REM atonia is the near-complete paralysis of voluntary muscles that occurs during the rapid eye movement (REM) phase of sleep. In essence, the brain prevents physical enactment of dreams by inhibiting skeletal muscle activity.

REM Atonia Gone Awry

The other night I was having a very strange dream. I was in the stairwell of some public building on my way down the set of stairs when Donald Trump, dressed in a black overcoat started menacing me from the landing above me. He was threatening me with physical harm. He was surrounded by two of three guys who were also wearing black overcoats. Donald kept leaning through the railing above me taking swipes at me with his fist. To protect myself, I got on my back and started kicking at his head every time he’d pop out to hit me.

Two things that surprised me about the dream. First thing was that I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t feel in any danger even though I landed a couple of pretty hard kicks to the president’s head. Second surprising thing was when Thaddeus woke me up telling me to stop kicking him. I had actually been kicking as hard in bed as I was kicking in the dream. Fortunately my kicking was somewhat buffered by the bed covers and I didn’t hurt Thaddeus.

It was astonishing to me that my desire to do damage to this man overrode some deeply rooted, brainstem-mediated neural mechanism. Well, maybe not so astonishing.

Current Knitting

I was able to finish all except for one swatch for my workshop at the retreat next week.

They’re all notated so that workshop attendees can see the differences in types of ribbing. I do have one minor swatch that I need to make so that I can demonstrate some of the stitches, but I may wait until I’m at Easton Mountain to do that one.

I also started a sock using one of the tight-ribbing techniques. One sock will be regular ribbing and the other will be combination ribbing.

I have the handouts all printed and my lesson-plan all ready as well. It’s still hard to believe I leave for Easton Mountain in a week!