Dreaming While You Sleep

For me this song is equal best on this album alongside “Driving the Last Spike.”

I think that jimjohns311 and Typhoon TA are both right in many ways about this song. This is obviously a car accident caused by a combination of his fatigue, the poor weather and the night. After he hits the girl he panics. He has no idea what to do so he carries on driving; hoping desperately that somehow the issue would go away and wouldn’t have to deal with it. He has no idea at this point what her condition is but all he feels is the consuming need to run away from what he has done.

When he hears about her and sees her on the news he realises that he’s put this girl into a coma and she’s not showing any signs of coming out of it. He may be hoping that what he’s seeing is the result of somebody else’s actions and not his as he uses the words: “Would I still deny that it was me?” Is this a desperate way of denying to himself any responsibility? Another possibility is that he may be referring to questioning by a police officer, implied by his asking “If I had another chance, would I do the same? Would I still deny that it was me?” Maybe he’s wondering that if he were questioned about the incident a second time then might he give up and admit his involvement? Alternatively the two questions may not be linked and he may be asking himself whether or not he would have the courage to stop and deal with the situation should it happen again.

I think that jimjohns311 may have a point in that he has this conflict within him, hoping that she recovers, as this will remove some of his guilt, but also worried that she may be able to identify him. I’m wondering if maybe that is what he wants. He says “Please open your eyes” and I took this as simply his desire to see her wake up and make a full recovery but he may also have a part of him that wants her to awake and declare his culpability to the police, something that he was not capable of doing for himself but knew that he should. He would be forced to deal with the responsibilities of his actions and he would receive the punishment that he believes he deserves.

As for the “Trapped in her memory” line, I’m thinking that this doesn’t refer to her memory at all. I think that he is referring to his memory of her lying in the hospital bed and that as long as she remains there then he will always see her through every minute of every day and he will know that the only person who knows how she got there is him. This has the added pain of denying him the possibility of turning to other people for help or advice.

It’s a powerful song and so very well performed. It really gets over the feelings of helplessness, guilt and desperation. It also makes me consider that although most of us would believe that we would act honourably in the same situation, before the incident the narrator in this song probably thought he would too.

He's torn.

Amazing song. The "trapped" references are him saying that the guilt is tearing him up but he hasn't the courage to admit to his crime. He doesn't want to be seen as a bad person, but deep down he knows he is, at least partly.

It's about an accident, yes, but then the internal struggle and guilt that follow.

Sure, it's about a hit and run, but it's a lot deeper than that. The woman or little girl that he hit is in a coma and the guilt has devastated his life. "Dreaming while you sleep" suggests that he's dreaming while she sleeps. His life is a haze, like "this has to be a dream".

The second aspect that he deals with is the selfishness of it all. Of course he didn't stop after he struck her. He assumed that she was dead and kept on driving. Lines that initially seem to be about guilt such as "I will never be free all my life, trapped in her memory" actually point to a more selfish motivation. He doesn't say trapped "with" her memory, but trapped "in" her memory. He's not trapped with the memory of this person, but trapped in her mind, afraid that when she awakes, she will be able to identify him.

What results is this duality. On the one hand, as most decent people would, he hopes that she comes out of her coma and is okay. On the other hand, he's afraid that if she does, he'll be caught. Does he go so far as to hope that she doesn't wake up?

It's pretty simple - a person gets so nervous and guilty for something the accident they've caused, they don't want to confess if they don't have to. Nevertheless, it's an awesome song.

It's about a hit and run!

Its pretty simple. A hit and run caused by fatigue and he doesnt want to live up to it so he denies it all his life and the memory and guilt of it will trap him till he dies.