Work While You Sleep

      However you feel about the Twilight books (which spent a lot of time being a bestseller and were made into movies), Stephanie Meyer's inspiration for them came from a dream about a sparkly vampire man talking to a human girl in a field.

        Because they're so random, the things you see in your sleep are sometimes more creative and original than anything you imagine with your awake mind. That's the good thing.

       There are two bad things. The first is that lots of people don't remember them. (You might think you don't dream at all, but really everybody does) It's hard to use a dream as a runway for a story if you don't know what happened in it. Here are a few tricks to help you remember.

-practice: just making a conscious effort to remember can help
-wake up early: if (like me) you sleep until 9 or 10 unless you have to be somewhere, set your alarm a couple hours earlier--also, bursting right out of a dream instead of snoozing might help you catch it before it slips away
-vary it up: sleep with your head where your feet usually are, sleep in the living room instead of your bedroom, or sleep in a different temperature (cold seems to work for me)
-record: as soon as you wake up, write down everything you can remember about your dream

       The second bad thing is that even if you remember them, dreams are unpredictable. You never know if they'll be about getting chased by a tickle monster named GiGi or going to work as usual. My dreams are mostly *very boring* and include going to school and walking around my house. But once in a while I dream about riding a horse through a window or that I find a magical piece of chewing gum that lets me fly.

          Think about panning for gold. Most of the time all you'll find is dirt and rocks, but eventually you might find a gleaming gold nugget worth a fortune. If you want gold, you have to go find it. If you want dreams, they stream through your half-conscious brain every night without your invitation. Why not work while you sleep?

**Babs voice, if you've seen Chicken Run.