"Asleep" by The Smiths

Song: Asleep by The Smiths

Feeling: Anxiety, panic

Description: I am not entirely happy with how this entry turned out either, but I'm just going to leave it as it is. The song is "Asleep" by The Smiths. I think it's a nice song, a bit sad. As with most songs I am not sure what the writer wanted to say with them, but to me the song is about wanting to leave this world because you're tired of it, or you're going through a lot. Which is why when it says "Sing me to sleep, sing me to sleep, don't try to wake me in the morning because I will be gone, deep in the cell of my heart I've wanted this all along." In the song I think they use "sleep" as a metaphor leaving what ever place you are in which is why it also says "don't try to wake me in the morning, because I will be gone."and then "Don't feel bad for me, deep in the cell of my heart I've wanted this all along." So I think it has a sad meaning, but that's not the one I wanted to portray in the small story. Along with the sad meaning the song has, it also has a soothing effect to it. The piano and the gentle way it is sung, it makes you want to fall asleep. So I guess I am trying to show a little of both. And again I could be wrong on the song's meaning, but thats what I think it's trying to say. 

         The feeling is anxiety or panic, although I don't think I did a very good job of showing it. But basically it's about a guy who gets nightmares and is panicked after them. 

Story:

            The night air was heavy in his room. It weighed down on his panting lungs and made his sweat run cold. He twitched between his blankets, trapped in the world of his nightmares until in a mere instant his eyes would snap open, his arms would snap back and he would be up. Sweat making his sheets stick to him, hair tussled, heart drumming, lungs screaming and his eyes blaring as the tried to make sense of the dark.

            Sighing he sat up completely. Tearing the blankets from his body he shakily got up, taking in cold gulps of air. His eyes were still wide but now they were used to the dark that rained down on him. His hand searched for the light switch and with a click the room was ablaze with a dim golden glow. Blinking he ran his hands through his hair, trying to calm down his mind which was still running in circles, still panicked form its most recent nightmare.

            He had them often. Every night or so. He would lay his head down to rest only to be greeted by the dark grasp of his dreams, only to be pulled down by the gravity of panic and anxiety. Insomnia had come soon afterwards. His mind never seemed to go back to it’s calm state after a nightmare, it would spend hours drumming inside, his thoughts racing and knotting themselves up in a mess until dawn would creep in and he would just give up on counting sheep and hope that coffee might make up for the lack of rest that night.

            It never did. His eyes felt tired and burned all day long, his mind slurred and his body seemed to be pressed down. But the moment he put his head down to rest was the moment his nightmares would come, the moment his worst fears would bloom inside his thoughts and slowly drown everything out.

            Sleeping pills didn’t work. Neither did dream catchers and he was left to deal with the nightmares on his own. They weren’t really nightmares. If they did they would just exist in the sleeping world, but his dream monsters came to life in the day too. They would clog his tired mind and blur his sleepy eyes until he would almost believe that they were real.

            He ran his hands through his hair again, making it stand on end. On most nights, after a dream, he would lie down again and try to regulate his breathing and calm down his mind. He almost never did but tonight was different. Tonight he didn’t even try. Tonight he was going to do something else.

            Shakily his fingers fumbled with the white plastic covered wire, trying to get the knotted earphones undone. He plugged them into his small music player, all the while his mind shaking in fits while he remembered the monsters from his nightmare.

            The small music player came to life with a click of a button and his eyes searched mindlessly for what he wanted. He already knew, and he needed no thoughts to command his movements right now.

            Music. That’s what he wanted. That was his last hope, maybe the notes or the voices would help him. Maybe they would chase away the nightmares. Laying back he clicked the light off, evolving him in darkness again. A small tune blasted into his mind as he closed his eyes and repeating his nightly ritual he breathed in and out, soothing his heart as it banged against his rib cage.

            His mind slowed down as it listened to the lyrics and slowly sleep fell on him like a blanket, drenching his body in warmth as The Smiths sang him to sleep.

              “Sing me to sleep, sing me to sleep,

                I’m tired and I want to go to bed.

               Sing me to sleep, Sing me to sleep, 

               There is another world, 

               There is a better world, 

               There must be..."