loreimagines

[loreimagines]

Does anyone actually feel passion or am I just weird and emotionally stunted? Anyway, I'm going to rip my teeth out because of art and I am not feeling a lot of loving passion for the practice. I refuse to quit though so the teeth are being ripped. I'll just put them in a jar for safe keeping after I'm done.

[loreimagines]

Night terrors are a type of parasomnia in which the subject screams, cries, or thrashes due to nightmare-like distress in the first third of the night. The subject does not actually wake during this time and is instead trapped in a state between wake and sleep. This state of fear is an unconscious response lasting one to forty minutes, and the subject will be able to fall asleep afterward. By morning, the subject will have little to no memory of the night terror and its events.

Night terrors most often happen with children aged three to seven, but adults are known to have night terrors too, albeit these cases are rarer. Children prone to night terrors have been known to have other sleep issues later in life, mainly sleepwalking. As for adults, they tend to be more injury-prone during a night terror due to suddenly getting out of bed and, presumably, having longer limbs with which to knock into things.

The cause of night terrors is unknown; however, there are some known triggers: lack of sleep, sleep apnea, fever, and stress.

During my free research (I don’t have the money to pay for any academic journals on the topic), I came up with a theory or two of my own regarding the cause of night terrors. Of course, these are just theories and have no actual scientific testing, but it’s interesting to think of possibilities.

Theory #1: Internalized stress caused by the external environment carries over from wakefulness to sleep, leading to a nightmare very early in the night. The body tries to wake itself up, but, as the conscious mind has already fallen asleep, the unconscious mind can only thrash and/or shout its distress to the world. This would explain why most do not remember the night terror come morning and why they happen. Your perceived world could, also, influence how prevalent night terrors are. If you view the world as something to be afraid of, then that stress could pile into sleep.

Theory #2: You do not feel safe in your environment, and, in response, your body tries to keep you awake and alert despite your need for sleep. It couldn’t keep you from lying down and resting, but it could try to alert you before you got into REM sleep. This theory is shakier.

Theory #3: Children may be more prone to night terrors because they have more creative minds and have less of a sense of the world causing an internal imbalance. A good imagination and a feeling of subconscious overwhelm that makes itself known when the child tries to go to bed.  

That’s about it. I would really like to read those academic journals and revise this someday. I doubt anyone is going to see this, but if you do and have experience with night terrors, comment and share your experiences. I’d love to hear any observations you made. :)

Citations:

Night terrors. (2024, May 29). Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/night-terrors

Nightmares and night terrors. Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/nightmares-and-night-terrors

[loreimagines]

Thoughts On Referencing The Dead

When a loved one has died, we use the past tense when referring to them. That is what we were all taught and is accepted by English teachers everywhere. It makes sense when the living talks of the deceased’s actions or how the deceased impacted the living’s self. It makes less sense when we discuss how we feel about the deceased.

When you refer to a dead loved one, you will say, “I loved him/her/them.” But is that correct? The use of past tense implies that the love has faded and for many people, that love continues well past when a death. The emotion lingers even when the person does not. Emotions may dull and heal over time, but you can never say that you do not love a loved one posthumously, can you? So, perhaps when referring to our emotions towards the dead, we should start using the present tense.

But, of course, that causes its own problems. Talking about the dead would get more complicated and would probably make dramatic death revelations harder in media.

So, it’s not going to change. It’s just an idea from someone who still loves the dead.

[loreimagines]

Osedax- The Zombie Worms

The Osedax, commonly called a zombie worm, begins life when a mother Osedax worm has the several microscopic male worms attached to her fertilize her gametes to be spread using the ocean’s currents. From there, a portion of the eggs will land upon a flesh-peeled carcass and begin their short lives feeding upon the bone.

Osedax worms are deep-sea floor creatures found at depths from 10 to 4,000 meters. While they are most known to colonize whale carcasses, a study has found them to feast rather indiscriminately on any bony carcass below the waves, as long as scavengers have first picked it over.

What makes the Osedax unique is its feeding method. Osedax worms feed by boring into the bone with their attached roots and secreting an acid to dissolve the hard outer shell of the bone. Once in the marrow, the symbiotic bacteria within the roots begin to break down the fat and protein, digesting it for the worm. This process can be fairly quick, with one evidenced case of Osedax worms digesting a whale skeleton in a decade.

The differences between the two genders of zombie worm are vast. The females grow from 1-3 inches and are essentially feathery-gilled tubes with a large egg sac connecting to the digesting bone. Near the egg sac, a female Osedax worm can collect up to 600 microscopic males to fertilize eggs. These males live parasitically attached to the female’s body and do not digest bone.

Beyond their feeding and mating habits, there are little other interesting behaviors. The only other behavior found intriguing is that their feathery gills can retract into the trunks of their bodies when disturbed.

The end of an Osedax worm’s lifespan happens when a carcass has been completely digested, at which point, all of the zombie worms will die off on mass.

Citations

Rowell, M. Osedax Studies. MBARI. https://www.mbari.org/project/osedax-studies/

Waters, H. (2013, June). Zombie worms crave bone. Smithsonian Ocean. https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/invertebrates/zombie-worms-crave-bone

Bone-eating worm. Monterey Bay Aquarium. https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/whale-worm

[loreimagines]