“You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone” - Joni Mitchell knew some stuff. Sometimes we humans (for sure the American kind) tend to take things for granted. You know, like food, water, a flushing toilet, sleep. Until lately, I always did. Now for the first time in my life, I’ve been dealing with insomnia. I mean, I’ve always been a light sleeper and of course I have jetlag issues when flying across the world, but this was a whole other thing. It’s been a roller coaster ride that escalated last week when I only got an average of 3 hours sleep a night. By day seven I was walking a bit crooked, hearing my own voice outside my body and having a few conversations with the Care Bears. Not good. I finally decided that I had to take a day off work and go to the doctor for a pill. Either that or call a good friend (or enemy) to come hit me over the head with a bat.
Now why am I telling you all about my bout of insomnia? Maybe because I’m getting older and a lot of old people like to talk about their ailments, but I think it’s more to get the chance to write about sleep. Marvelous sleep. It’s coming back to me gradually and I’m finding a whole new gratitude for it. Besides the replenishing and restoration it provides for our bodies, sleep is when we get to dream. And those dreams have implications for our lives, if not full-on messages. Oh, and if you happen to believe in such things, sleep gives angels a chance to whisper things to our spirits, unhindered by the so-called “logic” we often wear in our wake-time.
So I’d like to get lots of it every night. But I’ve stopped assuming that it’s going to magically come to me every time I lie down and close my eyes. Sometimes there's work to do: letting go of stress, making life changes, aligning inside, getting our groove in rhythm with our heart, or maybe just taking time to acknowledge our breath. Or maybe, maybe I need to laugh more (is that possible?)…
It’s a challenging process and I’m learning to be patient and gentle with myself. Perhaps next time sleep evades me, instead of fighting it and being frustrated, I’ll use the time more wisely by getting up and doing animal impersonations.
Sweet dreams…
