Sleep

  Those of you who know me and are reading this will probably know the love affair I have with sleep.  You will also probably have heard the stories of my wonderful bed and how much I love it, too.  I love sleep and think it is about the second best thing in the whole world. 

  While in flight school, I had the chance to study sleep extensively.  I began looking into it as it pertains to air transportation safety at first, but as I found out how it works and what works better to get a great night’s sleep, I became fascinated by the technical aspect of sleep.  The simple fact of the matter is, though we know much about how sleep works and what it kind of does, we still do not know why we need to sleep. 

  “Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast”

  --William Shakespeare, Macbeth

  I suppose I could regale you with the process of sleep and how it works, but I won’t; Sufficeth to say that sleep, for me, serves a multi-role purpose in my life. 

  First, sleep is a healer of the body.  During specific stages of sleep respiration is increased while blood pressure is decreased along with heart rate and body temperature.  While in this state the body, which is amazing in and of itself, goes to work repairing the normal damage inflicted on it during the day.  This is the stage where muscle tissue it regrown, dead cells are sluffed off and carried away to be disposed of and other “maintenance” procedures are completed to allow the body to function.  This stage is particularly important for those who are much more physically active during the day than others.  This is also the stage in children where they grow. 

"And if tonight my soul may find her peace in sleep, and sink in good oblivion, and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created."

            --David Lawrence

  Second, sleep is a healer of the mind.  While you dream somewhat through the whole night, you really only begin to experience vivid dreams later into your night’s sleep, usually after the fourth of fifth hour of sleep.  This is when the body has completed most of its physical repair and can now turn to the repair of consciousness.  This is when the brain, magnificent and mysterious, literally “cuts off” communication with the rest of the body and begins a pattern of sleep that is incredibly similar in brain activity to being awake.  This is the time when a person experiences deep dreaming.  This is the time when the subconscious mind, which is far more perceptive than the conscious mind, “downloads” its contents into the understanding of the mind and begins to sort out things that were not possible to process during waking hours. 

  Have you ever been so frustrated by something you were thinking about that you just couldn’t find a way to understand?  Then after getting a good night’s sleep, you take a second look at what was so frustrating and it just seems to make sense.  During REM sleep, neural pathways are formed between stored information in the brain which allows access of information between related subjects.  It’s like the most advanced cross-referencing software you have ever imagined on steroids.  This is the time when emotional confusion is understood.  This is when intellectual dilemmas are worked out.  This is also the time, I believe, when personal, individual, divine revelation can be received and understood.  More on that point in a later posting.

  “The bed is a bundle of paradoxes:  we go to it with reluctance, yet we quit it with regret; we make up our minds every night to leave it early, but we make up our bodies every morning to keep it late.”

 

--Charles Caleb Colton

  Third and finally, sleep is a chance to lay down the cares of the day.  It’s like a miniature death that allows you to lay aside your frustrations and worries of the waking world and succumb to the peaceful bliss of infinity.  If sleep is the microcosm of death, then I do not fear death and will welcome it, but for the pain of those left behind, when it comes.  Sleep is a chance to reassess and realize what is really important.  It is a chance to take the longview of things. Sleep allows me to begin to fathom the mysteries of the universe and even gain a little understanding and a few answers to the unanswerable questions of life. 

  Now, here’s the punch line.  Why, you may ask, when I feel so strongly about sleep do I often forsake it in favor of time doing other things?  Why do I spend time with other people instead of seeking the wonder of the sleep I have just described?  The answer is simple.  Because I choose to. Because it’s worth it.  Because I feel that time spent with that person is worth more than the sleep I am giving up.  Because, as wonderful as sleep is, as amazing and blissful as it can be, real life and real people and real interaction is worth so very much more.  If you are one of these people that take the place of sleep, feel loved, valued and cherished.  You are the first best thing in the whole wide world.