Ever wondered how some guys sleep just within seconds of going to bed ? I was one such blessed individual while in school and college. I can fall asleep anywhere, be it a moving car, train, loud movie theatre and what not. The moment I close my eyes, I would be fast asleep.
But beneath this gift there had been a lot of hidden truth on how I could do that. My mom used to say that I would sleep when I feel hungry and I wouldn't be able to tell a difference between hunger and sleepiness. It could be true, because she knew me better. My wife used to say that I sleep like a pig and snore like a buffalo 🐃. She usually asks me how the hell could I do that. I had been thinking and I guess the answer is this.
If your mind is free, then you sleep well. I have had sleepless nights where I used to sleep hardly 4 hours in a day. Those were days when my mind was not at peace. Even now as I'm writing this blog at night, I'm doing this because I'm not feeling sleepy. I see multiple reasons why mind behaves like this, it is constantly thinking about something. It could be because you are physically unwell, anxious about something, not living in the present, excited or sad. Let me break it down.
Winters are the most wonderful time of the year, but my body says otherwise. During extreme winter my movements gets restricted for few weeks due to inflammated joints, and how hard I try to sleep, I would not be able to. You can relate this to any physical conditions you have, like fever, cold, stuffed nose, sever pain. It's always advisable to get proper medication and treatment fast when you go through this phase.
The next phase is the anxiety, it could be thinking about an upcoming interview, upcoming trip, meeting whatever. I used to have anxious nights just before I make a huge tech purchase. And my wife used to have these nights before she makes some branded apparel purchase 😂. Either your mind is constantly thinking about all negative scenarios that could happen in this much awaited / anticipated event or you are stuck with limitless options to choose from. This anxiety with uncertainty is something that needs to end. So take a decision soon or find the attitude to say, f**k it let's think about it tomorrow. One of my friends used to say just sleep over it and you will end up better prepared next morning. The never easier said than done solution to this problem in this era is to leave your mobile outside the bedroom. 🤷🏼♂️
Not living in the present is a good thing when you prepare yourself in advance for things to come. But if you are either overthinking / dreaming then I would say at least think about all good things that can happen, this leads to a dream and you can sleep well. But if you start thinking about all the worst possible scenarios (that may not even happen), then you are just putting unwanted pressure on your mind and body. Just think about it, how many worst things that you had imagined had happened in your life ? and if some scenarios had happened, whether your overthinking helped you in any way to ease the pressure during that moment ? In most scenarios the answer is a big NO. So, just enjoy the moment and don't think too much about the future.
When you have friends over, or you are having a very good night, you get excited and even don't want to sleep at that point because you are so excited. This is a good situation to have, so I think I would skip this one for now. 😁 For some more years I guess, I would rate this higher than my sleep.
I like to get compromised with my wife for all my fights / arguments before going to bed, because if not I can't sleep. It could be guilt, anger or sadness. I'm going to put everything together into a single bucket - Sadness (Because it's my blog and I already feel sleepy writing this 😴). The only way to avoid this is to get rid of all the anger you have by practicing gratefulness and forgiveness. These can bring you satisfaction and peace of mind and in turn would result in good sleep.
On a fun note, when I used to be in school I usually sleep in my bus (on the way home) and would miss getting down in my stop. This is like something that would happen at least once a month. And when I used to get down in the next stop and walk back, I used to have my aunt (who usually comes after her lecturer job) give me company because she also would have slept. It was not because we had peace of mind but we were tired. So if you are suffering from any of the above, the easier tip is to tire your body with physical activity during the day, and then your body would take care of your mind and take it to sleep like my childhood days 😬
Days of 2000's
Nagercoil, India
😍