Waking Dreams

I had an interesting dream Monday morning. Among other things, it convinces me that my brain is segmented into discrete functional units. There was no visual component to the dream, only conversations. I've given the different voices names - Circadian, Cyclic, and Rational... based on what areas of the brain they seemed to represent.

Circadian: (Trying to wake me up) Wake up! Wake up! It’s 5:15 and it’s time to go to class!

Cyclic: No! He hasn’t slept enough! How can it be 5:15 already? You must have something wrong. He hasn’t had enough sleep. Go back to sleep. (I fall back asleep)

Circadian: (Trying to wake me up) Wake up! Wake up! It’s 5:30. He has to wake up now – otherwise he will be late to class!

Cyclic: He still hasn’t had enough sleep. And, anyway, if he doesn’t get enough sleep he won’t be able to function all day. It’s more important to get enough sleep than it is to be on time to this one class.

Circadian: (Frustrated) Now you’ve done it. It’s after 6:00 and he’s late to class. At this point, he probably won’t even go to class, since coach said to never come late. He got one extra hour of sleep, and now it’s going to ruin his entire day. And it’s all your fault.

Cyclic: Well, at least he got enough sleep. As I said before, it’s more important to get enough sleep than to miss one class. He’s never missed class before. And how could it be after 6:00 already? He didn’t go to sleep late last night, and he always makes sure to schedule 8 hours of sleep. There must be something wrong.

Rational (obviously, it took more time for the rational part to wake up): Why are you arguing? Doesn’t David always set an alarm for 5:15? He wakes up at 5:14 and looks at it, and then it buzzes in his hand and he turns it off. And it never stops. It’s not buzzing now – so what happened? What time is it anyway?

All Three (yelling): Wake up! Wake up! What time is it?

(I wake up, pull my phone out of my pocket, and look at the time. It’s 5:14)

Pause

All Three (moment of truth): Oh….. Daylight Savings Time.

Cyclic: I told you he hadn’t gotten enough sleep.

Circadian: How was I supposed to know? No one ever tells me about these things.