For the last forty-eight hours, I have been catching up on my sleep. I don't want to talk to anyone but it's not because I'm in a bad way. It's because I need quiet - quiet in my surroundings and in my mind. It's been wonderful.
My body has been telling me how tired I am in one simple way: I'm falling asleep on the couch instead of in my bed. That's not normal. I'm doing a little bit of "forcing" myself to stay awake when my body wants to fall asleep. I don't know why I'm doing this but I have noticed a pattern.
When I disturb my body's natural sleep cycle I end up having intense dreams:
- A fully outfitted soldier in the Afghanistan war right in the middle of it
- I can't remember the second dream but it had the same intensity
- A patient at a trauma hospital who cannot breathe normally
- A fighter who punches with power and might
If dreams like these continue, I will make more of an effort to write them down.
Tonight I'm going to try going to bed when my eyes first start to close before I dose off.
Maybe my body won't be so tired and I'll stop yawning during the day. And maybe those intense dreams that feel real will slow down or stop completely. That would be nice.
Here's what I found about why sleep is so important. Since I am a Christian and believe God gave us a predetermined start date (birth) and an end date (death), I disagree with number 2. But if it helps someone else to work on their sleep, I'm happy.
