Earnestly coveted sleep

As we have reached the end, I now need to wrap up my stuff to make my A to Z look like an organized pile. I was thinking about what to write for this letter. Since my theme was self-love and I have now focused on one segment of self-love, i.e., self-care, I think this topic needs to be attended to here.

I have been talking so much about what is important and then prioritizing myself; these all draw to one point, and that is sleep.

I had been a very good sleeper in my early years. Ask me to sleep in class, ask me to sleep in the night, ask me to sleep in the day—all times it was possible for me without regret. Climbing the ladder of advancing years, I found that my sleep was getting lesser and lesser. Yes, hormonal changes are the reason, but the need for sleep remains there. So, I thought to include this in my journey.

I read two books in this context. One is "Why can't we sleep?" Darian's narration reminded me of a famous concept from health psychology: either you exacerbate the health condition or you induce fear in them. He drew my attention to how the mattresses are being sold. They say that if you sleep in the wooden base, your sleep will not be complete, whereas if you sleep on our mattress, you will have a good 8 hours of sleep. When you are really tired and want to rest, you don't look for a mattress to complete your sleep. I was drawn to those early days of my career when I had to travel in night and catch an early morning flight. I was not very comfortable in hotel rooms. So, I would spend my night in a waiting room. A place to sit or probably stretch myself and grab a nap. In those times I only used to think that the attendant should be good and allow me to stay there; otherwise, I have to go and search for a hotel where I will in no way get any sleep.

The second thing that drew my attention in his narration was 8 hours of sleep. The marketing team, the druggist, and the doctors—everyone exploits this for their own benefit. I recently visited a doctor for my health issue, and he advised me to get 8 hours of sleep at night and a good amount of physical activity in the day. The advice was wise. Now, I get up and count to see if I have slept 8 hours or not, and it never happens. The druggist would say, If you steal sleeping hours, you will end up with diseases that will keep bringing you to us. This is also right, but what is important is that I don't have to make it an army routine. Yes, good sound sleep is essential for our good health, but that doesn't mean that I have to fear all these things. What matters most here is not ignoring our need to sleep. Many a time I have to work a little late, but then I try my best to rest for 3-4 hours at least. At other times when I feel tired, I even manage to sleep during the daytime to make me feel good. I am not at all saying to replace your sleep like this; I am only saying that you listen to your body. If your body feels like it needs extra sleep, do give it.

I have been in the situation where I used to sleep, but I never felt I had slept well. When I used to get up, I used to feel I had not slept a single minute. My head used to be heavy and my eyes tired. I could not understand why it was happening, but deep inside I could realize that if this continues, I will surely fall sick. I didn't know what to do. In those days, our schedule was such that we had 1-hour games in the evening. These relaxing games calmed my nerves. Secondly, it also helped me break my chains of anger and rage. There were also some embroidery works that we all did as a class. They all helped me to heal my inner child, and my broken trust was rebuilt in the truth of understanding. I still don't remember when those sleepless nights turned into sound sleeps. I have never fallen down to that stage ever again in my life because from that I have learned what is sleepful and what is not sleepful. Now, I remedy it before it goes out of control.

My second book is "The Sleep Revolution." She showed me the picture of how we create sleep crises in our lives. As she started saying, I can relate to it well. We forget to say no and put so much upon us that we cannot sleep. We feel that sleep is a waste of time, whereas it is the most essential of all. This reminded me of the recent incident of suicide by an EY employee. I agree we are overstretched at our workplaces, but our bodies signal that we are not comfortable this way. Why don't we attend to that? She showed me how she was once a religious sleeper, but later on in the quest for success, she cut her sleep hours. I also do this so many times without realizing its consequences. I was shocked to read in the book "Sleep Smarter" that my parietal lobe and prefrontal cortex lost 12-14% of their glucose when I did not sleep. This book has some 21 concepts related to sleep that have left me awestruck. In the second chapter, it talks about getting enough sunlight. I was thinking about what this sunlight has to do with night sleep. The answer he quoted here convinced my soul. He talked about natural light and artificial lights. How natural lights run our body's mechanisms and regulates our circadian rhythm (a kind of biological clock.) His concepts gave me convincing logic to follow the guidance and grab my best sleep.

Having covered sleep, now I will focus on the riveting power of hobbies and interests.

A- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/acceptance-of-self.html?zx=af3c2e13bf8aa3d6

B- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/boundaries-to-set.html

C- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/compassion-on-yourself.html

D- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/discovering-oneself.html

F- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/forgiving-yourself.html

G- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/grains-of-gratitude.html

H- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/human-experiences-common-to-all.html

I- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/intuitive-guidance.html

K- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/kindness-to-self.html

L- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/l-factor.html

M- https://water-1droplet.blogspot.com/2025/04/mindfulness-for-self-compassion.html