Mushy food is a form of sensory deprivation. In the same way that a dark, silent room will eventually drive you to hallucinate, the mind rebels against bland, single-texture foods, edibles that do not engage the oral device.

I always had really, really bad nightmares, like night terrors or whatever they're called. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to move... I'd hallucinate and have really scary visions and dreams, so I wouldn't want to sleep.

Would you mind repeating that? I'm afraid I might have lost my wits altogether and just hallucinated what I've longed to hear.