Sleep

The Color of Dreams

A curious feature of that nightly activity is that, once you’re sure you’ve got it described in detail in your mind, amnesia kicks in and another night passes without a description the next morning.

So too with dreams: when awakened in the midst, the details and sometimes the symbolism are clear. If captured the following morning in the pale light of dawn in written form, it is sometimes possible to elaborate the outlines of three sessions of dream-work.

Or, the content may slip out of the conscious, only to surface momentarily, later in the day.

There is neurophysiology that we won’t belabor at the moment.

Has ever there been a competent description of falling asleep by a succinct writer?

Such a description need not come from a Nobel Laureate in Literature or Medicine.

What do you see?

…

It is, eyes closed, a blank slate of little meaningful detail.

Does every man see the same every night? Are the shades of grey the same or different between men and women?

What about that lens diaphragm that is first sensed at the margins of the visual field, if we can call it such with eyes closed? That sensation that the black, absolutely formless and colorless but distinctly circular margins close in from all slides in a repetitively closing circle.

It is not possible to accurately describe color, but it seems to be shades of gray and a dark purple, as if only the black white photoreceptors are active while color perception has gone dormant.

Nor is it static.

It seems to move like a muddy pond stirred up and drifting in some uncertain current. There is a convergent motion there, not linear, perhaps like an inky vortex free of psychological distress.

Perhaps that gray field is always there behind and beneath the colors and precision of daily life.

You can send out psychological messengers, checking each limb and organ system. There is no light, so the sensation of chilliness is more intense. Eventually, the sensation of cover and blankets fades to an amorphous comfort.

One foot may explore the other and find a heel that is colder than it seems. Eventually, the body falls into its natural position, and relaxation continues.

Unless there is organic pain that demands medication.

There may be interruptions from without and from within: stray light of a certain wavelength intruding from a neighbor’s security lighting; sharp sounds some white noise fails to soften and diminish; the sudden intrusion of a muscle cramp from exercise or insufficient magnesium.

You might think, with the number of people who bemoan insomnia, this lack of awareness of those few seconds before the soul plunges from conscious to subconscious, would not be so uncharted.

Try this: you won’t remember to do so until this evening when you are comfortable, the cares of the day are set aside, and as you relax…