poem: the gift of peaceful nights & happy dreams
Another poem for the Poetry Train with a train in it! This is from the 3:15 Experiment and was published in between sleeps: the 3:15 experiment 1993-2005.
The “nightmare” mentioned in the poem is actually a night terror. 
One of the bizarre aspects of Night Terrors is that you can’t remember them in the morning, or even really right after you have them. Over the years, I have tried to remember them better. By writing them down sometimes during the 3:15 experiment, I have some records about them. It seems I can remember more about them in the middle of the night than I can in the morning. Possibly the act of writing them down commits them to memory as well because I can still see the images from this one.
Night terrors rarely have narratives, like dreams do, but this one had a hint of one. It was still clearly a night terror in that it the threat was there in my home, just outside my window and then by my bed.
for more dream inspired poems, go to readwritepoem
August 25
315am Friday 2005 Ventucky
Been up since 230am
when a nightmare
woke me screaming
It’s hard to go back
to sleep when a
bony arm and hand with
saggy flesh has
reached up from under
the bed to get you
Lying there awake I could watch
the sliver of old moon
creep across the bed
then lighting my flesh
and my way as I wander
through it to get a glass
of water in the kitchen
the moon faint enough to
let stars show on this
rare clear night
Nights like these I
appreciate my lover
his hold on me
increasing my grip
in this reality and not
that other his hold
on me his strong presence
there his calm breath
brings my breath back home
His warmth his few
words let me find me
let me sort through the
confusing painful terrifying
images to find a way
to articulate what I have
experienced to find a
narrative for images that
lack one: I had
killed this girl off and
after years of watching
waiting she was finally
coming to get me
Lying here after speaking
not fully awake and not
really asleep haunted by the
images of her I listen
to the sounds of the night
the train passing through
the heavy trucks in the fog
the bed creaking as he
gets comfortable and falls
back to sleep the baby’s
occasional whimper
I am reluctant to rejoin
the sleeping the dreaming
the world of my slumber
lacking peace the conflicts
and fears of my days seeping
into the subconscious of my
nights
I ask the baby each time
he wakes: did you have a
good sleep? Uh huh
he says yeah he says
Did you have good dreams?
Yes he says uhhh huhhhhh
Does he even know what dreams are?
If I could ask for one thing
for my child perhaps
that might be it:
The gift of peaceful
nights and happy dreams
celebrate national sleep week: sleep tips!
Partly because of Night Terrors, I have had problems with getting to sleep and staying asleep (it’s hard to want to go to bed to sleep when you suspect you will wake an hour or so later in a full-on panic attack due to a very real hallucination!).
Here are some tips (which I added to and adapted from an interview with the editor of the Ladies Home Journal) which can help us all get more sleep!
1. let in the morning light: sit in the sun, go for a walk–don’t wear your sunglasses!
2. walk at sunset— by walking at sunset, you let those last rays of sun tell you it’s time to wind down–let the last rays of light sustain you for the night; this will help with anxiety, depression, and insomnia
3. practice yoga, both asana (active yoga poses) and restorative poses which show your body how to release and relax. yoga asana (done 3 hours before you intend to sleep) will tire you physically. yoga practice balances your hormones and other internal systems, and will teach you how to breathe smoothly and calmly. when you’re tryign to get to sleep, bring the breathing practice to bed: breathe in with gentle breaths thinking “joy” and breathe out with soft breaths thinking “peace.” focus your mind on breathing in joy and breathing out peace while doing yoga and again while dropping off to sleep.
4. or any active exercise if done 3 hours or more before sleep
5. take a hot tub or warm bath in the evening–and let your body temperature drop (that cold dash in the house will do it!) before climbing into your cool sheets
6. turn the lights down in the evening–light candles for dinner and around the house, use twinklelights, dim the lights
7. turn the media off (TV, computers etc) an hour or so before you go to bed, and turn your eyes to the page and read for awhile–let the back and forth motion of your eyes relax you, hypnotize you
8. sleep in a dark room–dim any lights, including the glow from your clock!
9. cut out or cut back the caffeine!! avoid it after 3pm–or about 8 hours before you want to go to sleep
10. enjoy light meals; avoid overindulging in alcohol or using alcohol as a sedative
11. use aromotherapy–lavender and/or myhrr in particular will calm your brain and your nerves (see previous posts on frankinscence and myrhh)–put essential oil on a pillow liner or on a handkerchief and put it in the pillow case
12. write out what’s on your mind with your left hand in a journal before trying to go to sleep
If you do wake up in the night, get up, pee, drink some water, maybe eat a small bowl of healthy cereal with or without yoghurt, and try some of the tips above like reading a little, then when you feel wound down, climb back into bed.
what works for you? post your comments below!
on the prowl for ways to get off the trail sometimes…the art predator
Fandango Americana 3/8 line-up
Night Terror Poem– 3:15 Experiment August 14, 2002
Beware to those these circus dreams
comets slipping away like
like clouds like fog like sun
and that was at first that
bizarre night terror–it is even
further cobwebby the ivy grows in the
garden of memory the lawn chair even
and the bird bath gone
There was something in the air
like narrow puzzle pieces
they glowed orange neon they shimmered
they floated suspended in the air
like a huge school of minnows or plankton
you can imagine my alarm my fear
because yes they did not belong
here floating in the air of
my bedroom but what can you do
about it
When Danika Dinsmore first invited me to do the 3:15 Experiment in 2001, I was curious, excited and afraid. My night terrors, I had discovered, typically occurred about 60-120 minutes after I went to sleep. In fact, one of my tricks in assessing whether something is a night terror or not is to check the time: if whatever is there is there when I’ve been sleeping for about an hour or more, it is most likely a night terror and not some scary visitation or burglar or murderer or whatever my mind had conjured up.
But still, I was afraid–what if after getting up at 315 and writing I went back to sleep and an hour or so later had a(nother) night terror? was it worth it? I decided to go for it anyway, and this week’s Poetry Train submission is from my second night of the experiment in 2001:
August 2, 2001 315am
no night terrors this night
yet
i lie in wait
is it better to toss and turn
restless
or to sink into sleep
only
to experience extreme
fear
which lurks
the night
just before
dreams
————————
8/2 too
the alarm sings
the little dog is excited
he’s just gotten to sleep
i know cuz he kept me awake
he likes to sleep right next
to my belly
whether it’s hot or cold
he circles himself there
when it gets light
birdlike
he gets restless
active
see I am trying out a
brightly lit blue phone
to find easy in the dark
it has already been moved
under the bed
still it glows
so he’s a busy dog
looks for fleas mostly
it’s an exciting chase
he yawns and licks my nose
he knows my name
for him I am special
Night Terrors banished by frankinscence and myrhh!!
It worked Friday night and Saturday night: no night terrors (that I remember anyway!)
What I did: Friday night, about 9pm, I lit a 3 Kings charcoal, placed several nuggets of frankinscence and myrhh on it, and my husband and I sat outside on the deck and talked. I was very stressed out, but as we sat there, and as I inhaled the incense along with the fresh rain cleansed night air, and added more resin as the resins burned out, I began to unwind after about an hour. At about 90 minutes, I felt a wave of relaxation, a wave of release; I felt like I was light, not so weighed down by my troubles, not so overwhelmed by my anxieties, and the requirements of my life. I felt like my head was balanced lightly on my shoulders, and my body balanced lightly on my feet. I felt as relaxed as if I had just had a 90 minute massage, and I was ready to go to bed, ready to sleep, and to sleep peacefully. We sat a little longer, then came into the house and put the burning remains in our shower as we brushed our teeth and got ready for bed so that the scent infused our bedroom.
On Saturday, I burned the resins on and off during the day and the evening. I didn’t ever simply sit with the resins burning, but at the end of the day, I felt relaxed and ready to go to bed.
I wonder if it can be addicting? something to check into… I just realized that a root word in frankincense is incense.
new moon 3/7 signals more change
It was just an intuition that I hadn’t had a chance to follow-up–that the changes started with last month’s new moon and powered by the full moon/lunar eclipse would still be in action through the following new moon…Today I read on astrology.com:
On (Friday)March 7, the new Moon in Pisces marks a new lunar phase and a fresh beginning. Uranus conjuncts this new Moon, giving you a fresh perspective that inspires important change. Surprises and sudden events are also a well-known feature of this conjunction – stay tuned!
Night Terrors & aromatherapy
I’ve had Night Terrors for as long as I can remember–I just didn’t know what they were called until about 15 years ago when someone diagnosed the strange realistic hallucinations which caused my heart to beat faster than imaginable and for me to scream and to sometimes jump out of bed –and then forget the whole thing in the morning–as a sleep disorder called night terrors. She also told me that there did not seem to be a cure or medication to help.
About 8 years ago, I started taking omega 3s. A positive side effect has been a reduction in Night Terrors as long as I take mega doses of omega 3s. With all the stress due to the activities of the Church of the Asshole neighbors, I have found that even with significant doses of omega 3s, I am still having Night Terrors.
Last week when I purified the house with the frankinscence and myhrr…I had peaceful sleep! But I didn’t smudge every day and subsequently, the Night Terrors are back.
In subsequent posts, I will share some of my Night Terrors, some of the poems I’ve written about the Night Terrors, and information as I find out about it.
An Extra Day to Blog: February 29, 2008 aka Leap Day
Today is Friday, February 29, 2008–aka Leap Day. Leap Day comes once every 4 years to help our calendar play catch up since each year has an extra 6 hours to it (4 x6 = 24).
What did you do with your “extra” day? Did you use it to blog????
Benefit for Art City 3/8 3-??
“FANDANGO AMERICANA”
Proceeds from Fandango Americana will help re-construct the Westside Ventura icon, Art City. This innovative collective of artists has been part of the community since 1985. Art City has recently undergone great struggle, having to tear down most of its existing building structures in
