Sleep Me: I’m Just A Human Dream Sponge

The air felt different before I had words for it. Time slipped, the year turned, and my dreams began to land with the weight of lived experience. I’m sharing why sleep suddenly feels like stepping into a parallel life—and how postpartum cracked open a deeper intuition that now flags a room’s energy before I even arrive.

We trace a path from community plans—investigating libraries, antique shops, funeral homes, and an old theater—to the intensely personal: lucid dreams that look like visitations, a detailed warning from my late father that changed how I handle my son’s clothes, and the strange comfort of feeling guided when logic has nothing to offer. Along the way, I dig into a compelling idea: dreams aren’t random; they’re compressed experiences, entire narratives folded into minutes. That’s why the body reacts as if it really happened. The nervous system can’t tell dream from daylight, and forgetting becomes a protective feature that keeps waking reality intact.

If you’ve felt the veil thin—especially after a life threshold like birth—you’re not alone. We talk practical steps for working with vivid dreams without getting lost in them: simple grounding before sleep, asking clear questions at night, and keeping a lean dream journal to catch recurring places, symbols, and emotional residue. Whether you read these moments as psyche, spirit, or both, the test is usefulness. Do you move differently because of what you saw? Then it mattered.

Press play for a grounded, raw look at lucid dreaming, postpartum intuition, grief that speaks, and the science-meets-mystery of compressed dream narratives. If a recent dream won’t let go, I want to hear it. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s been dreaming in high definition, and leave a review with the symbol or scene you can’t shake—what do you think it’s asking of you?

Chapters

• 0:00 Return, Silence, And Time Slipping
• 1:29 Plans For Investigations And Community
• 2:58 Postpartum Sensitivity And Energy
• 4:04 Lucid Dreams And Family Visitations
• 5:33 Are Dreams Compressed Narratives
• 6:36 Body Memory, Intuition, And Protection
• 8:27 Why We Forget And What To Track
• 10:40 Closing Reflections And Intentions

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

I didn't disappear. I went quiet and there's a difference. Sometimes when life changes, you don't have words yet. You have sensations. And this past month felt like the air shifted. Like something settled in my body before it made sense in my mind. I apologize for taking a siesta, but with the holidays and you know, with the baby, now that he's five months, you know, life gets hectic. But again, I am your host, Melissa. It's Strange Strange Beyond Insane. Welcome back, everyone. It's good to be back at this new year, 2026, and I know there's good things in store. I'm not sure if anyone else has ever felt like this, but like have you ever looked up and realized like weeks have disappeared and they turn into new months? Not in just a busy way, but in a something feels off way. Like time did not pass normally. It kind of just like slipped away. That's how I've been feeling. And I still cannot believe that we're already in like the middle of January, and I just I have just been saying I need to get on the podcast. There's so much I need to talk about, right? There's there's almost like so many episodes that I have foreshadowed that it's almost overwhelming, but that's good, right? It's it's always a good thing they have too much to talk about. I've had some time to think and plan, and I'm actually thinking about creating things connected to this show. Something more physical, something small, something intentional. You know, I'm kind of planning some merch. Um, you know, there's just there's a lot of small things that I want to do. I want to get into more libraries. I do want to, well, there's three antique shops that I have in mind that I I don't know if I should like call them or email them, but I do want to do investigations. I am going to talk to my new boss because our barber shop was sold um to a young man. Very, you know, he's very dedicated and he's definitely in it for the long run. So, and he's he's gonna spend a lot more time there, which is good. Um, so there we do need to do an investigation at the shop too, because there is just some weird lingering energy. That's a whole nother story, but um to keep it a little bit lighter on that, there are a couple funeral homes, older ones that I want to call and kind of maybe talk about some investigations and um a couple old movie theaters that I would actually one I'd like to go back to in in Saginaw, and then the other one would be in, I don't know if it's Birmingham or Berkeley, Michigan. Um, there's like the palladium, and then there is the older one. God, I can't remember what it is, but it's I know it's on Main Street. I haven't been there in years, obviously, but there's just like a lot of local places that I would like to get involved with and kind of really showcase my podcasts and really get down in the gritty and talk to these local people and do a lot more interviews. So, yes, in the time that I've been gone, um, of course, busy with baby work, family, right? They're always trying to find a balance to life, which is the hardest thing. Um, but I've really been brainstorming. So the brainstorming's there, the planning's there, the web of what I'm going to do when my next moves are all there. It's just having enough time in the day. And we all know, like I said before, like time is just, it's even, you know, vamping up even quicker now. All right, so to just jump into it finally, this episode about dreaming, which we've talked about lots and lots and lots of episodes. However, um, I don't know, you know, how many moms, dads are listening, or people who don't have kids, but I know my dreams have been very potent. Um, I've had very, very lucid dreams. Um you know, I didn't get the lucid dreaming during pregnancy. I've I've always had lucid dreaming, right? But when I was pregnant, I was I was so healthy and so protected. Like I went to a lot of haunted places. I, you know, did some ghost trips and never felt off. I mean, I I felt the best I probably ever have in my whole life, right? And then I gave birth to Jack. Still felt pretty good. Um, and things didn't really catch up with me until about three months, three and a half months postpartum, and I have just felt very uh how do I say this? Like easily attacked by energy, dreams, haunted things, paranormal investigations. Um, it's like my set I have like spidey senses. Like I'm overwhelmed with the spidey senses to the point where like I can I literally can be driving and I can not even be halfway to work and I can feel that the energy is already going to be off, you know? Um, so it's something that I'm adapting to, but the dreaming is insane, like the most lucid dreaming I've ever had. And for me to say that, because I'm always, you know, oh yeah, you know, dreams, dreams, dreams, you know, this, that. Oh yeah, I dreamt that. I know that. Or, you know, I dreamt of this person, but we did recently have a family, um, like a I want to call it like a family neighborhood friend that passed away. Um, the silver lining is that we got to see a lot of people that we haven't seen in a while, and we all went together and we showed up for this person, and I had uh just three days ago a very, very lucid, um, detailed dream of him. And then, you know, my father that passed away just about just over a month after our son was born. He definitely, I was right, you guys. So the last couple episodes, I said I felt like my dad was here at the house. He he hasn't really completely crossed over. And um, he actually saved Jack from swallowing a um plastic piece from like a tag, you know, like on like his onesie when, you know, like when the new clothes come and you're, you know, ripping off the tags. But he that was such a detailed dream. Like my dad actually opened up my son's mouth and was like, hey Melissa, you really need to watch this. Because even though the back of the tags, you know, that those pieces are in his sleeves, he's sucking on his sleeves and his hands, like he's put everything in his mouth now. It was just, anyways, um, so yeah. So getting into that, I came across this, and um scientists have proven it. So there is a theory that keeps resurfacing, not that dreams are random, but they are compressed experiences, like entire narratives folded into minutes. So it's not that we lived years in a dream, it's that the feeling of years was installed all at once. So think about that. You're at like all these different places all at once, and then you wake up to your conscious self and you're remembering these dreams, but you know that you were at a different time, a different place, right? So dreams feel emotionally real, right? And this is because some brain regions activate as waking trauma slash love, and our body reacts as if it actually happened. Nervous systems don't know the difference. So, like, if you tie this to motherhood and intuition, your body remembers things, your mind discards. So, like, like I said, like spidey senses, and I've heard this a lot, you know, before like, you know, mom talk that you get spidey senses, right? Like I said, during pregnancy, I I just I knew that Jack was okay. Like I knew he was strong all the times he was kicking, like he was active all day, all night, but I didn't really like know that spidey sense thing until after, like I said, a few months after I had him, and it's not just with him, it's like the whole entire fucking world is like so heavy and loud now. Like I can't even, it is hard for me to like when I wake up from a dream, I'm like, I know I was there at some I mean, I can't can't say there because you don't know where you're at, but it it feels real, right? And the messages and downloads kind of come in a little more clearer now, and it kind of sticks more with me throughout the day. As before Jack, I you know, I'd be like, oh, that was a great dream. That was cool. Okay, we'll see if it pla you know pans out or whatever. So, um, yeah. I would love some feedback about that, you know, hear from other moms, of course. So, why we forget almost all of it? Forgetting is a protective function. If we remembered every dream vividly, waking reality would fracture. Um, and this is kind of like where it gets airy, but grounded in the same way. And that's what I'm saying. Like when you remember everything of your dream and it's very vivid, I think it kind of like fucks up your day, right? Because you're like, it's like living in two worlds at one time. So the snippets that we do remember reoccurring places, right? Familiar people we've never met, emotional residue that lasts all day. Exactly what I'm, you know, talking about. So why do some dreams feel like memories instead of imagination? I mean, what do you guys think? I feel that you, I mean, I think it could be deja vu. I think you can be the veil can be very thin and you can be in between worlds. I think sometimes our spiritual guides are there to protect and tell us something that they want us to know. Um, I mean, there's a lot of different angles to this, right? Why we do remember it. But what I'm trying to say is that the more vivid it is and the more that it sticks like glue to you, the more it kind of like really messes you up at the same time because you want to get to the bottom of it, right? So, what if dreams aren't other lives, but other versions of this one? Paths that we did not take, selves that we didn't become. And sleep is the only place that we're allowed to exist. So chills, right? Like it's almost hard to comprehend that. So, you know, liminal time, gravity slipping, postpartum perception shifts. I think that's big. The feeling that reality feels thinner lately, which it does, I will admit. And I think postpartum does do that to women, right? And there's all different kinds of postpartum. We don't need to talk about that tonight because that's a lot of different angles. But I would say postpartum for me is more physical than mental. Um, physically, I think my brain has, like I said, spidey senses and feeling everything all at once is a lot sometimes. Um, when it comes to my son, I'm golden with him. Like I'm learning him more and more every day. He's learning me, learning his dad, you know, my husband. It's more like I absorb so much energy now. And it's like, you know, you always say I observe, I don't absorb, I absorb it all. I'm not to sound like so gross and I mean, well, you guys know I'm super raw and authentic. Um, and I don't edit shit. I just whatever comes to mind, I tell you, you know, it's kind of like I'm this big tampon and I'm just absorbing everyone's pollution. Like that's how I feel in the last couple months. And I've even like told some of my friends, like, you know, this is fucked up. This isn't like how you normally how I am. I'm a super grounded person, which I do feel grounded still, and I still feel extremely self-aware, but I'm almost too aware now. Like I'm I'm like way too open now. And you know, they say that um when you birth a child, that is the closest thing to the supernatural world and our living world, right? Like they kind of collide when life changes fast, the veil between waking and dreaming gets thinner. So if you guys, anyone out there are you know having super vivid dreams and you feel like the veil veil is getting thinner and you're kind of in between worlds, um, ask yourself, you know, why are you so open to this energy right now? Is your, you know, protectors, guides, ancestors trying to tell you something? Are your dreams trying to tell you something? Are you re-occurring, you know, are you ending up in the same recurring place, the same time? You're not supposed to see time in your dreams. However, I have heard people say they have, and I think that's kind of creepy because you're not really technically supposed to see, be able to see a clock like in your dream, right? So maybe we don't forget our dreams because they're meaningless. Maybe we forget because remembering everything would break us. And maybe the strangest part isn't that we live other lives when we sleep, it's that we wake up and pretend this is the only one. So that's deep, right? That's real deep. And what if dreams are not just random? Your brain doesn't erase dreams, it protects you from them, which I 1000% feel, especially now more than ever. I mean, so what do you guys think of these dreams? You know, like, do are you guys remembering your dreams? I know my one friend always says, Oh, I can never remember when I wake up. But I like she'll like I'll say like a word and she'll be like, Oh, that triggered something. Like, I remember this certain thing of my dream, but I don't remember how it panned out. So I will give some advice and even I need to preach to myself, like, keep a notebook by you. Try to document your dreams, try to write everything down, even if it's like, you know, scribble and it like doesn't make sense. It's really, really, really, really, really good to write down your dreams, everything that you remember. Maybe we don't notice the shift while it's happening. Maybe we only feel it like pressure in the air or that quiet moment before something breaks or becomes something new. Pay attention to what keeps showing up for you in your dreams, the feelings, the things that you cannot shake. Some messages do not come in words. Nothing we talked about tonight is meant to scare you. Awareness is not fair, it's clarity. The world has always been strange. We're just noticing it more. Take what resonates, leave what doesn't. And remember, it's not the dead we should be afraid of, it's the living. Until next time, stay strange. And again, you guys, happy new year.