Noises in the Night

It seems like Brad is forever relating some little tale of hilarity and I am saying to him, " You should BLOG about that!" But he never does. So I am forced to tackle the telling for him.

One recent morning, Brad told me that the night before, as he was trying to fall asleep, he heard a shrill and distant scream outside. He thought perhaps it was either one of the neighbors being murdered or else hysterically calling a pet. Huh. Okay. And it kept happening...until he realized that it was merely a small whistle of air going in and out of my nostrils as I slept. I thought that was hilarious because I have often thought the Same Thing about my breathing; in the delirium of sleepiness, I think it's the result of some big noise far away, and then I realize that it's just a small noise close at hand, and that I'm making it.


Speaking of nocturnal noises, I just have to mention my own little tale here. Brad talks in his sleep. I don't know which is more exasperating- the fact that I always forget that he sleep-talks
( and inevitably think he's trying to say something to me and so I say, " What?" and am met with maddening silence in return) or the fact that when awake, he flat out refuses to believe that he talks in his sleep. On the rare occasion that I actually wake him up after he has said something, he will say, " I wasn't asleep! I didn't say anything!" He steadfastly claims that it is I who was sleeping, and in fact, that I dreamed the whole thing. Which is, of course, total nonsense. He always falls asleep first. It's a rare and enviable gift. But the frustrating thing is that I can never quite understand what he's saying...and because I can never repeat to him later what he actually said, he just scoffs at my assertions. I try to show him what he sounds like- muffling my mouth and muttering some random syllables. But to no avail.

The other night as he lay sleeping, he said, as clear as a bell, out of total silence, " Yeah." And then shortly thereafter, " Welcome to the Seventh Heaven." WHAT?! I had to wake him up just so I could tell him about it. As always, he had no recollection of ever saying anything like that...or dreaming anything that would relate to it.

It makes me think, what do our brains DO when we are asleep? I mean- what goes on in them? We think we know ourselves, are in control of our brains, are aware of our thoughts and moods...But what happens when we surrender to sleep? What unremembered, unknowable thoughts take over? I'm not saying this in a scary sense, but just in curious wonder. Where do our minds go?

Okay- I just read this to Brad and he said I couldn't post it because it's not true. He claims that he has been saying the same thing over and over on random nights for months to make me THINK he talks in his sleep. Whatever. It's all part of the mind games he likes to play. I know the truth. His reply to this addition? " As long as you say what's true, you can put whatever you want on there." Mmmmm-HMMM.