Do you have nightmares? Do you remember ever having nightmares? I can't. But then I can't remember my dreams although I've wakened and reflected on one or two for a moment. A nightmare is a frightening dream, accompanied by a sense of oppression that usually wakens the sleeper. Centuries ago they were considered evil spirits thought to oppress people during sleep. My Webster's Collegiate Dictionary explains that the word may stem from the French, Middle English, Old English, or Croatian languages meaning an evil preternatural spirit that oppresses one during sleep. A 1967 World Book Encyclopedia suggests it had been considered punishment for something the dreamer had done.

But the term persists more deeply in our everyday descriptions - such as: "Driving in traffic is a nightmare" or "Don't talk about that trip, it was a nightmare" although those expressions are being displaced by "screaming meemies" or "blue devils." The word "mare" brings to me a vision of a female horse usually high-spirited with dancing hooves and flying mane.

A friend described me as self-actualizing - whatever that means - because she couldn't imagine anyone not having nightmares. Her childhood nightmares are still vivid in her memory. Modern sleep studies find no connection to premonition or real experiences so you can put yours away as being caused by witnessing a horrible scene, by stress, or by something you ate.

I'll just go on dreaming.