Since getting braces, I’ve been dreaming nearly every night. As you know, this is somewhat unusual for me. Does this mean I’m getting better sleep, entering the deep, restful REM sleep more often? Or does this mean I’m getting worse sleep, waking up more often during the night and therefore simply remembering my dreams more often? I’m not sure.
I do know the first two nights after I got braces, I woke up two hours earlier than normal, completely refreshed as if I’d had the best night of sleep ever, and I don’t think I ground my teeth. But the third night was the beginning of the roscivs household stomach flu, so I didn’t get an uninterrupted night of sleep for nearly a week. I’m almost completely recovered now, but I’m back to waking up the normal time with the normal rested, but tired feeling.
I think I’m back to grinding (or really, clenching) my teeth again at night, too. Maybe just because my body is more accustomed to braces now? Several nights ago I even had a dream where my teeth fell out. It wasn’t quite the same as my usual old dreams—normally they fall out one-by-one, and from the roots, i.e. the entire tooth comes out whole.
In this dream, however, the first tooth fell out by itself as normal, but it was only the top part of the tooth. In fact, in the dream, it was as if the tooth was made in two parts: an empty root, and a crown of the tooth like a peg, fitting into the square hole of the root. After the first tooth, the entire bottom-right set fell out together, all attached, like they weren’t individual teeth at all, but rather a string of teeth, again all crowns, pushed tight-fitting into the holes below.
Maybe Deck was right—maybe these dreams are connected to my temporal mandibular difficulties.
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