Disciple of Sleep

“Yea, all things live forever, though at times they sleep and are forgotten.”  -- H. Rider Haggart

Our bodies come from this organic space ship. On loan, flexible, and resilient to abuse. But part of the rental agreement built into our dirt suit is a daily shut down of the consciousness. Sleep is where the body’s recovery from the day’s output occurs. The mind processes all the day’s inputs into the brain during sleep. All the while dreams entertain us through the wee hours of idleness. Sleep is the third member of the physical trinity. I would argue sleep remains far more universally accepted and constant compared to food and water whims. If attention is paid to personal sleep patterns, a time traveler of our collect primitive selves is nightly present.

The optimum sleeping conditions are dark, quiet, and cool rooms. A modern cave. Since Edison introduced the incandescent light bulb, humans have disrupted circadian rhythms. Go camping during anytime of the year. Drowsiness sets in as the day moves toward dusk, then gives up to night. Then the body begins to wake as the sun’s rays chase the stars away. Stepping down interior lighting an hour before bed will soothe the ancients inside our system. Then go to bed in very low light. Most importantly, go to bed in the same sleeping spot in the house every night.

Familiar sleeping settings are vital to long term healthy REM sleep. The people populating the dawn of time needed to be reassured the bumps in the night were not coming to eat them while sleeping. This is why people get crappy sleep in hotel rooms. It is not the pillows, or jet lag, or fools next door, or all the other excuses. – Nope – That foreign cave ain’t a proven safe place for the gazillion year old part of our brains that grants the unconscious mind control to offline our fight or flight lizard brain. I submit, Grade-A sleep only comes from exact positioning in the same bed, night after night, for years upon years.

My wife calls me a “sleep princess.” Once I have my cave dark, cool, and quiet, then the real princessing begins. A ceiling fan on high for great air circulation. The fan is also a great source of white noise, which blocks out disrupting sounds of harmless bumps in the night. I always sleep on the same side of the bed. Then come the pillows. There is a human ecology PhD dissertation in my pillow placements.

I will not yield my sleep. Dogmatic, yes. Sleep is the gateway to my fitness, family, and financial livelihoods. With zero chemical stimulants in my life, 4:30 a.m. arrives on the weekday’s alarm clock and my body’s internal clock on the weekends. Rigid and ritualistic sleep is renter’s insurance for my dirt suit.