The Measuring Stick for my Subconscious

...is what I hear as I'm trying to go to sleep. Let me explain with some background; I have this really weird sensation where when I lay down to try to go to sleep, I often imagine that I am hearing something...at various times in my life, the "something" has changed, but it will always be the same thing on the same night (usually the same thing over the course of months or more). Oh, and if I lift my head barely off the pillow (so both ears are free), it stops.

When I'm most content, this doesn't occur...when something is unsettling (even slightly), then I hear something...the most common things are someone's saying my name, or the phone ringing. It occurs to me that the latter has probably numbed my ability to hear server pages when they appear (whups!)...although the terrible signal to noise ratio of alerts at Live Oak is enough to do that on its own. That's another issue.

Oh, and sometimes if I'm in a particularly blissful mood (or a particularly bad one, and the music matches--but that doesn't happen very often), I'll "hear" music when I go to bed; usually instrumental organ music. This is also somewhat interesting because I have this memory of being able to hear my mother sing (always the first and final verses of Amazing Grace) when I was much, much younger, in a similar fashion to what I am describing above. I used to press my head harder against the pillow so it wouldn't stop.