Sustenance: Sleeping In

A repost from June 13, 2014

We all know of the importance of getting enough sleep, yet so many of us are challenged to do so. It’s so difficult for us to let go of the feeling of forward motion of the day, that we stretch ourselves to the limit.  And sleep is strange. Is it the feeling of loss of conscious control that keeps us from prioritizing it in our lives? Or the feeling that when we sleep we are accomplishing nothing?

From George Carlin:

  “People say, ‘I’m going to sleep now,’ as if it were nothing. But it’s really a bizarre activity. ‘For the next several hours, while the sun is gone, I’m going to become unconscious, temporarily losing command over everything I know and understand. When the sun returns, I will resume my life.’ . . .”

As much as we need food to nourish our bodies, we need sleep to nourish our bodies, minds, and souls.  Sleep is rejuvenating, when done well.  The goal is to awaken after sleep renewed and energized.  After a good, restorative sleep, we return to consciousness with renewed clarity and fresh perspective, feeling once again centered.  Of course, this is only achieved when we manage to get enough of it.

“. . . If you didn’t know what sleep was, and you had only seen it in a science fiction movie, you would think it was weird and tell all your friends about the movie you’d seen. . .”

We humans are ambitious creatures.  There always seems to be just one more thing to accomplish during the waking hours, just one more task to check off the to-do list…  We go to bed late, or set an early alarm in order to cram all of our goals into a single day, but in the process we are actually doing ourselves – and our aspirations – a tremendous disservice.  We can accomplish so much more – and do so much more efficiently – when we are well-rested.

“. . . So, next time you see someone sleeping, make believe you’re in a science fiction movie. And whisper, ‘The creature is regenerating itself.”

~ George Carlin 

I chose to sleep in this morning, in order to give myself the gift of regeneration. What about you – did you sleep well?

~ Christiana McQuain