Poltergeist: A Memory From the Other Side of Sleep

Lauren Nixon-Matney • February 2, 2026
Poltergeist: A Memory From the Other Side of Sleep

Film: Poltergeist

Pixel art scene inspired by the film Poltergeist, capturing a childhood memory of late-night television, sleepwalking and the eerie feeling of stories crossing into dreams in the Searching for Stars multimedia memoir.

I was six.

Too small to be up that late.

Too young to be watching Poltergeist on my own.

But there I was...

barefoot on the carpet, eyes fixed on the screen, the living room pulsing with static and supernatural flicker.


I hadn’t meant to be there.

I was sleepwalking, though I didn’t know it at the time.

Back then, they said you weren’t supposed to wake a sleepwalker too suddenly. Something about panic.

So maybe that’s why my dad didn’t yell.

Didn’t scoop me up and carry me back to bed.


Instead, he sat down beside me.


The film was already halfway through.

I remember him asking questions, gently

“Do you know what this is?”

“Do you understand it’s not real?”

I nodded. I think I did.

He let me ask questions back, too about the ghosts, the little girl, the shadows and the light.

He answered every one.

Not in a babying way, but like I was someone worth talking to.

Like I could handle a story, even a scary one, as long as I had someone sitting beside me in the dark.


Years later, I heard him tell the story.

From his side.


He said he walked out of the bedroom and into a scene that stopped his heart for a second

his daughter sitting inches from the screen, the blue-white light of Poltergeist washing over her.

He said it looked like the movie poster come to life.

But instead of Carol Anne, it was me.


And maybe that’s why it stayed with me.

Not just because of the movie,

not just because of the sleepwalking,

but because of the way he handled it.


He could’ve been mad.

Could’ve rushed me back to bed, frustrated and tired.

Instead, he stayed.

He made it a moment.

He gave me something I didn’t have the words for yet:

a safe place to ask questions about the scary stuff.

To be curious in the dark.


The Poltergeist score drifted like a haunted lullaby behind it all

soft and eerie, sweet and unsettling.

A soundtrack that sounded almost like childhood itself:

part dream, part fear, part wonder.


Perhaps that’s why I still love stories that hum with mystery.

Why I still write into the spaces between sleep and static.


Because sometimes, even the strangest memories carry light.

Especially the ones where someone sits beside you

and says,

“Let’s finish the movie.”


RESUME THE RHYTHM:

DRIFT THROUGH A CONSTELLATION OF MEMORY

Searching For Stars

By Lauren Nixon-Matney April 12, 2026
Film: Young Guns 1 & 2 Bon Jovi : Blaze of Glory
By Lauren Nixon-Matney April 12, 2026
*A letter of light for Rosey Blair* Okay this is going to sound oddly specific but stay with me... You remind me of a very particular kind of feeling. The kind that lives somewhere between fall air, soft lighting, and a childhood movie that most people forgot existed, but the ones who remember it? Oh we remember. The 1987 Chipmunk Adventure! Which I did not expect to ever connect to another adult human about, and yet here I am. There’s just something about that movie the movement, the music, the chaos, the fun, the outfits, the chipettes... like being in motion and color and sound at the same time. And watching you feels like that again in a weirdly beautiful , full circle way. Not in a “this is aesthetic content” way more like a “this is a person who actually lives inside her life” way. And ironically that’s what makes your aesthetic top notch in my opinion. Cozy but not fake. Honest and raw but not too harsh. Funny without trying to perform funny. (which is rarer than people think) There’s a warmth in how you show up that feels familiar in a way I can’t fully explain but definitely recognize. I came across you scrolling my phone, postpartum, trying to find my footing again. At the time I was in that weird in between space, relearning my body, trying to feel like myself inside something that had completely changed... yet again. And you showed up in your space on instagram in a way that felt real. Authentic. Original. Not “perfect body positivity” not curated confidence just a woman existing in her body dressing it, living in it, laughing in it and making that feel normal again. Healthy. Beautiful. Fun! Something I really grew to respect about you was that you didn’t stay frozen in one version of that message or yourself just to make people comfortable. You shifted. And I really admire the way you talk about Changing your mind. Leaving spaces that don’t feel right anymore. Figuring out that loving yourself isn’t one fixed version it evolves. That kind of honesty is quietly powerful and extremely profound. You evolved and changed your mind out loud. And people always have something to say when a woman does that... but you stayed steady anyway. That kind of self trust? That’s the part people don’t talk about enough. That’s what bravery looks like in real time! You don’t just create content, you create an honest space for people to re-meet themselves in whatever version they’re currently in. It’s the kind of magic that doesn’t need to be announced it just exists, and people feel it when they orbit around it. You didn’t just show up on my feed, you showed up in a moment where I needed to feel like myself again. Like a song you forgot you loved until it comes back on and suddenly you remember everything. And somehow through outfits, honesty, humor, book reviews and a lot of zany ingenuity... you saved parts of my girlhood that likely make me a better mother. Thanks so much for being you! Thanks for being real. Thanks for taking up space, your energy’s reach is more powerful than you ever might have imagined. P.S... I have to add this because it lives rent free in my brain! That Taylor Swift workout series you did?!? absolutely unhinged in the best way It was funny and chaotic and somehow still motivating… I'm not deep in Taylor Swift knowledge territory, but it made me pause and go “okay wait... there’s something here.” The way she owns her work, reclaims it, redraws the line that I own me energy it felt incredibly aligned with what you were doing too. With love, light and gratitude, Stay Weird! -Lauren “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” -Louisa May Alcott
Show More