Many recent studies point to a single factor as the most important contributor to good health. To keep your brain facile and plastic, retain memory, strenthen the immune system, stay positive and cheerful, reduce anxiety and stress, successfully heal from injury and surgery, recover from traumas of all kinds ... drum roll ... the Very Most Important Thing is: sleep. (Sound of a single, loud strike on the high hat cymbal.) Indeed, sleep deprivation is a form of torture. Those who go without sleep become psychotic. Prolonged sleeplessness will actually kill you. What a hideous way to die!
Getting good, consistent sleep where I live, on the American east coast, especially in the cities, is like rowing upstream without the proverbial paddle. Sleep deprivation is a way of life here. Getting enough sleep is seen as a sign of laziness or lack of motivation. I hear people say things like I shouldn't need this much sleep. What does that mean? Based on what? It's so weird, but maybe that's the sleep deprivation talking. Who knows?
I am ordinarily a great sleeper (thank you God!) There are exceptions, however, including the last few days. My sleep has been disturbed by powerful dreams, astral visitations, unexplained fits of sudden wakefulness and plain old insomnia. Too much sleeplessness makes Reya a dull girl, oh yeah.
I'm hoping to invoke the Sandman tonight after my day of work. I'll count sheep (I've tried - it actually works), cast protective circles around my bedroom, drink warm milk (YUCK) if that's what it takes. Dang, man, I'm tired.
14 comments:
I haven't put more than three and a half hours of sleep together for mote than six months. So hopeful my new meds will change that--please hold that thought.
Love you so.
getting enough sleep during the work week is tough. That's what rainy fall weekends are made for.
Sweet(er) dreams
What you say about the importance of sleep and what it does for you is exactly so. Pills, however much guaranteed for their effectiveness, will not necessarily do it (and the expense of them adds to the stress). I would like to hear of any personal solutions to sleeplessness, one of mine being to THINK SLEEP the moment my head hits the pillow. It is worth a try, isn't it?
This post made me so sleepy- I am going back to bed...
I have spent the entire weekend sleeping. At my current job, sleeping enough does not seem to be a shared value. I get emails whose timestamps are in the wee small hours. Last week, in a visit with my teaching mentor, she expressed amazement that I was making a concerted effort to be in bed by 10pm each night.
this weekend i put together two ten-hour sleeps. i never make it past six. more often i sleep three wake up two sleep three. i had nothing left after the last two weeks of intense work. the sleep - well it makes me slow down, think, connect again. sleep away reya. heal up and outwards!! steven
With the time change (& baseball being over) Dr. M & I have been going to bed a lot earlier - one night this past week it was 8:45! And I don't get up any earlier, so I'm reaping the benefits of that extra sleep. Dr. M on the other hand, gets dawn insomnia - so he really should go to bed that early all the time!
Dawn insomnia. Wow. I get that but I never knew it had a name. Cool.
If you tune into the dreams and astral visitations and just pay attention, will the sleep return?
Who knows, Meri? I believe I have been very tuned in, paying close attention.
But I think that wave of energy has passed and should be able to sleep tonight.
Not such a huge day of work tomorrow - thank god. Thanks for asking.
Sounds like you are due for a good night's sleep. I have been staying up til midnight (on purpose) in a bid for sleep. It seems to be a solution for insomnia for me.
I whisper goodnight to my family members one by one, then parent myself by saying "G'nite Pauline," and off I go... staying asleep is the problem.
I'm stuck with that fallacy: that sleeping enough = a sign of laziness. Perhaps I imbibed it in my youth, growing up around DC? Not especially useful or healthy, and yet I can't seem to shake it. ??
Hope you're getting some really good sleep now! or soon!
Slept well last night. Another few nights and I'll be back to my regular standards of well rested. Ahhhhh!
Post a Comment