S.1. Ep. 9 "Perchance to Sleep"

Richard Conte plays Edward Hall, a man afraid to sleep because he may never wake up. Hall walks into psychiatrist, Dr. Rathmman's office, played by John Larch. He lies down a second and jumps back up. Hall explains he has a paranoid, overactive imagination. He tells the doctor he dreams in sequences, in chapters. Then he tells the doctor he has a serious heart condition. A week prior to his visit, he began to have chapter dreams of a nightmarish circus carnival. There he meets a girl named Maya, played by Suzanne Lloyd. She begins to follow him and leads him into a fun house. He wakes up and his heart is pounding ridiculously. Hall believes Maya is trying to kill him. The following night the dream continues and Maya puts him on a roller coaster. He freaks out and Maya tells him to jump, jump, JUMP! Hall walks toward the door of the office when he sees the receptionist, its Maya! He jumps back into Dr. Rathmman's office and jumps through the window.

Maya's real name is Miss Thomas. Dr. Rathmman calls Miss Thomas into the office, feels Hall's pulse and declares him dead. Turns out when Edward Hall walked into Dr. Rathmman's office and sat down, he never woke up. The whole episode was a dream.

SPIN

Dreams are a strange thing. The mind in an unconscious state revealing twisted back thoughts from our subconscious. Thankfully we don't die in our dreams.

I've woke up dead from dreams more times than I have fingers or toes. I've been murdered, raped, drowned, thrown from a cliff, hanged, stabbed, died in a hurricane and died in a car crash.

I've also witnessed my mother be decapitated by a truck tire running her over. The icing on the cake, it was during a rain storm.

That was traumatically gut-wrenching.

New York Times' reporter, Robin Finn, interviewed REM behavior disorder (RBM) sufferer and comedian, Mike Birbiglia. REM is rapid-eye-movement. Mike sleepwalks and does other actions in his sleep, for example, he jumped out of a closed second story window while asleep. Now, Mike sleeps in a sleeping bag when he goes to bed in order to contain his actions.

I recommend reading Mike's interview. He makes the best of his disorder and uses it for comedic purposes.