MY DREAM - YOUR NIGHTMARE

Sleep Talking (referred to as Somniloquy by the shrinks) is a fascinating phenomenon. At least to the sleep talker. To others as well, as long as you say you love them. But, what if you talk about those black bat-like shark wolves that were chasing you in your dream? Though I have never described anything of the sort (so I have been said), I have been little of a prophecy-teller.

It must have been the monsoon of 2014. After a tiring study session, my sister had come to sleep beside a happily dozed off me. Not very deep into her sleep, my sister says, she had awoken to a strange voice (not me!) calling her friend’s name. My spooked sister had tried to wake me up and got this in return.

“They keep scaring you, as long as you get scared. Stop getting scared, they will stop" I had said. Like a possessed person, she says. Apparently, I had not helped her but only scared her more.

“How could you have said something so apparent? And what was with the voice?” she asks, every time we recollect the incident.

Well, I don’t know. Also, if I were her, I would be more scared about the source of the first voice. After all, I wasn’t sleep-talking for the first time! Yeah. There were other instances. And this one is my favourite.

In the summer of 2011, my sister wanted to stay up the night to complete her syllabus. Me being the kind sister that I am decided to support her by staying up with her. Halfway through anyway, I fell asleep curled up into a kitten, beside her. The next morning, I woke up in our parent's bed instead of ours. When I dared to say I could not recollect what happened, I was reminded of my actions from the night before.

When my sister had woken me up and asked me to go to our room and sleep, I had 'zombie walked' into our parent's room and pushed my mum to sleep. When my startled mother had asked why I was there, I had apparently said.

"I need to water the flowers, so move aside now!"

When my equally shook sister, who had rushed to stop me, asked what flowers, I had gone towards her, pointed to the flowers on her dress, and said irritably.

"These ones!"

Spooked thus, my sister had to sleep with our parents along with me. Though Somniloquy is not much of a problem like Sleepwalking, It can be equally scary, when you get to hear unusual things said to you in the middle of the night. According to many, Somniloquy can be a result of sleep deprivation, alcohol consumption, and stress. Going back to that particular day, I remember being worried (and probably stressed) about a particular fabric, that my mom had been trying to tailor into a 'chudidar pant'. The flowers on the fabric had been oddly placed, making the tailoring difficult. I had probably dreamt of a solution and gone to tell my mom the same. I had been the one to offer a solution in the end!

How I got to watering these flowers? I am not sure. But, I am sure where the flowers came from in the first place. From my thoughts, that turned into my dreams. I will now confess that on some other occasions, (yes I happened to sleep talk more than twice) I do remember, having dreams related to what I had been talking about in my sleep. Somniloquy is treated if it is continuous or turns violent in nature. But since I only talk occasionally, my dreams will continue to be your nightmares, my dearest sister!