Friday night: We are having a few logistical problems getting garage sailing sorted for the next morning. I havent been for a few weeks so im dying to go this week, but i dont have any way of getting to Dads place at 6.45am, (no, im not gonna ride there! Not quite that desperate!) and Dad has a house full of guests so I cant stay over like I usually do. Im about to give up, but then Dad phones me to say that our fellow sailor and driver Grant will come and pick me up at 6.35am, and i need to be out waiting on the other side of the road, out the front of my place. So that means i need to set the alarm for 6.20am.

So its Saturday morning and I’m fast asleep, dreaming quite vividly about being out in town, doing stuff with people near my house, and then suddenly the dream cuts to me standing outside my place, on the other side of the road. (Actually, i was just wondering, you know how when you watch tv or theatre, and some stuff happens and then the scene changes and new stuff is happening and somehow you know that certain things took place away from your eyes, that this new scene is a logical progression, you just skipped a few boring bits of the sequence? Well, does that happen in your dreams too? I reckon it does. Do we learn that from theatre/tv or do we use it in theatre/tv cos we dream that way? Anyway, back to the story….) Its cold and the sun is just beginning to rise, but i can see well enough. A car is coming towards me, Grants car! It does a U-turn at some speed and pulls up right in front of me. The driver - not Grant - leans over and winds the window down. He says “You have to wake up now.“ And I do. Instantly. And immediately the alarm goes off.

I often wake up just before the alarm, especially when i intentionally decide to, but that was a bit freaky!

• MissSin (Deskdom (Tokyo)) said on 08/05/30 at 12:33 PM.....

  I often do the same thing (wake up just before the alram clock - not have cool freaky dreams)

  The other thing that happens to me is waking up 100% sure i have overslept.  Then have a panic.  Then look at the clock and see that it’s 4am.
  I HATE that.

• T (Tokyo) said on 08/05/30 at 12:51 PM.....

  WOW - freaky. 

  I often fall asleep after the alarm has gone off and I dream that I am in the shower and getting ready.  But then I wake up and realise I have done none of that and I am now late. 

  I like you way better.

• MJD-S (between awake and asleep) said on 08/05/30 at 07:54 PM.....

  *has new screaming child alarm that can’t be slept through and goes off several times a day*

• Kristen (not in the kitchen making dinner) said on 08/05/31 at 12:41 PM.....

  Interesting question about whether the language/conventions of cinema follow dreams or vice versa. I think I used to dream non-sequentially before that was a technique used in film and tv.  The language of film used to be quite rooted in time’s arrow (with the occasional flashback or dream sequence) and even when I was learning it in the early 90s, we learned the basic structure of how to show a sequence of events without any gaps in it. These days all bets are off. I think that is a product of videogames!

  P.S. That is a very neat dream you had.

• EverQuest 2 Gold (NEWYORK) said on 08/08/30 at 07:29 PM.....

  Nice article. Sometimes i do give alarm in my clock but it no use cause when the alarm is ringing I woke and shut the alarm and go to sleep again. So alarm is no help for me.And it’s really irritating when I am dreaming. So keep the alarm off. Thanks for your article