Woke up laughing!

Joan from A conversation with a woman mentioned the other day that a dream woke her up laughing. For years, I have had different nightmares. Sometimes I would be fighting with my own brother, sometimes it would be some other terrible episodes. Usually I wake up screaming or yelling out. Sometimes I would be soaking wet in sweat. Several times I had even gone to the extend of punching or kicking my pillows. Once or twice my wife had got in the way of these nightmarish fights. Each time though, when she would put her hand out and her touch would calm me down just before I awoke, heart pounding...

These dreams have not occured much these days, not since I began my therapy. There was only one episode a few days ago, on a Sunday afternoon, while taking a nap after a very tiring weekend. I yelled out, and awoke with a start to feel my muscles in the small of the back twitching. I was at just then dreaming that someone was either punching or kicking me right at that spot and I yelled out in anticpatory pain...

But, several weeks ago I had a strange dream. In it I was in some kind of classroom and I was sitting at the back (which is quite unusually as I usually sit in the front of the class or at church or at conferences, etc even though I hate it). The teacher looked very much like my boss. A few days before that we just had a rare company meeting, which turned out to be a one-way traffic lecture/monologue, and in the dream it was a similar kind of incessant lecture taking place. I blogged a little more about my boss here as well, in a different context. Back to the dream. She was teaching something and I was being a clown in that class. I made the rest of the class crack up. My boss was visibly distressed and paused to sigh aloud several times, and I was goinon on making everyone else laugh. Then, I started to crack up myself. I was having such a good time, that I was actually chuckling in my sleep and that woke me up. My wife, who is an incredibly light sleeper, also awoke and we looked at each other. She smiled and asked why I was laughing. I told her my dream, and she said, "Your must be recovering quickly! That's the first time you've ever laughed yourself awake!" Have you ever done that - laugh out loud in your dreams?