Good Job, Brain! - 47: Zzzzzzzz...

Episode Date: January 28, 2013

Warning! Our show on sleep is actually far from a snoozefest! We find out about the eye-popping origin of the word "nightmare," the amazingly INTENSE sleep behavior of hummingbirds, why you feel the falling sensation when drifting to sleep, the fascinating history about beds, and what's actually *in* your bed. ALSO: a special TV theme song Music Round, and awful riddles written by children Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hello, zillions of zippy, zany, zesty, zed-dunk zealz. Welcome to Good Job, Brain, your weekly quiz show and offbeat trivia podcast. This is episode 47, and I am your humble host, Karen. And we are your ridiculously rad riffing and ranting ragam muffins. I'm Colin. I'm Dana. And no Chris today.

Ironically, well, I guess not ironically. Appropriately, our last episode was on cold things. And Chris has a cold. So it cannot make it. Yes. Get well soon, Chris. This episode is sponsored by men's online apparel store, bonobos.com. So I want to do a mini segment to start the show.

And I'm going to call it Bonobos. The Showbos presents Bad Kids Jokes, Pants Edition. I've shared with you guys. I've shared with some of the people over Twitter. One of my favorite Tumblr sites is called Bad Kids Joke. And the person who made this moderates jokes on a, like, a kids joke site. A lot of the joke submissions can't be published because they're either offensive or dirty or not appropriate for kids.

Or just outright bad. Yeah, or just bad. Or just doesn't make sense at all. And I feel like those are kind of the funniest. I think so. We all know that Bonobos make some of the best pants in the world, but these kids definitely make some of the worst jokes. Let's share some of these. And they're all pants related.

So they're like riddles, but keep in mind, they make absolutely no sense or are not funny. Oh, can we guess? Yes. Okay. Okay. What did the woman do in bed when she heard the alarm going off? And it pances something in the answer. Oh, my.

So this is rejected. Yes. She, like, hit it as if there were ants in her pants. The answer is, poo her pants. Wait, what? I think what's missing a lot of these is the direct cause and effect relationship. Yeah, yeah. Just whatever is on your mind.

Yeah. They're treating jokes as if it's a two-line story. I know. Okay. Why did the farmer sleep on his bed? Um, something like about a cow, or he wanted to, he wanted to raise some, I don't know, I can't even. Pants were flooding. I don't know. He wanted to dream of sheep.

Because all the animals took his pants off. That's why he slept in his bed. Well, I got no pants. I better go to sleep. I was going to sleep on the floor. Yeah. Awkward without pants. My lack of pants is really driving this decision. These are hard to guess

I can't even begin I don't think you're supposed to guess them Oh my goodness Oh my face hurts I know So I also want to share A very lovely Facebook message We got from our good job brain page

And here it is This is from Mr. Tommy Danger And he says Hey guys I just wanted to say I listen to your podcast as I run I'm currently running

Across the country From Seattle to Daytona Beach Whoa for cystic fibrosis. I just want to thank you guys for having a rad podcast that allows me to clear my mind on an 18 to 20 mile run every day. I'm a little over 1,800 miles in so far, and you guys have been a part of a lot of those miles.

Thank you and have a stellar day, exclamation point. Wow. Well, thanks, Tommy. That's amazing. That's not only cross country. That's diagonal cross country. Tommy here started a campaign called More Than Just Miles where he's running over 3,200 miles to raise awareness and money for cystic fibrosis foundation.

Very, very, very, very cool. So keep on running, Tommy, and we'll keep you entertained and best of luck to you. Absolutely. Oh, yeah. So without further ado, let's jump into our general trivia segment. Pop quiz, hot shot. And here I have a random trivial pursuit card, and you guys have your barnyard buzzers, so let's start answering some questions.

What language has more native speakers than any other in Canada after English and French? Basically, what's the number three language? I'll guess Swedish? Incorrect. That's random. Chinese? Yes, it is actually Chinese. Of course.

I was just thinking that, like, you know, I know a lot of Swedish speakers, like in the middle part of America, maybe up into the Canadian border. I don't know. Chinese makes a lot more sense, though. All right. next question. Ooh, what character actor showed off fancy dance steps in a fat boy slim video called Weapon of Choice? Dana.

Christopher Walkin. Yes, it is Christopher. That is a fantastic video. I had no idea he could dance so well. I don't think anybody did until he busted out those moves. So I believe this is true. It could totally not be true. But I think he said the reason why he speaks at that pace has to do with learning how to dance.

That's crazy. That's a good theory. That was a good impression. All right, yellow wedge. What high-profile fast food entree lost McDonald's $200 million in 1997? Lost them? Colin. I don't know, the McRib.

Incorrect. Is it the McDialty? Incorrect. It is the Arch Deluxe that we talked about in a previous show. Right. Green Wedge for science. What metal is dusted on a glass surface to make an etch a sketch? Oh, that's a good question.

I think it's aluminum, isn't it? Yes, it is. Yeah. All right. Last question, orange wedge. What clue character is known as Dr. Black to Britons? Huh. Dana.

Oh, it's body. Shoot. Yes, it is. Mr. Body. Oh. Mr. Body in the States and Dr. Black. to the people in the UK. Good job, Brains.

So we've mentioned before that Chris is at home sick, and he's most likely sleeping right now. I hope so. Recuperating, sleeping, yep. So he'd be back next week. And appropriately, today's topic, our topic of the week, is on sleep. Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream. Make him the cutest that I'm. I've ever seen

Give him the word That I'm not a roller And now and that it's on The nights are all of them I'm so as long I'll kick it off with A grab bag style quiz About sleep

And sleep and dreams All right I'll be super impressed if you get all of them Oh now is a challenge Yeah Me versus you Colin Number one What Greek letter

describes the deepest phase of sleep. Oh. So I know there's like... I didn't even know. Is it theta? No. I'm just guessing because REM, is it R.E.M.? Nope.

It's Delta. Delta. It's in the fourth phase of sleep. And delta is the fourth letter. I don't know if that's why it's called that. I think it is. I remember reading about the different levels, like reading about hypnosis one time. Washington Irving is famous for writing two short stories.

One is about sleeping and one has sleep in the title. What are they? Well, I know one is what? Okay, you say one. All right, Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Yep. Rip Van Winkle? Yes.

Ah, all right. Team effort. Sleepy Hollow is the headless horseman. I noticed that today that both of his stories had sleep-related things in it. A king-sized mattress is 76 inches by 80 inches. What size bed is 84 inches by 84 inches? Oh, they have the one that's called, is that the California king? No, that one is 72 by 84.

Is it European king? Nope. There is a monarch. No, there's like an emperor. Is it emperor? It's the San Francisco king. No. Yes.

It has, what? The San Francisco king? What is it? 84 by 84? Yeah. It's a square. A square bed. I wonder why it's called that.

That's really interesting. What's the name of a large hybrid? Backed pillow with two arms. Oh, man. I don't know what those things are called. They sell them at, like, IQ. Yeah. A little huggy chair thing.

It's called the husband pillow or the boyfriend pillow. Oh. It makes you not want to buy one. No. Why is it just a husband who can embrace you? Who wrote the classic bedtime storybook, Good Night Moon? Oh, God. It's on my shelf behind me.

Does it start with, I think it's, isn't the guy who else wrote? The purple crayon. No, I think it's a woman. I think Anne, Ann Elizabeth. Good night. Keep going with old-timey names. Sam, ladies. Annalie.

No. Marshall. Sarah. Margaret. Margaret. Wise Brown. Margaret Wise Brown. No idea. Oh, wow.

Margaret Wise Brown wrote, Good night, moon. Good night, moon. Good night, moon. Scoch, children. I know. Matt, you've raised the bar on the Christopher Wauken. Impressions both of you.

I'm too embarrassed. I can't do it now. What mammal sleeps the most during the day? Hmm. Karen. Coala. No. Oh, what?

Sloth? Is it sloth? No, it's the brown bat. The brown. Oh, of course, because it's the nocturnal animal. It does it? Well, during a 24-hour period, it sleeps 19 hours. And there's kind of a myth that the koala sleep 22 hours.

But according to the Australian Journal of Zoology, they only sleep 14 and a half hours. Yeah. The other koalas, they spend most of those hours. They're not really sleeping. They're just drunk. Right. They're drug from eucalyptus. Eucalyptus high.

That's not asleep. Yeah. They're just couch potatoing. Buzin. In Greek mythology, who is the personification of sleep? Karen. Diana? No, she was a goddess of the moon.

Is it a guy or a girl? It's a guy. And you probably know who the dreams one is. Yeah. Whose dreams? We'll do that one first. I'll give you a hit. This name also appeared in the Matrix.

Oh, that was Morpheus. Yes. Dreams was Morpheus. And, like, morphine and, right, right. And then sleep was hypnosis. Hypnos, of course. Okay. In the wonderful Wizard of Oz, what type of flowers caused Dorothy to fall asleep?

Poppy. Puppies. What color? Red from the movie. Scarlet, yes. That's our state flower. That's California. No, we're golden.

The golden poppy. I don't think the golden ones make you sleepy. I think the scarlet ones might. Oh, good. All right. That's it. All right. Oh, that was hard.

I'm going to take a nap. I'll be right back. Yeah, recuperate. Speaking of animals like the bat and koalas who sleep all day, you know, I always wondered how do hummingbirds sleep or do they even sleep? Because as we know, like, hummingbirds are like amazing. I hope I speak for all of the people who've seen hummingbirds. I, like, I cannot believe my eyes how fast their wings move.

Well, you can't see them with your eye. You've got to do it on like, slow down on, yeah. Oh, you can't see their wings, but you can see hummingbirds with your eyes. Yeah. No, they're like vampires, Dana. I was like, I'm pretty sure it's people being dressed for it. They almost... But wait, but don't they just sleep like other birds?

What do you mean? Here's the thing. Hummingbirds, while in flight, they have the highest metabolism out of all animals. Highest metabolism, excluding, like, insects or something. One of the reasons why they have such a ridiculously high metabolism is because they have to support the constant movement of the wings because they're so fast. And their heart rate can reach as highest 1,000, 220. 160 beats per minute.

One thousand beats per minute. More than 1,000 beats per minute. Oh, my God. Humans average around 60 to 100, 1,200. Wow. I want to see it. It must be like the tightest muscle. Yeah.

I mean, I know they're small, but yeah, I mean, I guess it makes sense to have to exert that much energy. For something like that, it's like, do they even sleep what happens when they do? And do they sleep like other animals just because they're. their metabolism is so amazingly high. And so I found out that, yes, hummingbirds do sleep. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and they're not sharks.

Like, it's not like they have to stay in the air the whole time. But the way they sleep is like serious business. Okay. Serious business. Hummingbirds and some other animals go through what scientists call a daily torpor. So torpor is essentially an extremely deep sleep. It's involuntary. Oh, really?

Yeah. So it's out of necessity. Hummingbirds need to be so insanely active during the day that their body has to almost shut down when they need rest to conserve energy at night and to the point that they almost appear to be dead. Yikes. It's amazing.

When they go into their daily torpor, their metabolism will lower to 1.15th of its normal amount. Their body temperature will drop a lot to a point of becoming hypothermic. Huh. Whoa. And their heart rate, you know, from 12,000, 1,200 beats per minute will drop to 50 beats per minute. A crazy descent.

That must be like the widest range of any animal. That's insane. And their breathing slows down to a point where they look like they're not even breathing. So they're little bird popsicles. Bird popsicles almost right. The funny thing is when hummingbirds shut down for torpor at night, they tend to fall or hang upside down. So their claws would, you know, they would find a good place, a branch or whatever on a tree. and their claws would kind of dig in.

They kind of like lock their claws in. And then Torpor basically is passing out. It's not, oh, I'm just going to go for a deep sleep. They pass out. And so sometimes they'll just hang upside down because they fall with their claws on the branch and they're all upside down. And they're like a little seed pods or bats or something. It's so cute.

And their photos online if you're curious. Because I have to say, like if I were an animal that ate birds as part of my diet, this sounds like pretty, this sounds like a buffet, yeah. Yeah, low-hanging fruit or low-hanging birds. Yeah, yeah, bird fruit. Yeah, if I knew that they were going to involuntarily pass out and stick to a branch once a day. That's the sad part. The weaker hummingbirds don't survive torpor, either through predators or because their bodies just, you know.

They can't come back out of it? Oh, my gosh. So it's kind of sad. I had no idea. It was this intense. I'm sorry I mocked you for wondering. And, you know, I'm not saying that you should, but if you do stumble upon, if you see an upside down hummingbird,

even if you touch it, which I'm not saying you should, they won't even wake up. Wow. Because you just passed out. They don't even wake up if you put them in your mouth. I mean, that's what I read.

Good cover, Colin. And when they do wake up, it takes them like almost up to an hour to like fully go back to normal. That is pretty incredible. Just the extremes that they have to go through. So torpor, like I said, it's involuntary.

kind of situation where they have to conserve energy. It's almost like the reptilian in their behavior, you know? So not to be confused. Torper is different than what we know as hibernation. It might sound similar, right? It's like animals who go to sleep to conserve energy. So the difference is hibernation is voluntary. You hear about rodents collecting food or whatever for the winter for hibernation.

It's because they know willingly to go to sleep during the winter months and then during their deep sleep, sometimes. they would wake up and they would poo and pee and they would eat some of the stored fruit and then go back to sleep. So basically they're just very dormant during winter months. Oh, okay. So, of course, when we talk about hibernation, we always think about bears. Sure. Sure. Big bears go in the cave. Honestly, I didn't even really know that other animals beside bears would hibernate. A lot of little animals. So that's kind of the anomaly. So bears hibernate in a different way. So hibernation, you know, like I said, it's voluntary, you store food, and then you just basically sleep a lot during

winter months. Bears, they sleep through the whole winter, and they don't store food outside of their bodies. Bears eat a lot of food, and we know that. Bears eat a whole bunch before it's time for hibernation, and they sleep and basically live off of whatever is in their body for a long, long time. And it's kind of amazing because they don't poo or pee. during hibernation. Yeah, now I've wondered how this works, among the many things I've wondered.

For urine, actually, it's interesting, the bear system recycles urine. So it gets absorbs, the moisture absorbs back, and then it kind of, you know, becomes urine again and just this cycle. But for poop, what happens is it just builds up in their body. So now, I remember talking with you guys, I think, after public quiz a few weeks ago, and the topic somehow turned to bear, butt plugs. I don't know a classier way to say that. But you guys had mentioned reading about the phenomenon that bears would sort of like, I don't know, like for a better term, like pack themselves with a plug on the inside, right? Now, is this? So I've heard this before where they eat a bunch of rocks and pine needles and like things that they can't digest. And then that

forms a plug at the end of their. Yeah, it seals it up. So that way things won't leave their body before it's time. But I looked online and it doesn't look like it's actually true. Yeah, it's controversial. Okay. So some bear zoologists say that that is actually a myth, that they don't really go out and actively eat rocks and stuff. I mean, the first question I had is, well, they have to pass that eventually.

Okay. There is a plug, but that plug is basically just really old dried up poop in their system. I think that naturally just becomes a stopper. It might have rocks and stuff and hair. it because they groom themselves. Got it. Wow. Well, I'm...

Well, so the joke really is, does a bear poop in the woods? Eventually. Not while he's hibernating. Not while he's sleeping. But it's so weird, because the Charmin mascots are bears. Oh, yeah, from the commercial. Yeah, that's right. They're, yeah, they use the cartoon bears pooping in woods.

Right. And the bear always has, like, toilet paper stuck to its butt, but it's so graphic. Like, such a weird joke to be made. I prefer. I prefer my toilet paper marketing just to have like puppies and things like that. Yeah. An angel. Yeah, it's totally unrelated.

Not massive bear poop. Yeah, yeah. Well, once again, I find myself having to transition away from poop into my topic. You're welcome. There's really no elegant way to do this. But I have a segment here for you guys entitled, What's in Your Bed? So we're still talking about poop. I'm just kidding.

Just kidding. We can go two different ways with what's in your bed in terms of how we want to interpret that. So I want to start with. Literally, what is your bed made of? I think all three of us have a pretty modern style bed, box spring mattress, topper, things like that. That's actually a pretty recent invention. Like our beds that we sort of just take for granted, at least in the Western world, it's only about 150 years old, like the way that we kind of know it. Oh, really?

Before that, all the way up from through medieval Renaissance times, all the way up, you know, into the 17, 1800s, it was pretty common for most people that your bed would be some straw and fabric. And that's about it. Oh, that feels pokey. Going back to medieval times, if you said, you know, you're going to go make your bed for the night, you literally were talking about going and making a bed. You would go, you know, and depending on what you had access to you, get some blankets or fabric or clothing and get some straw and bunch it up and make a little bed for yourself. For anyone sort of below the level of royalty or nobility, it was fairly common.

Just your bed would be a sack filled with straw. If you were lucky enough or had access to it, feathers or goose down, just the end. idea that bedrooms were kind of a new thing. So your bed might be in a different place every night and you'd have to sort of fix it up each time you're going to sleep. So in addition to like feathers and straw, sawdust was common, you know, or wood shavings. People would use moss. If you were, if you were really poor and didn't have access to good stuff, you could use wool. You could use horse hair, which sounds really uncomfortable. Yeah. I make violin bows out of horse hair. I suppose that's true, but I don't sleep on violin bows. Yeah, true. As the saying goes, you can't sleep on

Lion bows, Karen. But again, you know, the idea of our comfortable pillow top, tetrapedic foam spring bed, yeah, it's a far cry. The spring mattress wasn't invented until 1865. So the spring, box spring mattress was a big deal because it meant that you didn't have to have all these heavy things. I mean, another thing to note, like, a modern bed was a big deal. For a long time, your bed might be the nicest single thing that you owned. Like, if you had a good bed, that could be your most valuable possession. Why did the farmer sleep on the floor? Because Abraham Lincoln pooed in his pants.

But this is a good transition here in terms of the quality of bed to the other meaning of what's in your bed. And the first thing, Dana, that you said, was bugs, right? And so I want to talk about as uncomfortable as it might be the other living things that are in your bed. Oh, man. I know they exist. They do exist.

Yes. I said poo. There are. We sort of just briefly recap the history of beds coming from up off the floor into nice, raised platforms. A lot of that history was for sanitary reasons as well as comfort. I mean, you want to get away from bugs and vermin and things like that. And it is just absolutely distressing to read about.

Oh, because it's stirring on the ground. I mean, as I say, if you had a cloth mattress filled with straw, it would not be uncommon to have mice, you know, find their way into your bedding or other vermin. It's warm and they can nest in there. So that's just the ones you can see. I mean, obviously, you know, bedbugs and lice and mites and all kinds of other things that you don't even want to think about were a problem. I'm going to give you guys some numbers here that might make you uncomfortable. All right.

The average bed of average cleanliness, okay, has up to 2 million bed mites. Bed mites are tiny little creatures smaller than lice, smaller than fleas, and they live in your bed and they eat what you leave behind. They eat your skin cells primarily. and that's that is their diet i mean as gross as it is to think about they are living with you and this again this is not a sign of like an unclean house this is just it's a byproduct of being human then we leave these behind we are too delicious we are so tasty all of our dead skin at least it's going somewhere yeah you like that it as being recycled yeah yeah this is where this is where chris would sing circle of life i read that the average pillow this blew my mind

up to 10% of a pillow's weight, if you have a pillow that's around four or five years old, which is that is the average, 10% of that weight can be your dead skin cells. Okay, I believe so. Bed mites, including living bed mites and dead bed mites. Because when they die, they don't go anywhere. And this is my new favorite word up there with snarge. The other part is frass. F-R-A-S.

What is that? I bet I think I can guess. Do you would you like to guess what frass is? Is it bedmite poo? It is bedmite dung, yes. I knew it. Yes. Yes.

Frass. Yes. So bed mites, they're dung, and your dead stin cells can make up. And they're dead bodies. And the dead ones. Sorry, yes, yes, exactly. I want to say good night to them at night. Good night. Good night.

Well, Frass does. Oh, yeah. I mean, if anything, sentient in there, it's probably not the frass. Good night, mites. Good night, mites. Good night, lice. Good night, Christopher Walken. I thought this was going to be like a relaxing episode on sleep.

Nothing relaxing. Not in our hands. Not in our hands. We're going to have a quick break, and I actually have more. Bonobos presents bad kids jokes, pants edition. Here I have a couple more I want to share with you guys. What do you call SpongeBob when he's made out of Lego? You call him SpongeBob Lego pants.

Yes. Yes. I would like to announce my retirement from the world of bad kids joke guessing. Quit while you're ahead. Spongeball Lego pants. Okay, last one. Why did Mr. Potato run from the cops? He didn't have any pants on?

He was, they were going to mash him. Oh, that's actually good. But that has nothing to do with pants. Yeah, you're right. Because he was made of pants, the end. So the answer is, because he killed Mrs. Garrett Face and robbed Mr. Broccoli Pants. What? I actually liked that one.

I actually liked that one. I would read the story of that. Is there a book that goes with that one? I know. Thank you, Amanda. Nine of Spokane, Washington. Oh, man. So these kids' jokes are pretty bad, but Bonobo's pants are awesome.

Awesome, so make sure to check them out at bonobos.com and hope you had a good laugh. Yeah, I didn't know it was going to turn into like a domestic double murder. Vegetable murder. Because he found his wife in bed. Oh, hey. Well, he wasn't related to either one of them. Maybe he was like the third in that partner. I don't know.

Their vegetable love triangle. That would be an interesting book. This is Jen and Jenny from Ancient History Fan Girl. And we're here to tell you about Jenny's scorching historical romantasy. based on Alarik of the Bissigoths, Enemy of My Dreams. Amanda Boucher, best-selling author of The Kingmaker Chronicle, says, quote, this book has everything, high-stakes action, grit, ferocity, and blazing passion. Julia and Alaric are colliding storms against a backdrop of the brutal dangers of ancient Rome.

They'll do anything to carve their peace out of this treacherous world and not just survive, but rule. Enemy of my dreams is available wherever books are sold. Are you dreaming about becoming a nurse, or maybe you're already in nursing school? I'm Nurse Mo, creator of the straight A nursing podcast, and I want you to know that I'm here for you. I know nursing school can be challenging. I've been there, but it doesn't have to be impossible. Sometimes the key to succeeding in nursing school is to hear the concepts explained clearly and simply, which is exactly what you get with weekly episodes of the straight A.

nursing podcast. Each Thursday, I teach a nursing concept or share tips and advice to help you succeed in school and at the bedside. My goal is to help you improve how you study, get more done in less time, pass your exams, and feel more confident and clinical. And if you're already a practicing nurse, these episodes are for you too, because as nurses, there's always something for us to learn. So, subscribe to the stray day nursing podcast, and I'll see you. on Thursday. Welcome back to Good Job Brain, and today we're talking about sleeping and dreaming. Even though Chris is not here because he's sick, he did still prepare some stuff for us.

He's a trooper. Yep, and he made a sleeping in fiction quiz. And I will be reading these questions on his behalf. So get your barnyard buzzers ready. Here we go. It's all questions about movies. or stories or songs, like fiction and related to sleep. This romantic comedy earned over $227 million in box office receipts,

making it one of the highest grossing films in its genre, and that's rom-com. It's got to be sleepless in Seattle. Correct. Sleepless in Seattle. You got to this romantic comedy, and I'm like, Sleepless in Seattle. I was like, I can't be why you were sleeping. Oh, I didn't even think about that one. That was not that great. This Al Pacino movie has him starring as an LAPD detective trying to solve a case in Alaska,

but he can't get to sleep because of the 24-hour daylight. That's Insomnia. Correct, insomnia. Which is a remake of another very good chilling movie. Another movie one. Bogey and Bacall starred in this 1946 adaptation of, of a Raymond Chandler novel. Yeah, it's the Big Sleep.

You are very good. You're on a roll. This mythical creature has been sung about by both the Cordets and Metallica. Sandman? Yes, Sandman. Stephen King will release his next novel, Dr. Sleep, in 2013. What novel is Dr. Sleep a sequel to? Oh, this is excellent.

Interesting. All right, Dr. Sleep, what would it be a sequel to? So it's got to be a novel where somebody survived to the end, which narrows it down a lot of Stephen King's, yeah. I don't know. I mean, it's got to be one of his big ones, right? It is The Shining. Oh, really? The Shining sequel is called Dr. Sleep coming out this year.

Interesting. Oh, I look forward to it. All right. And last question. In the wake of the success of 50 Shades of Grey, what well-known female author is releasing a series of erotic novels called The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy that she originally wrote under the pen name A. N. Rochlear. Dana. Anne Rice. Yes.

Anne Rice, author of the interviews with a vampire franchise. Sure. So it's funny you're talking about the Sandman there, being in the two songs where, like, I always imagine the Mr. Sandman from the Cordats is like, oh, he's so cheerful and happy and take me way to Happy Land. But the Sandman from Metallica song is like, I don't want to see you. I don't know where you're taking me. Off to Never, Never Land. The way you say it makes it sound like I don't want to go there. Peter Pan's there, right?

And the creepy kid in the song. Oh, my God. There has to be a mashup of that. Oh, yeah. We go into a place So Dana, you like to talk about Nightmare Town a lot I don't like to go there

Yeah, well, you like to talk about it Do you guys know the origin of the word Nightmare? Well, if we break it up The first part you can probably break down Yeah, you can probably figure out But what is the mayor? What is the mayor part in Nightmare?

That's, you know, that's a lot of people's first thought Or of the sea. Oh, actually that's good. A lot of people's first thought is like, oh, mare like a horse, a female horse. And, you know, it's, and that certainly is supported in a lot of people's minds by the fact that you see, you know, these nightmares coming on horses and dreams sometimes depicted. Is it mar? It's not.

If you don't know it, you're probably not likely to guess it. So it's, uh, I didn't mean it like that. Shut me right down. So the mare and nightmare is totally etymologically unrelated to mare in, like, female horse. They just happen to be spelled the same way. So the mare and nightmare is an old English word. and it means like an incubus or like a goblin, like a night goblin. And you guys may have heard the term incubus before, not the band.

Not the subcubus. Yes, incubus and succubus. That's right. And they essentially added night onto part of it to distinguish it from mare meaning a female horse. Like even back in the, you know, there's no day mares. Even back in the 13th century, which is, you know, they traced the word nightmare back to the 13th century. Even then they felt the need to disambiguate it. So, all right.

So what is an incubus? I know what a succubus is. That's because I play World of Warcraft. I think, isn't the succubis just a female version of the incubus? Like a seductress. Nightmare actually had a very specific meaning of, essentially, it's an evil female spirit that would come visit you in the night and try and suffocate you. Oh, oh, cool. So, I mean, it's creepy. But specifically, when you would talk about a nightmare, it would be a female evil spirit. And so Incubis comes from the Latin Incubo, which.

which means... In cubes. One who lies down on the sleeper. What's a sleeper? The person who is sleeping. So, you know, like the incubus are, you know, coming in the night, the nightmare, the succubes coming to visit you. And so it's interesting, you know, if you look at a lot of depictions, either in paintings

or sculptures from the medieval period, they would show nightmares as, you know, a goblin or sort of this gargoyle demon shape, you know, literally sitting on the person's chest as their sleep. And it was actually a long time. It wasn't until like the mid-1800s that nightmare kind of just came. came to mean any bad dream. Not long after that, that just, oh, man, this weekend was a nightmare for me, you know. But so for, like, 500 years, it really had this very specific meaning.

I have a question. Yes. I've heard, and I've never experienced it, but I've heard from friends that sometimes when someone is asleep, they would wake up and they can't move. I'm glad you said that. So here. Is that related? This is absolutely as sure as we can be that it is related.

So you are absolutely right. So there is a condition called sleep paralysis. And it can be very frightening because the description is more or less what you said. I mean, the basic of sleep paralysis is being aware that you're awake but not being able to move your body. And it tends to happen in transitional moments, they say it's not very well understood, like a lot of sleep disorders. Or I should say parts of it are understood, but parts of it are not. But it does tend to happen when you're coming out of sleep or coming into sleep. So here are some of the conditions of sleep paralysis.

an inability to move, but being aware of things that are going on around you, it can bring on panic and it can bring on shortness of breath. You can't move. Right. So now, is this starting to sound familiar to an evil spirit who comes and visits you and tries to suffocate you or sits on your chest? It seems, you know, again, as clear as it can be, that what was depicted commonly as what they would call a nightmare in the 1400s was probably sleep paralysis.

It was somebody, some combination of inability to move and a tightness or a pressure on the chest, You can see very easily how that can lead to, oh, yeah, there was an incubus in the room last night. That makes so much sense. Sleep paralysis, it's usually just a few minutes, but in extreme cases, it can be an hour. I'm sure it feels super long if you're like in. Oh, sure. Yeah, I mean, but imagine laying there for an hour and having the sensation of being unable to move but being aware. That would just freak me out.

Yeah. Oh, that's scary. That makes so much. I love it when people have kind of fairy tales. or folklore explanations for things that they really can't explain. Yeah. I love when they're clear. I mean, like, we've talked about someone on the show where it's like, well, it could be this that they were alluding to, you know.

But like this one. Scary demons sitting on you. This one seems pretty cut and dried. So have you guys ever dreamt of falling and then actually feel like you fell? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's a weird sensation. It's terrible.

Well, sometimes, yeah. I like it. Oh, no. I do, I do have to say, it's briefly terrified, but I do kind of like the little rush you get from it. Whoa. So there is a scientific name for it. And let's see if I can pronounce this because it's very long. It's hypnagogic, myoclonic twitch.

Okay. Commonly referred to as a hypnic jerk. So like you said about sleep paralysis, a lot of this stuff is understood by scientists, but a lot of it is not. because like when you're dealing with sleep or brain, a lot of the stuff is not 100% proven. You know, most experts agree that this is natural part of how we sleep. It's not a disorder. It's not disorder. It's not a condition.

Most people actually feel this, you know, this hypnotic jerk. Most experts are still not completely sure why your body does this. Why you just twitch right before you're about to fall asleep. The general consensus among researchers and experts is that, your muscles begin to relax as you're falling asleep and your brain sometimes misinterprets the sense of relaxation as falling and so your brain sometimes would be like oh no warning don't fall and would quickly signals your muscles to wake up and you're like whoa to to jerk you back up right but then you might ask well i definitely have had dreams of falling or going down a staircase or

whatnot that causes this jerk right there is some sort of dream aspect and these dreams are actually not real dreams they're not produced by your usual r em sleep cycle so they're not real dream dreams but more like like a daydream or a hallucination in response to the body sensation so your brain is maybe producing these hallucinations to go along with your muscles relaxing and jerking back upright Just part of being human is the hypnotic jerk, kind of a mystery. Does it happen to you guys a lot? I would say once a week. It doesn't happen to me that common, but it happens to me.

Yeah, maybe once a month. I'll just get that jerk. You know, when it happens to me is when I'm trying to go to sleep if I've really exhausted. Like if I've been up for a really long time or it was like really exerting myself, you know, just that's when it seems to happen to me more. Yeah, experts have also observed that it's kind of dependent on your stress level. But for me, I get them once a week. Have you guys dreamt of being showing up to school naked? I never have.

Really? I have. No, I haven't. I've never had that one. I've heard that one's very common. It's so embarrassing. Yeah, mine are usually like, what? That paper is due tomorrow.

I'll be too. Better get started. A lot of school related to school. I mean, it was like 12 years of our life or longer. I think all of my nightmares have to do with school. Even like, I haven't been in school. for years. All my nightmares are school

or moving. I'm like, I'm going to fail. I'm going to let people down. I'm not going to have my work done. Yep. Well, I think the hypnot jerks is a good band name, actually. It is. Oh, yeah.

It must be a band name. Yeah. It's too good. Mr. Sandman and the hipnik jerks. Make it happen in our head. Yes. Mr. Sandman and the hipinck jerks. Yeah.

I know. All right. Well, speaking of band names, I want to close it out with a musical quiz for you guys here. Put the sleep topic to bed, so to speak. I'll be here all week So this quiz is a little bit musical And a little bit about TV Oh yay

Yes so some of our favorite things combined into ones So what I've decided to put together for you guys is a quiz So a lot of TV shows as we know Part of what makes them so memorable is their theme song It's just you know The mark of a great TV show is a memorable Opening theme song I've always was fascinated by shows

That would co-opt existing songs And sometimes the show takes an existing song and it just becomes indelibly, indelibly marked and associated with that TV show. So this quiz is going to be hit songs that were hits on their own before becoming forever associated with a very particular TV show. Now, just bear with me. So I'm going to play tracks for you guys and you guys are going to give me three pieces of information. What's the TV show that this song was the opening theme for? Who is performing? Okay. And the name of the song.

Okay. Now, if you guys get all three for some of these, I will be very impressed. All right. So we're going to go in order of easiness up to very tricky at the end. Okay. All right. Love and marriage, love and marriage, they go together like a horse and carriage. This I'll tell you.

Okay. Who wants to take a stab? Well, married with children. Married with children. Yep. love and marriage. Correct. Performed by

Frank Sinatra. Yeah, I'm not being tricky. We're starting off with an easy one. That's why I'm always like... We're going to start an easy and we're going to get harder as we go. But I'm trying not to be too tricky here. All right, here we go.

The next one. What's what you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me? Let me old ears and I'll sing you. a song I will try not to sing out of key All right

An all time A song Singer is Joe Cocker That is And the song Okay Is that what it's called? Yes

But I thought this was going to be a trick No no tricks No tricks. Just song and performer and show. A little help with my friends. But that's at the end. Well, originally it's a Beatles song. And it was at the end of another song's track.

I'm not being tricky. I'm not being tricky. Yes. You guys got it. Wonder Years, Joe Cocker, covering the Beatles with a little help from my friend. Oh, that's such a good song. And his performance of it is incredible. All right.

Good job. So far you guys are knocking it out. We're going to start getting a little bit trickier here. Oh, man. All right. Here we go. Next one. I'm here in the fields

I'll file for my meals I get my back into my living Okay Is Miami? The show, CSI Yeah, which one is it? Which one is it? So they're all, all, all the CSIs are who songs.

That's right, Dana. Yeah, that was my initial feeling was, was it was going to, CSI, New York. Oh, darn it. Okay, well, this is the show. It is the who. And it is Bobo O'Reilly. Yeah, that was the tricky part is, which one is it? Because they all use Who songs.

Yeah. All right, here we go. I don't want away for all the lives to be over. I want to know right now, what will it be? I don't want to wait For all the eyes to be Oh, the matter All right

You guys, both of you guys Your face is lit up Dawson's Creek Paula Cole Cole Yeah, Paula Cole Not Sarah McLaughlin A lot of people think

Paula Cole singing I don't want to wait Yes Well done Oh Yeah Like 90s lady rock Is right in my house

All right here we go A little fair crowd All right So these last two here We're going to close out, and I guarantee you guys will know the songs, but let's see if you can give me the other pieces of information. All right, so here we go. First of these last two. I can guess who the composer is. I think so, too.

Okay. Okay. Interesting. Sousa? It is Sousa, yes, the master of the March song, yes. Monty Python's Flying Circus. I was thinking Monty Python and I was like, wait a minute, but Sousa is American. Yeah, so it's funny you say that.

So as a lot of our listeners probably know, there was, Terry Gilliam was the lone American in the Python troupe. He chose the music, yes. So was the name of the tune? The name of that tune is the Liberty Bell. March. Oh, very American. Very. So American. Apparently, it's become quite popular with British bands as well, marching bands I read. All right, guys, last one. I'll close it out here. If either of you gets all three of these, I'll give you a million dollars. Oh, all right. Let's do this. I don't think Colin has a million dollars to give us. But this is absolutely a trivia quiz music kind of

song. You've got to know this one. You've got to be prepared. All right. All right. Oh, my God, that is such an infectious song. Okay. We know the show. Benny Hill. Benny Hill show. Does have a proper name. And it was a hit before Benny Hill.

To me, again, it sounds American. It sounds kind of Dixie. Bayou kind of old-time line A little bit, yeah, it has a little bit of a Zedako feel to it, yeah. So we have to say the composer? So You gotta give me the name.

We've had this in Pub Quiz before. The name of the song is Yakety Sacks. Yes. Yackety Sacks. So if you did not know that, memorize that because at some point in your life. Like saxophone.

Oh, Sacks. Okay, not multiple potato sacks. It's a taki sacks. Right. Oh, yackety. Oh, because the sax is, uh, yak. The artist, would that be the composer or the saxophone plays? Both.

The man who wrote it is the man who you heard playing it. And his name is Boots Randolph. That's a great name. Where's he from? Well, I'm going to safely put this million dollars back in my pocket. First of all, let me just take that off the table here. I guess I was wrong. Colin did have a million dollars.

I'm not going to claim that I knew Boots Randolph before I started researching it. So there you go. That's good. There you go. That's good. Boots Brandoff, I'm looking it up right now, is from Nashville. There you go. Also, American for a classic British show.

Thanks, Colin, for that last challenging music round. That was a lot of fun to put together. Yeah, I'm sure my wife is sick of hearing. Well, it's been back and forth between the Liberty Bell March and Yackety Sacks the last day. All right, great. And that was our show. Thank you guys for joining me. And thank you guys, listeners, for listening in.

And hope you learn a lot about TV theme songs and also nightmares, which is terrifying. Oh, frass. We learned a new word. Frass. Frass, your new favorite word. Right behind snarge. Yep. And bear poop and hummingbirds.

Wow. Wow. That's an emotional roller coaster today's show. It was. It was an intensely emotional show. I need an app. You can find us on iTunes, on Stitcher, on SoundCloud, and also on our website, which is good jobbrain.com. And don't forget to check out our sponsor at.

bonobos.com, and we'll see you guys next week. Thanks. Bye. Bye. Sweet dreams. days a week. You can learn a lot in just a few minutes with stories about impending hurricanes, winter storms, or even what not to miss in the night sky. So listen and subscribe to Acqueweather Daily, wherever you get your podcasts. That's Accuweather Daily, wherever you get your podcasts.