Dream Recording

So as a kicking off point, I thought I'd try something I've never done--recording my sleep talking.

People have always told me I talk in my sleep (sometimes yell), and I've even sleep-walked a bit.

So I decided to find out what I've been saying, since all they've been able to tell is that I often (or used to) tell my brother, Patrick, to "shut up!", as apparently most of the country is asleep as well when I sleep talk. Go figure.

So the experiment: I did a little research before I began this little experiment (aren't I a nerd) and I discovered (after noting that I'm not the first one to try this) that a good mic is usually necessary. Well, all I have is my computer mic, so that would have to do.

Next, I needed a recording program, and one that showed soundwaves was apparently essentially. Though many sites advertised their own recording programs, I decided to go with good old Audacity, as it has served me well in the past. After doing a check to be sure that it wouldn't stop recording even if my computer fell asleep (since I certainly wouldn't be able to monitor it, being asleep and all [and that would reallllly suck if I put all this work into this and all I got was an hour of silence and then an automatic shut down...yyeeeeahh....]), I was ready to go to bed and start recording!

I placed the computer relatively near my head, and as my desk is right up against my bed, this wasn't too difficult. Then I attempted to go to sleep.

Later, like four hours later (I went to sleep at like 3 in the morning), I woke up in a semi-dream-like state, realized my computer was still lit and recording and rolled over and stopped the recording. Not sure my reasoning with this, maybe to conserve battery but there were still several hours of sleep left to record..!?

In any case, when I woke up again, I prayed to God that my computer hadn't screwed up as usual and had actually kept the program live--which, thankfully, was the case, even without me having saved the recording. Phew.

And thank God again for soundwaves. They made it oh so easy to find the spots where I had actually talked....which were few and far between. Although somethings were hard to make out, this is what I think I heard, in voices that were not my normal voice (except the moans):

~"Ok, that's not alright"
~Moan, ending in sigh
~Slight laugh, ending in sigh
~Random inflection, sounds like "uh"
~Maybe light, creaky "hmm"?
~"Hello, Patrick *unintelligible whispering*" inhale, sigh (like waking up), sigh (like, whatever)

Bear in mind, none of these were very clear, and each as said in a very unusual voice quite unlike my own. This is just what I think I heard. (Plus, for some reason Audacity decided to be stupid and erase the first couple words I said right after I listened to them, and so when I went back to review them, they were gone. I think that's what I think I heard myself say. Yeah)

I also thought I'd analyze my dreams, as I've been having a lot of strange and lucid one lately, but alas, I cannot remember mine from last night. Perhaps because I was so focused on the project.

So I'll definitely be trying this again tonight, hopefully with a dream accompanying it, and since I won't need to tell you all the technical details tomorrow, I might even talk about my excessive deja vu, and what research has to say about it!

Merry Musing,
~Dale B.