On Rest
I was in a conversation recently in which people were discussing sleep. Specifically, they were talking about naps, and about falling asleep again in the morning after waking up. I commented that sometimes even just lying in bed with your eyes closed and not sleeping can be nice, and the response from most of them was, "Well, maybe, but that's really hard to do because if I try that I fall asleep!"
Which completely misses my point.
Like many people, I have trouble falling asleep. I have the most trouble falling asleep if there is any ambient light, and in the daytime, it's very difficult to block out all ambient light. The heavy curtains my parents installed in my bedroom when I was a kid could only do so much. The student housing I live in now practically shines light into bedroom windows at night. (When I was on the ground floor I hung a black blanket over the window in order to get to sleep. On higher floors it's not as much of a problem.) Essentially, I can only fall asleep at night.
If I'm careful, I can get a decent amount of sleep each night and function normally. If I'm not careful, I might lie awake for most of the night and wake up in the morning in desperate need of extra sleep, which will have to wait until nightfall because I can't fall asleep during the day.
When I wake up in the morning, I typically can't fall back asleep.
The last time I took a nap I was extremely sick and had only gotten about two hours of sleep each night for the previous three nights. It was an amazing nap; I woke up feeling so much better than when I'd fallen asleep (though this was on a scale of walking corpse to somewhat functional) and I thought, "Man, if I could fall asleep whenever I wanted I would take naps ALL THE TIME."
But generally speaking, I can't take naps. My body is very rarely in such a state of physical distress that my need for sleep will override my typical difficulties with sleep. And for obvious reasons, I'm not going to try to become deathly ill just because I might get a nap out of it.
So what do I do when I'm too tired to function normally, but unable to fall asleep?
Well, one solution is to lie in bed with my eyes closed. It's relaxing. And even if it's not sleep, it's still rest. Rest is good. Sleep is obviously better. I'm not encouraging people to try not to fall asleep. To me, sleep is a rare and precious thing and it must be embraced whenever it approaches. This is possibly not an attitude best taken by most people. I find that some people report trouble staying awake at times. This is not a problem I've encountered.
So anyway, the point I wanted to make to my friends ages ago and failed is: Sometimes if you can't fall asleep, you can still go through the motions of trying to sleep, but without any of the pressure that comes from mentally encouraging yourself to sleep or the feelings of failure that come when sleep doesn't. And lying in bed with your eyes closed, completely awake, can still be relaxing and rewarding.
Which completely misses my point.
Like many people, I have trouble falling asleep. I have the most trouble falling asleep if there is any ambient light, and in the daytime, it's very difficult to block out all ambient light. The heavy curtains my parents installed in my bedroom when I was a kid could only do so much. The student housing I live in now practically shines light into bedroom windows at night. (When I was on the ground floor I hung a black blanket over the window in order to get to sleep. On higher floors it's not as much of a problem.) Essentially, I can only fall asleep at night.
If I'm careful, I can get a decent amount of sleep each night and function normally. If I'm not careful, I might lie awake for most of the night and wake up in the morning in desperate need of extra sleep, which will have to wait until nightfall because I can't fall asleep during the day.
When I wake up in the morning, I typically can't fall back asleep.
The last time I took a nap I was extremely sick and had only gotten about two hours of sleep each night for the previous three nights. It was an amazing nap; I woke up feeling so much better than when I'd fallen asleep (though this was on a scale of walking corpse to somewhat functional) and I thought, "Man, if I could fall asleep whenever I wanted I would take naps ALL THE TIME."
But generally speaking, I can't take naps. My body is very rarely in such a state of physical distress that my need for sleep will override my typical difficulties with sleep. And for obvious reasons, I'm not going to try to become deathly ill just because I might get a nap out of it.
So what do I do when I'm too tired to function normally, but unable to fall asleep?
Well, one solution is to lie in bed with my eyes closed. It's relaxing. And even if it's not sleep, it's still rest. Rest is good. Sleep is obviously better. I'm not encouraging people to try not to fall asleep. To me, sleep is a rare and precious thing and it must be embraced whenever it approaches. This is possibly not an attitude best taken by most people. I find that some people report trouble staying awake at times. This is not a problem I've encountered.
So anyway, the point I wanted to make to my friends ages ago and failed is: Sometimes if you can't fall asleep, you can still go through the motions of trying to sleep, but without any of the pressure that comes from mentally encouraging yourself to sleep or the feelings of failure that come when sleep doesn't. And lying in bed with your eyes closed, completely awake, can still be relaxing and rewarding.