Dreaming While You Sleep

The speaker describes a moment when, tired and driving in heavy rain, he hits a woman who steps into the road. He keeps driving instead of stopping, but the event stays with him. The song moves from confusion and denial toward lasting guilt: he wonders whether he would make the same choice again and admits that he may never feel free of what happened.

“Keeping my hands upon the wheel” suggests trying to remain in control, while “the miles between would somehow put it right” reveals the speaker’s mistaken hope that distance can undo the harm. The repeated image of the woman lying silently, and the plea for her to “open your eyes,” imply that she is unconscious or dead; her actual condition is not stated clearly. “Trapped in her memory” means the memory continues to burden him.

The song leaves open whether the speaker’s guilt comes mainly from causing the collision, fleeing afterward, or both. His question about taking the secret “to the grave” points to his fear of confessing, while his wish for the woman to wake suggests a desperate hope that the damage might somehow be reversed. The repeated “all my life” makes the remorse feel enduring, though the lyrics do not tell us whether he ever accepts responsibility publicly.