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From Paul Mealing, Melbourne, Australia

I found Emma Young’s piece on epic dreaming very interesting because I’d never heard the term before, but feel I’ve probably experienced it most, if not all, of my life. I’ve experienced lucid dreams ever since I can remember, some more powerful than others. I’m now 75 and have broken sleep every night, but I feel I’ve adjusted to it over a lifetime. I had a sleep-lab test a few years back, and while I didn’t get a lot of sleep – I was awoken by “bumps-in-the-night” – I was told that my proportion of deep sleep was above average for my age (30 May, p 7).

Here’s the thing: I write fiction and I believe the language of stories is the language of dreams, otherwise they wouldn’t work. So, I spend a reasonable amount of my waking life in stories.

Both dreams and stories provide what-if scenarios that we don’t encounter in real life. In my dreams, I have faced a firing squad, been in sword fights and war zones – none of which I’ve experienced in real life.