Deirdre Swinden’s Somnium
Author Deirdre Swinden stops by my blog to tell us about the inspiration for her new novel.
Wandering while Dreaming: Confessions of a Childhood Sleepwalker
By Deirdre Swinden
When I was a child, I had a memorable stint of two or three weeks where I was caught sleepwalking. Trapped somewhere between dreams and waking, my young body would head off on the adventures of my drowsy mind. At first, no one really noticed. I would wake myself up at some point during my wanderings and head back to bed. When I woke again, I had little memory of my nighttime antics.
One morning, my mother came downstairs to find our dog, Charlie, lounging on the deck in front of the closed screen door. Fortunately, it was summer and we had a fence, so Charlie was about as happy as she could be—but my mother was obviously concerned. When I joined her for breakfast and she mentioned the mystery, I had a vague memory of coming downstairs to let Charlie out.
One embarrassing night, I completely missed not one but two bathrooms, and headed into my parents’ closet to do my business in the hamper. Another night, I woke in the back seat of my father’s car, certain we were supposed to be going somewhere. In the hope it might help, my mother closed my bedroom door each night. Soon after, the barrier was enough to stop my wanderings.
Instead I experienced something much more sinister: sleep paralysis. In these dreams, my mind was conscious, but my body could not move. I woke often with the feeling that I was not alone in my room, or that someone—or something—lingered close by.
Such dreams are not uncommon. According to a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, the “prevalence of sleep paralysis in the overall population is estimated to be around 7.6 percent” and “to date, there is no direct treatment strategy” for the condition. The dreams may be triggered for a variety of reasons, including anxiety and other mental health issues.
In my novel Somnium, Gillian Hardie suffers from extreme anxiety. When she is triggered by a piece of technology, she is certain to have a nightmare—and unlike most people, Gillian’s nightmares can kill. To survive, she’s mastered the art of lucid dreaming, but when an accident traps her in the nightmare realm, she will need a few new tricks to live through the night.
Have you ever walked in your sleep or suffered from sleep paralysis? Share your story below!
Description:
Immerse yourself in a terrifying blend of psychological horror and high-tech science fiction in this riveting novel where dreams can kill. Gillian Hardie experiences nightmares so intense they threaten her very existence, thanks to a glitch in Somnium Corporation’s groundbreaking dream advertising technology. Every night, her sleep unleashes monsters that her body reacts to as if they were real, pushing her to the edge of despair.
Armed with her lucid dreaming skills, Gillian battles these horrors, but when an accident traps her in a perpetual dream state, she must rely on Nathan Keller, a nightmare warrior, and Dex Cooper, an Operator, to navigate this nightmarish reality. With her darkest fears manifesting like never before, Gillian faces a race against time to survive a threat that could unleash unimaginable horrors from the depths of her mind.
Get your copy here!
Trigger Warnings:
This novel includes a brief depiction of sexual violence, gore, and nightmare imagery.
Author Bio:
A successful writer/editor in the corporate world for more than two decades, Deirdre Swinden is currently living and writing in North Carolina. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Arcadia University and has published short stories in Griffel Literary Magazine and Grim & Gilded. Early in her writing career, she won the Popular Short Story Contest at the 2000 Philadelphia Writers’ Conference with her short work, “Shooting Televisions.”
Learn more about Deirdre’s work:
Website – https://deirdreswindenauthor.com
X/Twitter – @DeirdreSwinden
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/deirdre.swinden5
Sleep Paralysis Reference:
Farooq, M., & Anjum, F. (2023, September 4). Sleep paralysis. StatPearls – NCBI Bookshelf.
