulling yourself out of the deep end of a pool and then walking to the diving board and plunging back into the water. Usually it’s pretty easy for me and it doesn’t always feel like I’m completely waking up, but sometimes I can’t get back to the dream and end up starting a new one.

My dreams are extremely vivid, too. I’m not always myself in my dreams, but even when I am I can switch between first person and third person point of view. I used to put a lot of thought into the meanings of the dreams I was having to the point where I would interpret them as a sign of things to come. Once when I was a teenager I had a few that actually came true the next day! Of course they were usually conversations with friends/foes or other little things like that, nothing like finding a pot of gold under my bed.

I don’t know when the last time I slept and didn’t dream actually happened, but I can tell you that those nights are few and far between.