4371 The Other Side 340
“This isn’t a dream. Whatever had happened in your dream, calm down, take deep breaths…”
The boy did as the voice said, and breathed slowly. After repeating the cycle many times, his eyes finally cleared a little and were no longer cloudy. The jumbled voices of the personalities alternating in his head finally subsided.
The boy opened his eyes. When Alice saw that he had regained his composure, she brought her own emotions under control. “It’s all right, Youyou…” she said tentatively.
He must have had a nightmare. She had been worried and had many questions that she wanted to ask. For example, she wanted to ask him if he felt better or if he was feeling unwell. However, Romanka had warned them. The boy could have experienced too many close calls before finally waking up. If they were to ask him too many questions, he might not be able to respond. He might even get anxious and furious.
If the boy managed to wake up, it meant he was fine. But it was at times like this, that it was important to keep him awake and not ask too many questions. It was the best way to handle him.
Alice could only tell him one thing for sure: he was awake. Besides, this was reality.
Even with these keywords, the boy was slow and mellow for a long time before he could figure out the situation.
He was too tired. Experiencing those things in a dream was countless times more exhausting than experiencing them in the real world.
Often many people would feel that way. A truly comfortable sleep is a dreamless sleep. If one were to fall asleep and have no dreams right up till dawn, and wake up naturally, even the air will seem incredibly fresh.
If one were to start dreaming after one has fallen asleep, and it’s a good dream, it’s not such a bad thing. But if one were to wake up from a nightmare, one would feel choked. Not only would one have trouble breathing properly, there would be a sense of dizziness and discomfort. Even breathing would be extremely turbid…
The more dreams a person has, the more it points to sleep disorders.
Youyou, on the other hand, had been through a series of events. He appeared to be asleep, but in fact, in his sleep, the depths of his brain remained highly active. When he woke up, he was inevitably in a trance-like state.
Therefore, this also indirectly proved why the split personality and multiple personality disorders were extremely draining.
The so-called mental drain was due not only to the patient being active in the real world, but also to the other personalities being active in dreams as well. Coupled with these personalities alternating back and forth… Gradually, the body would become just a vessel for the personalities.
What is a vessel? It happens when these personalities gradually separate from the body and start fighting each other for the body.
Even if they got along well, it would be like entering a -30 degree environment from a 40 degree environment. If one were to go back and forth frequently enough, the body would eventually succumb.
From Alice’s perspective, the boy’s willpower was extremely strong. Coupled with the fact that the two personalities had been getting along fairly well, that wouldn’t happen. However, it was foreseeable that if they did not make adjustments soon, the boy’s body would eventually collapse.
In her experience with one particular patient suffering multiple personality disorder, she noted that the patient would usually be by herself painting quietly. But if Romanka hadn’t explained her condition in detail, she would have thought the patient was demented, because her face was devoid of any expression.
