Sleep working

I've never seen cats bring their work with them to the realm of dreams, but I can certainly vouch for it happening in humans.

Case No. 1, my Dad. He used to be a driving instructor, spending most of his time in the passenger seat trying to teach hill starts to learner drivers of assorted abilities. I can remember him falling asleep in his armchair one Sunday afternoon. Nothing unusual there, you may think. It was when he yelled "No! No! No!" and then stabbed with his foot at a phantom dual-controlled brake pedal, waking himself up, that we realised something was wrong.

Similarly, I once had an old girlfriend, who was a schoolteacher, give me a history lecture on Canadian/US diplomacy and warfare in the 19th century in her sleep. And my wife, Linda, frequently reverts back to when she was a nurse in the Burns Unit at Covenant, Lubbock, when she's asleep, reeling off lists of painkillers and drug schedules for the patients under her care.

Linda tells me I chuckle in my sleep. Maybe I'm dreaming up ideas for Smith. I wish I could remember them afterwards.