Lesson IV -- REM Sleep
The skies are blue and clouds float by in slow serenity. In other words, it is a day Abby does not particularly care for. It is the time of day when most people were awake, the hour or so before lunch. She is not like most people.
Gibbs saunters in with almost a smile on his face. At the moment, his team is working on a semi-important cold case, of which its forensics, surprisingly, is not the main concern. Like many a day before, he holds a coffee for himself in one hand, and a Caf-Pow for her in the other. Though his bribery is unneeded, he thinks it'd be a nice pick-me-up for his favorite Queen of Darkness.
When he enters the lab, he instantly senses a disturbance. The music is playing modestly low and the joint hum of the machines is suspiciously absent. With the use of his ninja detective skills, he proceeds to investigate. If the music is playing, she must be here--he gathers so much. If she is not working with her machines, then she must be doing something else--again, his talents are unmatched.
Joking aside, he concludes she must be asleep, somewhere. He walks into her office and searches for her handy futon. There, he finds her, arranged in fetal position, using Bert as her pillow. He grins broadly to himself at the sight. It's nearly 1100 hours and she's fast asleep as though it's middle of the night. He thinks--to her, 1100 is the middle of the night. Seeing as how she is awake when most are asleep, it makes all the world's sense for her to be sleeping when all else are walking about.
Setting down both cups on the desk beside her, he crouches down to look at her more closely. Her face, though partially covered by undone pigtails, is tight in a scowl. Her eyes beneath its lids move about furiously, as if in search for something. He imagines she's at the heart of an earnestly strange dream, one not so pleasing on account of her frown.
He reaches to brush a strand of hair from her face, the slight contact causing her to curl her body inward and squeeze her pillow hard. The sound of Bert's flatulence fills the room in a blazing thunder, leaving utter silence in its wake.
Her eyes spring open, the shock of the sudden noise detectable in her wandering gaze. She settles on the view of Gibbs in front of her and sits up. She shakes her head, hair jaunting in all directions, to wake herself fully. He stumbles backwards to avoid being assailed by the black tendrils, and lands squarely on his backside.
"Sorry, Gibbs." She offers a hand in apology and he takes it, pulling himself back up to sit when she pats the spot beside her. "Better than finding me with my head glued to the keyboard, huh? More comfortable, too."
"Happy to see you, too, Abby." His tone, though undetectable to the probie's ear, is laced with sarcasm. Abby loves witty Gibbs.
"Oh, you know I'm always happy to see you, my silver-haired fox." She loves that name and bets he does, too, when she sees him smiling in response.
"How was your nap?" He expects her to begin rambling, but knowing he has nothing better to do, he decides to take the chance.
"Ugh. Don't even ask. I had this horrible dream. It wasn't a nightmare or anything like that, but it was funky as hell. Remember that dream I had with Tony at the zoo? Well, it was like that one, but with Palmer at a carnival instead. Way worse. And way freakier," she only starts to explain. She leans forward to droop her head in her hands.
"That bad, huh?" He puts a comforting arm around her and pulls her closer. He kisses the back of her head, rubbing the bare of her upper arm assuringly.
"Just horrifying. I'll never look at that ME's assistant the same way again." She sighs and leans back to rest against his chest. Her hand comes up to tug on the lapel of his coat as she pulls herself closer.
"Wanna tell me about it?" He winces. He should not have asked.
"I dreamt Jimmy was giving CPR to a circus gorilla. Can you believe it? Mouth-to-mouth on a gorilla. Ugh!" She buries her face into the several layers of his attire as if to hide herself from the thought. She feels him chuckle through the cloth.
"I can believe it, because he did. But on a 280 pound man whose pulse returned after Ducky opened the body bag. Not a gorilla, but close enough. Happened two days ago." He laughs again when the image appears in his mind. He hadn't been there personally, but from what Ducky narrated, it must have been one hell of a sight. He regrets missing it. Perhaps the security cameras caught it. He'll have to look into that later.
"Really? Must've been one of those things, you know, that happen in real life but also end up in your dreams all distorted and stuff. That ever happen to you?" She pulls back to look at him, a stout finger underneath her chin in deep thought.
"Maybe." He isn't quite sure how to answer that one.
"I wonder what it all means," she questions aloud, the finger beneath her chin still in place though it begins to tap in rhythm.
"What?"
"You know, the stuff in my dreams. According to good ol' Sigmund, everything that goes on in your dreams is supposed to mean something." With a deep and raspy change in voice and a more than strained Austrian accent, she begins to imitate the late psychologist. "Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious."
He laughs at the odd impression. He throws in his own two cents about the topic for the hell of it. "Wasn't he the one that said something about wish fulfillment, too? How fantasies and desires are played out in dreams?"
"Gibbs! I'm surprised! Never knew you studied psychoanalysis." She playfully hooks him above the arm in a mocking gesture. He grins to the side at her vibrant disbelief. "And about wish fulfillment. Happens every time I close my eyes." And she closes her eyes in proof.
"Not gonna tell me, huh?"
"Only in your dreams, Gibbs."
"I bet I can guess what it is."
"Gimme your best shot."
Her eyes still shut, she doesn't anticipate what happens next. He leans in, slow and quiet, to kiss her gently on the lips.
REM Sleep - Rapid Eye Movement sleep is characterized by rapid movements of the eyes. It is during this stage where dreams and nightmares are vividly remembered. Heart rate and breathing rate are irregular during REM sleep, much like they are in consciousness. Parts of the brain that control the senses and motor function are active during this stage.
Dreams - Dreams are sequence images, sounds and feelings that are experienced while sleeping, occurring during REM sleep. Dreams are still not fully understood. The theory of activation-synthesis suggests that dreams are a random event caused by the firing of neurons in the brain, namely the cortex. This also synthesizes a narrative by drawing on memory systems in an effort to make sense of what was experienced. Dreams consist of two parts: manifest and latent content, the apparent or obvious substance of the dream and the deeper meaning of the dream, respectively. Events in reality are often translated into dreams; this content is called day residue.
For more on dreams and Sigmund Freud, please refer to your nearest Wikipedia, 'cause I'm too lazy to explain everything. Thank you.
Next: Lesson V -- The Functions of Sleep.