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camwynWhen I used to live in New Jersey I would occasionally have this weird sleep issue involving the curtains. Basically I'd be partway to sleep, or I'd have been asleep for a little while and wake up, and either way I'd be viscerally freaked out- racing pulse, fast breathing, you name it- because my brain was absolutely convinced that there was a mouse or mice running up my bedroom curtains. Understand, please, that there had never in my life been a mouse in my house or my apartment to my knowledge, and in at least one case of this occurring, I was living in an apartment with two cats that both had really good murder impulses. Edge-of-sleep brain didn't care. Far as it was concerned, mouse in the curtains, even if it wasn't making any noise and I couldn't see a recognizable mouse. I don't think I ever saw more than a half-imagined motion in the upper parts of the curtains.
Fortunately, half-asleep brain is relatively easy to fool. The answer to the mouse issue was always 'grab the lower part of the curtain and tie the curtain in a knot higher than bed level, and the mouse will not be able to go lower than the knot'. Half-asleep brain did not think mice jumped or got off on windowsills or scrambled over to the other curtains. Just 'if there is a mouse in the curtain then tie a knot and it won't be able to come down and you will be all right'. Every time.
I bring this up because the night before last I was subjected to a variant on this that I was really not pleased to discover. Namely: as I was trying to fall asleep I hit heart-pounding freakout, pulse audible in my ears, and there is a dark object on the ceiling and it is scrambling around and it is a SIZABLE dark object and it is not a BUG it is a BAT because I live in NEW ENGLAND and we do not have LIZARDS and I do not think MICE can scramble on the ceiling so there is a BAT crawling around on my ceiling and I can see it MOVE and how do I report this to the LANDLORD and-
Can't tie knots in the ceiling to keep the bats from coming down. Best I could do was lie there and try to determine what it was going to do next, and then determine that it was actually the dark spot on the ceiling where my old smoke alarm had been located - about four inches to the right of where my current smoke alarm is mounted. I mean, half-asleep brain was QUITE SURE that the spot had been moving around, but half-asleep brain was, as I have said before, previously convinced that mice were in my bedroom curtains and could not get past a knot.
Took forever to get my pulse back down to normal, and longer to get back to sleep.
No idea if this is related to exploding head syndrome but eesh it wouldn't surprise me.
Fortunately, half-asleep brain is relatively easy to fool. The answer to the mouse issue was always 'grab the lower part of the curtain and tie the curtain in a knot higher than bed level, and the mouse will not be able to go lower than the knot'. Half-asleep brain did not think mice jumped or got off on windowsills or scrambled over to the other curtains. Just 'if there is a mouse in the curtain then tie a knot and it won't be able to come down and you will be all right'. Every time.
I bring this up because the night before last I was subjected to a variant on this that I was really not pleased to discover. Namely: as I was trying to fall asleep I hit heart-pounding freakout, pulse audible in my ears, and there is a dark object on the ceiling and it is scrambling around and it is a SIZABLE dark object and it is not a BUG it is a BAT because I live in NEW ENGLAND and we do not have LIZARDS and I do not think MICE can scramble on the ceiling so there is a BAT crawling around on my ceiling and I can see it MOVE and how do I report this to the LANDLORD and-
Can't tie knots in the ceiling to keep the bats from coming down. Best I could do was lie there and try to determine what it was going to do next, and then determine that it was actually the dark spot on the ceiling where my old smoke alarm had been located - about four inches to the right of where my current smoke alarm is mounted. I mean, half-asleep brain was QUITE SURE that the spot had been moving around, but half-asleep brain was, as I have said before, previously convinced that mice were in my bedroom curtains and could not get past a knot.
Took forever to get my pulse back down to normal, and longer to get back to sleep.
No idea if this is related to exploding head syndrome but eesh it wouldn't surprise me.
