‘All I’m saying is, when the shadow comes looking for you, you’re the one who needs to be looking for reasons.’

‘Shadow?’

‘Yeah, the shadow, the dark side of yourself. What d’you think happens to a leper whose face dissolves? You think they’re not there anymore? When things shift, when they go dark on you, you got to find the place where you’re nothing and no one but yourself. Find it, claim it, and there’ll be no need for more mental eruptions.’

‘That might be easier said than done.’

Zebra shakes his head. ‘No. What shifts once can shift back again, like sand, you see? […] It was a dream. And dreams are like thoughts – you can change them.’

My own experience with sleep-walking in childhood and the hundreds of sleep paralysis episodes I had as a student sparked my interest in sleep disorders, so much so that I wrote a novel, Dreamrunner.  In the dialogue above, the main character has just had his first violent dream-enactment episode in which he unwittingly hurt his wife and child while he was dreaming. Unknowingly, Carlos is acting out a supressed childhood trauma, but until he can unlock the memory, he and his young family are at the mercy of these violent dreams.

It may be comforting to assume that sleep disorders are rare and only happen to other people; that we ourselves are not at risk of them. But sleep disorders, or parasomnias, are known to affect millions of people and some can begin at any stage of life, triggered by sleep deprivation, trauma, medication, or genetic predisposition. It’s vital to spread knowledge about parasomnias because if they’re kept hidden by the sufferer through shame or a fear of being classified as ‘mad’, things can go from bad to worse.

I’ll be discussing the ‘Other’ as it arises in sleep and dream disorders in the upcoming Psiberdreaming Conference (PDC); it’s an online conference so not only is it very cheap, but anyone can join! It runs for two weeks live, then two further weeks to allow people to catch up on reading all the presentations and threads. Each presenter will be available to chat on the forum and answer questions. Come and join in the fun! Check it out here: http://www.asdreams.org/psi2014/

Some years ago I was at a conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams in the US and Chris Olsen and Kira Sass made a documentary film, Exploring The Potential of Lucid Dreaming. Along with other lucid dream researchers, I was interviewed about what I did in my lucid dreams and how this helped my creative life. Recently I saw that the film can be viewed online, and it was lovely to watch it again, some fascinating insights from people who have dedicated much of their lives to the exploration of lucid dreaming.

I was interviewed on Lucid Dreaming, Lucid Writing by Julia McCutchen of the International Association of Creative & Conscious Writers. Here’s the audio recording where I give tips for how to become lucid in a dream and share my transformative Lucid Writing technique.