“The Dreamdrive,” by Weike Wang
The narrator experiences a unique form of insomnia he dubs 'dreamdrive,' in which he blurs the line between dreaming and driving, waking up alternately behind the wheel and in bed, unsure of what is real. His family and doctors offer various speculative explanations, ranging from psychedelics to gravitational waves, while his girlfriend, a theoretical astrophysicist, attempts rational explanations. The condition leaves him exhausted each morning, trapped in a loop where the dream and the drive become indistinguishable.
- ▪The narrator invents the term 'dreamdrive' to describe his insomnia, in which he dreams of driving and wakes up believing he has been driving all night.
- ▪His family and doctors speculate about causes, including psychedelics in food, fat-soluble drugs, and gravitational waves from household objects.
- ▪His then girlfriend, a theoretical astrophysicist, disputes the pseudoscientific theories but acknowledges he appears to have slept, despite his belief that he hasn't.
- ▪He frequently wakes up in the bathtub or in bed, disoriented and panicked, unable to distinguish sleep from wakefulness.
- ▪The story explores the blurred boundary between reality and illusion, as the drive becomes the dream and the dream becomes the drive.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
FictionThe DreamdriveBy Weike WangMay 17, 2026Illustration by Chris HarnanSave this storySave this storySave this storySave this storyThe night it began, he’d had an unremarkable meal of chicken and rice. Sure, the chicken was dry, flavorless, and the rice, wet, also flavorless, but he had not found the meal particularly bad, and, after imbibing a large glass of cold filtered water, he’d experienced no gastrointestinal bloat. He’d done little of note after the meal. He’d sat on his sofa and watched TV: innocuous cooking shows, the news, “Jeopardy!” Yet those to whom he kept telling this story—his sister, his mother, his then girlfriend, and, later, his doctors—continued to press him for more detail.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The New Yorker.
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