I used to post my dreams here, years ago. I had one recently that was quite impressive.

I was in my grandparent's house, which had been heavily modified, and I was a human/ghost hybrid. When I needed to float, I could turn into a ghost. This was vital to navigating the house, as there were often not stairs between floors. It also helped me avoid the numerous people inhabiting the house, none of which were familiar. My objective was to find a room that was empty, so I could sleep.

I wasn't able to find an empty room in the house and I managed to float all the way to the roof. Once on the roof, I lost my ability to turn into a ghost and found myself peering across a chasm with rock walls and a level sand floor. It simultaneously had a rock lined roof and a blue sky. I knew, somehow, that if I were to cross the chasm, then I would be able to sleep. There were three ropes dangling from the rock ceiling and two of them extended to the sand floor 200 feet below, which were constantly swaying forward and backward by two men made of stone. The third rope was very short, perhaps 6 feet in length, and did not look safe.

I jumped to the first rope and waited until the timing was right and then grabbed the second rope, climbing onto it. The second rope, like the first, was quite safe, as I was able to hold on with my hands and legs. But the third rope was a problem. It was too short for me to use my legs for support, and furthermore, it was stationary. There was no way I could reach the other side unless I was able to hang on long enough and somehow swing myself to the ledge. Having no choice in the matter, I grabbed the third rope when the timing was right and started swaying my legs back and forth, slowly moving the rope. While trying to get the short rope moving, I noticed the other side of the rock wall became completely vertical and lost its ledge. A small opening appeared, far too small for me to enter. Somehow, I still knew that I needed to try to squeeze through that opening. I let go of the rope as it swung towards the opening and grabbed the edge of it, hanging on the side of the rock wall. Even if I was able to pull myself into the opening, my body would not fit. For the moment, I was stuck; it was a death trap.

Below me, a slab of rock extended from the wall. It was approximately the size and shape of a bed, sans any kind of comfort. So that was my bed - a slab of rock on the side of a wall. And it was to be my bed for the rest of my life. Each night, I would have to endure the ropes, and each morning, endure them again.

Ghosts and ropes. The symbolism is unclear. It seems the dream represents the fear of impermanence.

I was in Atlanta last week for work and had extreme difficulty sleeping in the hotel. I got 3 hours the first night and 5 the next. It was a high end hotel, but that didn't make a difference. One consistency I've found in all my work-related travels is that hotel beds slope downwards in the front. I tried something different in Atlanta last week by ripping all the covers off the bed (not as easy as you might think) and slept on the bed backwards. That helped a lot and almost gave me a full night of sleep.