"Perceptions of what you hear and see are different." 1/14/21

At the beginning of morning meditation, I heard, "Perceptions of what you hear and see are different."  Had the worst nightmare of my life, that I can recall.  The nightmare felt so real, I thought it was my real life experience.  I was so grateful to wake up to realize it was not my living reality.  I dreamt that I was seeing and hearing things that my wife couldn't see.  I was hallucinating and frightened by the experience. I was seeing hay on my old bed in my parent's house and our son Mason playing with it.  Next I saw pictures of things that I enjoyed as a kid on my old bedroom wall and could feel them, but my wife Kels was not able to see or feel them.  I was so upset and frightened.  My next thought was how am I going to be able to move throughout life without having her or others confirm what is real and what is not.  I felt so scared and helpless in my dream.  Then I awoke.  I kissed my hand to make sure I was really awake.  My take away, is now that this nightmare gave me this realistic experience, it will really lead to more understanding and compassion for the people I serve on the unit daily. I hope to never experience this again in dream state or on in reality.  My big take away, was to be very mindful of always getting enough rest each night (9 hours of sleep) and managing my level of daily stress.  My job can be extremely stressful at times.  I am excellent at taking my meds daily, eating healthy and staying physically fit.