I'll be staying in a hotel all of next week and I'm blessed to have a woman named Iris as my roommate. We're excited for the time together to catch up as we don't often see each other. But I realized this morning that being my roommate comes with a warning which I must give her.
I sleep talk.
And not just mumbling like, "Huh, Gina's saying something, I can't quite make it out." No, because I'm a drama geek and that just wouldn't be as riveting. My sleep talking is full on trying to engage you in my reality, which is whatever I've been dreaming about. Add to that the fact that I am actually awake and fully aware of what I'm trying to tell you. Oh yeah, and when you don't understand what I'm telling you (and you won't) I will become frustrated and think, "Idiot!" before falling back asleep.
I started this in high school by wandering into my parent's room at 11 p.m. and insisting to my mom (who was still awake) that "my squad is missing" (referring to my marching band squad of 5). I spent 5 minutes trying to get her riled up about my missing squad but at one point she justifiably asked me, "Gina are you awake?" to which I responded, "YES!" and grumbled out of the room.
Fast forward 20 years and I have subjected many roommates to this behavior. My roommate in college awoke once to me jumping on her, screaming, "Help! Help! Help! Crap! Crap! Crap!" She stopped me before I ran out the door. Erik's born the brunt of it of course, everything from me insisting that he just rolled over the green peppers I was cutting on my pillow to thinking I'd crushed the baby to telling him not to come any closer (because I thought he was a stranger climbing into bed). He knows now that when I speak in a staccato tone, I'm doin' my thing and he should just go along with it til I lose consciousness again.
I wish I could stop doing this, but it's seemingly impossible. Instead I just have to warn people, "I will probably talk to you. I am awake during this times. You don't have to understand. Don't try to converse with me. Eventually I'll go back to sleep. I apologize for the weirdness."
Winding Down
12 years ago
2 comments:
Wow! Loved reading this! I do this sometimes, too. I turn on the lights, wake up BJ, and tell him in a panic, that we've lost the kids, or I've rolled over the baby. It seems so real to me, but then he tries to tell me everything's ok. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Interesting, huh? Hope Iris gets some good sleep while she's rooming with you:) Tell her to bring ear plugs!
I too am a sleep-walker. Jeff has an overabundance of stories. I even went on a short run while sleep-walking. But my best story is when my RA in college came into my dorm room, crawled into my closet, and peed all over the floor while sleepwalking. She apparently mistook my closet for the bathroom. About half my shoes were never the same again.
Post a Comment