BY WILL DABBS, MD
It’s 3 o’clock in the morning and you are deep into REM sleep. Rapid Eye Movement sleep is when you dream. In this state everything except your extraocular muscles and your diaphragm is flaccidly paralyzed. Your diaphragm remains active so you don’t suffocate. Nobody really knows for sure why your eyes keep moving. The origin and nature of dreams are topics that have intrigued mankind since the beginning of time. We still don’t understand them very well. This night you are dreaming fervently about something surreal that involves your wife, some industrial hydraulic fittings, and a kiddy pool filled with M&M’s. Your rapturous reverie is interrupted by the sound of glass breaking in the kitchen downstairs.