On sleep disruption...

REM sleep is the first stage of a typical sleep cycle. It is characterised by Rapid Eye Movements, and typically accompanied by dreams. Freud proposed that dreams give a window into the subconscious mind, and put forward a complex interpretive structure detailing what different symbols appearing in dreams might really mean. His proposals about the subconscious are largely untestable, and there's a general consensus that his Interpretation is no better than the obvious: things that appear in our dreams might sometimes reflect something that is on our mind - something that the brain needs to deal with - but equally, they often don't.

In other news, it's been a while since we've considered cucumber sandwiches... Perhaps I'm yearning for a slice of summer...