Over the weekend a good friend of mine came for a visit and stayed in my apartment in New York. On Saturday night, we opted for a girls night out and saw The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center followed by a late dinner at the Ritz Carlton. A wonderful evening – which made me think I was set up for a great nights sleep, but wrong! As my apartment is not exactly palatial in size, you can hear everything that goes on no matter where you are. I woke the next morning not feeling terribly rested. I then recalled my friend waking me up in the middle of the night and asking if I was okay and telling me that I should think of sugar plum fairies from the Nutcracker. When she awoke, I asked if that had really happened. She said yes and could not believe that I was in a deep sleep when she said that to me. Apparently, I had been tossing and turning and even screamed out once or twice! I thought for a moment and did recall dreaming of fighting and hearing the theme music to Pirates of the Caribbean. We had watched that movie the night before. On the upside, perhaps I was dreaming I was wrestling Johnny Depp! I have no idea why I was dreaming of fighting. My friend attributed it to stress, which I can understand, and I think it may have had to do with eating a late dinner. What alarmed me was that I was really in a deep sleep when she tried to wake me, which got me thinking of sleepwalkers and how often that must occur and the danger of waking that person. I’ve certainly heard of some very funny stories of people sleepwalking and everything turning out okay, but scary nonetheless. What we are capable of doing in our unconscious is sometimes more mind blowing than what we do when we are awake! One funny story of sleep talking I can remember is when I shared a room on a trip with a friend of mine from Sweden who started talking in the middle of the night. I was alarmed at first and started to answer back, but realized she was talking in Swedish! So there really was not much I could do at that point! I’m sure all of you have interesting sleepwalking stories you can share or insight into the subconscious you can enlighten me with. Are dreams really related to stress? Or is dreaming just another way for our mind to wander when the rest of us is sleeping? -Alex Young, vice president and associate publisher