Sweet dreams
Published: Thu, 07/18/13
We had a rather small class in Crewkerne last night. We had a good
session despite the heat. We were exploring adaptable responses to
attacks from various angles and some interesting stuff came out of
it. However a couple of my most regular students didn't show.
I was beginning to think it mus be something I said last week.
Then I got a message from one of them saying that he has been doing
night care of a sick relative for three weeks and it is getting to
him. So he just nodded off yesterday evening and missed the class.
I remember working night shifts in a residential care home many
years ago. I would make it though the night but although I had the
option of using the car to drive the 10 miles to work and back I
always opted for using my motorcycle, even though it was winter
because I found I couldn't stay awake at the wheel driving back
in the morning. It is a bit more difficult to fall asleep on a
motorcycle.
Sleep is key to our health and well being. If we don't get our
sleep at an appropriate time we will just find that our body will
take it when it can, this can get a little embarrassing if it means
missing appointments. But it can be lethal if it happens at the
wheel of in some other position of control and responsibility.
This is why commercial vehicles have tachographs to try and ensure
adequate rest periods when drivers can sleep.
How much sleep do we need? That does seem to vary from person to
person. Old people sometimes claim they need hardly any sleep, but
you often catch them napping during the day which is probably why
they do not sleep well at night. My mother seems to sleep for
about 12 hours these days but she keeps busy and active during the
day, so I suspect that older people actually need more sleep than
when they were younger but often do not take it in a structured
way. (There is a study there for some researcher to undertake.)
Rather than worry about the exact amount of time spent asleep the
important thing is the quality of sleep. Stanza 23 of the Havamal
says:
"The foolish man lies awake all night and worries about things;
He is tired out when the morning comes and everything's just as
bad as it was."
So getting to bed in a good frame of mind, getting relaxed and
letting go the problems of the day are important to sleeping well.
I would suggest that many people would benefit from getting to bed
an hour earlier and getting up half and hour earlier. The second
half of stanza 59 says:
"much he neglects who sleeps in in the mornings, wealth is
half won by the vigorous."
So turn off the tv or the computer and get to bed in good time,
then get up earlier, especially this time of year when the early
mornings are so beautiful, and cool.
Training this Saturday afternoon (sorry if I confused things and
put the 21st, it is this Saturday the 20th) dates at
http://www.iceandfire.org/calendar.html