The Dream

I wanted to share an experience I had when I was younger. I've never really been able to talk about it because, well, I've never understood it. Regardless, I was reminded of this while watching Alex play with sound in the film.

All my life I have been an extremely light sleeper. When I say light, I mean if someone so much as touched the doorknob to my room I would wake. It's so bad that I've developed the habit of sleeping with a fan so as to drown out minor sounds that would otherwise wake me during the night.

When I was about thirteen years old I had a recurring nightmare. It was just me, in a dark room, where there was complete and utter silence except for the very quiet and static sound of what I can only describe as a leaky faucet. I would try and run away, scream and talk but I would run and go nowhere; I would try and speak but no sound would come out. I was enveloped in silence and the single static sound. This dream instilled a fear in me that I have never felt before. I would wake up screaming and drenched in sweat. Specifically, there was one night that was unlike any other. That night I was literally so scared I slept walked as an attempt to escape my horrific nightmare. Not a very common action for someone who wakes up at the drop of a pin. However, I didn't just sleep walk around my house no, I literally slept walked down the street, around three in the morning, to my grandma's house. I woke up on her doorstep.

How is it that a mere sound petrified me to such an extent that I slept walked? It could only be the shapeless.