To sleep, perchance to dream

William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1.  Part of the famous "To be or not to be" speech.  I know, 'cos I've just looked it up.  I did start to write that with the intention of sounding knowledgeable, but I decided to be frank and honest and admit that although I realised the quotation came from Shakespeare's works, I would have guessed A Midsummer Night's Dream rather than Hamlet.  But that is all by the bye.

Despite having managed to run the full course of my allotted three score years and ten, I have never been much of a dreamer.  A day-dreamer, yes, but it has been only rarely that I have dreamt at night, and then I have never managed to remember the detail of the dreams, just that I have dreamt.

(Did you know, "dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends with the letters "mt"?)

But all that has changed over the last couple of weeks or so.  I have dreamt every night - and managed to recall almost every detail of each dream the following day.  Even now I can remember what I dreamt more than a week since, but don't worry, I'm not about to bore you with the details.  I will simply say that they have all been typical dreams in which places, things and people morph into other places, things and people, seemingly quite naturally and without causing me any surprise.

I have been wondering just why this should have come about.  I have heard it said that eating cheese last thing at night can cause dreams, but I don't eat cheese last thing at night.  In fact, I rarely eat cheese at any time since my doctor discovered cholesterol.  The Old Bat and I had thought for years that the doctors at our surgery didn't believe in cholesterol but last year I was called in to provide a blood sample for testing as it had been noticed that people with rheumatoid arthritis are susceptible to high levels of cholesterol.  And guess what?  Mine was high, so cut out various fatty foods such as dairy products - especially cheese.  Which was a shame because I particularly like good, mature Cheddar with fresh home-made bread and that was my usual lunch!  And I now use semi-skimmed milk father than the whole milk I prefer.  Of course, this means I get little natural calcium and as my bones are showing signs of softening (another by-product of RA is osteoporosis) I have to take calcium tablets!

Anyway, I have no idea why I should suddenly have started dreaming.  I seem to remember from reading Geoffrey Wheatley's books when I was much younger, that some people believe one's ka, or soul, leaves the body during sleep to travel on other astral planes.  (This article explains that in some depth.)  I can't say that I have any more belief in that than I have in the happenings foretold by fairground fortune tellers, but hey, if that's what rocks your boat . . .

In case you are wondering, I did dream again last night.  I was in a car with a fellow Lions who morphed into the Old Bat and we were in London which became either France or Italy - it was unclear just which - and so on.

As I say, I have no idea why I should have started dreaming like this.  I just wish I did, then I might be able to stop it!

~~~~~

I have just realised that I haven't seen this little chap around for quite some time.  He can be rather cheeky, sitting on the corner of the garage roof and watching me doing the washing up!