Vivid Dream - #1

I usually have intensely vivid dreams that make me feel tired when I wake up. Some of them are so fun that I can't them out of my mind for the rest of the day, yet I always forget to write them down. Today, while cleaning my desk, I found a good one written down on a dusty scrap of paper.

I was standing before a turquoise, bungalow-style capsule lab at night. A man opened the door to let me in. Another researcher sat at one of two computers set up in front of a large window that looked into an adjacent room housing a large MRI scanner. The man asked whether I wanted a blood test done before my scan, and I said yes without hesitation. He said I was required to brush my teeth before he could draw my blood. I had left my toothbrush at work, so he got one for me out of a tall filing cabinet. It was orange with slightly crushed bristles. I didn't care too much that it had been used and wondered if he gave this one to all the test subjects that came in. I stepped outside and stared up at the brilliant stars while I brushed. The man poked his head out and said, "You don't ned to brush so thoroughly for a blood test. Finish up and spit on the grass there." I brushed my tongue hurriedly and took in a mouthful of water

My phone alarm went off, and I woke up distinctly disappointed that I'd never find out the results of my blood test. I can pinpoint two things that converged to form this strange dream.

One - I used to sign up to be a test subject for all sorts of studies done on campus. It was good money for a not starving but still poor college student who sometimes had only $20 in her checking account. I've had four or five MRI scans, and all of them were done in a camper-style lab on wheels that really was turquoise and shaped like a pill capsule. The researchers give you foam earplugs and position your head in a helmet-like structure before you slide into the scanner. The whirring and clanging of the machinery is loud inside, but I never minded it. The idea is to compare the brain's response to positive versus negative (even violent!) images, but the noise's rhythmic quality made it hard to stay awake and focus on the flashing images.

Two - I sometimes wonder whether my hormone levels are awry. Is that why I never had a growth spurt like my dad? Is that why I break out, even though I wash my pillowcases too often and angle the phone away from my cheek?  Is that why I only get around four periods a year (not that I'm complaining)? A simple blood test could give me a definite answer.

The business school's experiments were usually dry (negotiation scenarios, factors in decision-making, etc), but Neuroscience had some interesting ones. For a sleep study, I had to take a nap in a makeshift "bedroom" furnished with only an Ikea bed and a chair next to it. I slipped under the covers and tried to get sleepy while he stuck on some electrodes. I felt pressured to fall asleep so I could give them some good REM cycle brainwaves, but it took forever. I finally fell into a half-sleep and dreamed that the researcher had come back and was standing in the doorway shining a flashlight on my face. I woke up fully when his voice came over the intercom: "Okay, you can wake up now."

My friend Sara (a terribly smart girl) had designed a few experiments of her own, and she suckered me into being her subject twice. This involved pulling on a swim cap modified with plastic-rimmed holes through which she squirted some sort of gel. There's nothing quite like the feeling of cold gel oozing through your hair and onto your scalp. God, I'm such a good friend.