Sleep, the Final Frontier

Chiefly because I like to sleep as late as possible in the mornings, I don't usually read my morning paper until I get home from work. Thus, it wasn't until last night that I read a fascinating article in the Chicago Tribune about REM sleep behavior disorder. People who suffer from this disorder will violently act out their dreams, including hitting and biting people who sleep with them. It's a newish-ly diagnosed disorder, but apparently treatable with anti-anxiety medications.

I've also heard of "alien abductions" - cases where aliens appear in a sleeping person's room and whisk them away, Star Trek-like. These events have been going on for a long time - they used to be explained as visitations by angels, demons or witches. Modern science now thinks they are cases of sleep paralysis. This is basically the opposite of acting out your dreams - instead you partially wake up but are paralyzed. Not only that, but research suggests that up to half of all people have this happen to them at least once.

It's a reminder that there are many things we don't know much about, including what's going on in our own minds.