chicken coma

a while ago i read about a research project. to cure us of the need to
sleep. i liked the idea. not of what they were proposing - heaven forbid
a world without sleep - but of the question that must have come first:
why do we sleep anyway? why indeed. good question. personally, i have no idea :)

thinking alone the same lines: why do we dream? some people like to think it's the brain processing the events of the day, misinterpreted by the always-on consciousness. others like to ascribe more mystical properties to them: maybe they show the future, or hint as some aspect of your life that will change soon. both of these ideas agree that they are essentially functionless: a kind of tv to watch while you rest.

me? i think they have a function: intestinal control

ok, right now you're probably thinking what? he can't possibly mean... yep, thats right. I think dreams are an integral part of what I like to call 'poo processing' (we'll call it PP for short from now on, hey?). let me explain where this thought came from:

we went out for a meal. we ate a lot. the next morning I recalled that I'd had a particularly volatile dream. I was informed I had stolen the duvet more than normal and been more restless. I mulled this over - and decided that maybe it wasn't surprising; after all, I had a significant amount of food sitting in my system. what was the body to do? it needed to (ahem) P the P, right?

lying prone, the stuff really wasn't going to go anywhere. but moving around would nudge it down, bit by bit. and the best way to get me to do that? an active dream, a nightmare, something physical.

Anyway, there's a more general (and more generally accepted) point here:
to keep many functions working, body needs to move around: the existence of Deep Vein Thrombosis demonstrates nicely that blood circulation falls in this category. we wiggle to stay healthy :)

I sleep, I dream, I am... in need of the toilet?