I have trouble remembering what it was like to have any kind of insomnia. For the past nine or ten years I have slept very well every single night. Within twenty minutes of setting out to sleep, I am out and sleep through until morning. For about a decade there has been almost no interruption in my check-ins at slumberville.
Until the past two weeks. During this time I have been unable to fall asleep until usually four o'clock in the morning, in which case I can sleep until six or possible seven with at least one wake up during that period. If I somehow manage to fall asleep any earlier than that, I will wake up at least hourly.
I think in scientific terms this is called a denial of REM sleep. It is also causing me serious problems in functioning during waking hours.
Last night I managed to dream at some point leading up to my alarm clock sounding first bell. It was the first dream I've remembered in some time and the most disturbing in some time.
Rancho Nuevo. The dark times have ended. They are rebuilding, and the town in advancing, with settlements in the outlying regions. Almost everyone seems to be tied to one of two "families." The red family or the white family.
I am merely an observer, I am not with those in the frame of Rancho Nuevo. Yet, I feel a strong affinity with the white family. These are my people.
Something happens that disturbs what was an idyllic landscape. There is tension between the two families that somehow erupts into violence. The red family takes to visiting the homes of the white family, killing everyone living there, and then annointing the door with the blood of the family. The white family does not strike back, but I can sense there is something else going on with them I cannot see or sense.
They capture a woman. She is incredibly beautiful and has a powerful, strong aura. They place her in a room where she is harshly questioned and slapped around a bit. I can hear talking, but I cannot understand any of the words. They leave her and go into another room where they can watch her through some kind of a two-way mirror. All the men in red watching leave, except one. This is a very unpleasant man. He is harsh, hateful and lusts like an animal to devour the imprisoned woman. He leers at her through the glass while eating, getting food all over his face and clothes. He starts towards the room where she is held, intent on opening the door and having his way with her.
Two men appear, wearing green tunics that match the outfits of the red family, the only difference being the color. I do not recognize them at all, whereas generally everyone in these dreams looks at least mildly familiar to me. They drop from the ceiling, coming in through some sort of hole in the roof. They kill the ogre in red by slitting his throat and leave him to bleed on the floor. His blood becomes a river that fills the room.
The men in green tunics take the woman and ascend through the roof in the same fashion in which they entered.
The alarm goes off. I wake up.