I am awful for getting out of bed when I first wake up. While I know that going back to sleep often makes you feel more tired, I can’t help myself, usually sleeping in till the last possible minute. I am sure I am not alone in this mentality of staying in bed, while many of my friends will be up at a time I regard as stupidly early.

Recently, though, I have really come to appreciate this extra time in bed, not for the extra sleep, warmth and comfort (which, of course, are still important), but for the lucid dreaming that can occur in this time. This magical hour is the time I remember most of all, when my dreams are filled with wonderful creative ideas. Often they are a mish-mash of recent events, emotions and surroundings, but sometimes random elements occur. Locations that I have never seen, but so complete in detail, people I have never known, but who seem close friends, and stories that need to be written down. I have got into a habit of having a little notebook by my bed, so I can get the dreams down before the reality of the day kicks in, and they become memories to be forgotten all too soon.

One of my favourite (and scariest) dreams helped me write the short tale of ‘The School‘. The story is pretty much as it was, there was no need to artistically extend it, it was complete in itself. It was quite an unnerving dream, one of those that leave you out of kilter for the rest of the day, but then by embracing it, giving it life, I turned into something which was no longer just a bad dream.

I am currently improving my skill set in Illustrator, and have been looking for ideas to begin designing. A recent dream I had seemed pretty mundane – I was walking around ASDA (Walmart to you folks over the pond) as some heated issue was taking place and people were stressing over something. But the one bit that stuck out was when I stopped at a display of some bottles of rum. I picked up the bottle and looked at it, thinking, that looks so cool. So upon waking, I made a quick sketch on the glass wipeboard, and got on with my working day as normal, but I knew that I now had my project idea to work on in Illustrator. I gave it a little more thought, added a new brand (the other one was an existing pirate) and a bit of unique flavour, but the core design was the same. You can see the result here - it is still basic but I want to refine it and turn it into an advertisement.

So don’t underestimate your dreams for helping you out in your daily life, they can inspire, solve problems and give you the answers you need when you need them.  And when your partner, family or pet demand that you get your lazy hide out of bed, tell them you’re doing research.  (Of course, pets don’t understand this and still demand to be fed).

Now why is the rum gone?