Wandering alone in the wilderness
of a night
“I have always envied people who sleep
easily. Their brains must be cleaner. Their floor boards of the skull well
swept and all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of
the bed ― David Benioff (author)
I am well informed about the reasons for
sleepless ness in the nights. I am also aware of the fact that the body's
"biological clock," or 24-hour cycle (circadian rhythm) can be affected by light or darkness, which can
make the body think it is time to sleep or wake up. Body clock sleep problems
have been linked to a hormone called melatonin. Light and dark affect how the
body makes melatonin. Most melatonin is made at night. During the day, light
tells your body to make less melatonin. If you work at night in artificial
light, your body may be making less melatonin than it needs
Some people—such as those who can't sleep until
very late and those who go to bed very early—have circadian rhythms that are
different from those of most people. Other people with sleep problems may have
regular circadian rhythms but have to adjust them to new situations, such as
working a night shift. When you work at night and sleep during the day, your
body's internal clock needs to reset to let you sleep during the day. Sometimes
that's hard to do. People who work the night shift or rotate shifts may have
trouble sleeping during the day and may feel tired at night when they need to
be alert for work.
My family
doctor once said to me that, “it is always difficult to educate the already
educated persons.” I am one excellent example of such a case due to my
mismanagement of my sleep.
One day, I was watching news hour programme of an
English channel and was enjoying it thoroughly
for the use of vocal and lung power of every one participating in it and the
inability of the anchor to bring some orderliness in the debate. It was highly
hilarious to watch three people talking
simultaneously and continuously and I was thrilled to see the women spokes person’s victory in silencing others by their non stop
verbal direhoria. This activity of mine i.e., entertaining my
self with the news discussion, in the comfort of my home was going on till 11
PM. The sleep clock sent the first signal through making me yarn and reminded
me to go to bed immediately. I ignored
the warning knowing very well that after some time, the sleep clock will get
confused and stop activating the process of sleeping. Then suddenly I
remembered that, I have some work in the kitchen and when I finished that work,
the time was 11. 40 PM and then I retired to my bed feeling extremely sleepy.
But habits
die hard. Hence, as usual I took a magazine and started reading it thinking, I
may read for 10 minutes. But. That activity was extended to half an hour,
though all the articles were related to election and poll predictions. I was
already over fed with voluminous information on these matters. Hence I decided
to cooperate with the sleep clock and switched off the lights and closed my
eyes.
The over
all result of the mismanagement of my sleeping
time was immediately realised,
i.e. just then, I started feeling very fresh and even after one hour of tossing
in the bed, changing directions of the pillow , adjusting the fan speed,
drinking water etc., didn’t help in getting my sleep. I started reciting
prayer, started counting numbers and practiced yoga sleep technique. Nothing
helped .By then it was 1. 30 AM. The
sleep clock refused to help in solving my problem . Then I switched on the TV
and was bored with the old movies and over familiar comedy scenes and news
coverage of mammoth meetings of Modi and his thundering speeches.
Then, I decided not to go back to the bed again
and waste my time and resolved to convert my midnight into a productive time. Praying
and writing are the two activities I am not able to do in day time without
disturbance. First, I decided to start my prayers. I could immediately
establish a very personal contact with God in that silent atmosphere which was
free from phone calls, door bells, service providers, guests and interesting TV
programmes . I could pray with total
satisfaction and devotion sharing everything with God and asking for His
guidance for the rest of my life and of course to help me to sleep at least for
few hours that night. It was a very
satisfying moment of the day, since very rarely only I get such intense
personal dialogue opportunity with God.
Then I started my next productive activity i.e.,
writing .When all the living beings sleep in peace and when there was perfect silence around me it was very
conducive for free flow of
thoughts. . First I attempted poetry.
Stopped it after some time realising that, it is not my cup of tea. Then, I
wrote a letter to The Hindu on some news coverage on which I had formed my
opinion, knowing very well that, it will not be published since it was too late
to send it for the next day paper and also my letter has appeared only 15 days
back and for another two or three months my letters will not find space in the
letter column since, every one has to be given justifiable chance (according to
my assumption). Then I started writing an article meant to be sent to this
section, knowing very well that, if any one’s article appears in this section,
for another one year at least, the next article of the same person will not re
appear since, there is flooding of articles to this section from all types of
free lance writers and some time columnists also compete for space in this
column (according to my assumption) There are of course few exceptions to this
rule such as writer like DR. TN.
Finally
the article came to the final shape after improvements and tough editing.and
the send button was clicked at 3 AM and I spent another 10 minutes to send a
blog to my blog spot space. . Then I finally
went to bed with the satisfaction of not fully wasting my sleepless night and hoped to
sleep till 8 Am , so that I will have some pysical stamina to attend to
the next day’s tasks that would face me.
The sleep clock finally took mercy on me and allowed me to sleep for few
hours. This resulted in spoiling all my programmes of the day time since, I was
experiencing drowsiness for several hours.
The moral of the story is-
·
It is not possible to fall asleep whenever we
wish.
·
It is not
possible to wake up whenever we wish.
·
At most discipline is required in sleeping time
and we should never disturb the sleep clock’s functioning if we want to avoid
midnight adventures. .
Written
by Prof. Rameeza.A.Rasheed
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