Nightmares..

Nightmares. We all get them. My parents used to tell me it’s from too much salt, or too much food, or getting too hot under your bedding

Nightmare was the original term for the state later known as waking dream and more currently as sleep paralysis, associated with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The original definition was understood to include a "morbid oppression in the night, resembling the pressure of weight upon the breast."

Such nightmares were widely considered to be the work of demons and more specifically incubi, which were thought to sit on the chests of sleepers. In Old English, the being in question was called a mare, where the mare part in nightmare.
The mythology of the Sea Island people of South Carolina and Georgia describes the negative figure of the Hag who leaves her physical body at night, and sits on the chest of her victim. The victim usually wakes with a feeling of terror, has difficulty breathing because of a perceived heavy invisible weight on his or her chest, and is unable to move i.e., experiences sleep paralysis.

Ok, so much for the Wikipedia version…. I’ve had a recurring nightmare lately. About spiders. I don’t like spiders, but I wouldn’t classify it as a phobia though. In my dream, a spider (a big one, about the size of a dog) chases me. Around the outside of the house. If I run flat out, I can keep ahead, bit shit, it’s tiring. So I find something to smack it with. Like a broom, or a spade. When I smack it, it squeals and gets crushed quite convincingly wit appropriate blood effects. Except sometimes (often) the broom turns to Styrofoam and does nothing. So I have to run again. Or smack it about 50 times before it dies. Which is as tiring as running.

When I’ve finally killed the bloody spider, and I think “thank f…..” – the next one appears. And around the house we go again…..