@Barry still inspired by you and your sleep…
What I’m about to share is what allows me to have the time to participate actively here in Night Club! It’s about doing the work most people don’t want to do… but it’s the one with most rewards. In my case, it took 2 months and a half of self-observation… not easy but truly worthwhile, with benefits for the rest of my life! So here goes another excerpt from my new book….
“The most exciting thing of all is that you may be able to readjust the number of hours you sleep, gaining time to do what you have wanted to do for a long time, such as watching the sunrise, making love without rushing it, or a morning meditation. All the genuine joy of life and regular meditation are essential for dreaming with lucidity and awareness, fulfilling the part of the human being that is capable of creating, seeing things from a higher perspective and feeling enthusiasm in the simplest things in life.
The main goal was to understand my bedtime and waking hours, establishing a steady daily routine for that, in my case, gaining 3 hours every day, and learning many valuable things about myself during this period of analyzing the routines linked to the quality of my sleep. With the help of sleep charts, what I noticed was that:
» I started waking up less often at night with the consistency of the time I fall asleep and wake up;
» I changed my eating time because I realized that when I ate later it caused me to wake up at night - having dinner about three hours before bed and having a wind-down routine, about an hour before bed, helped me consolidate and establish my bedtime;
» I noticed that when I wake up later, I do everything at a pace that is not mine. The difference in enthusiasm and motivation is abysmal. I like to get up at dawn and do everything calmly, listening to the lush sounds of the dawn;
» Before the sleep chart I was lost and did things without awareness. I was able to progress quickly and that gave me more joy.
It is often said that to be a master in a given subject, we need to practice at least ten thousand hours. Well, if you sleep an average of eight hours a night and are over four years old, you are already a master at sleeping!
Sleep can be like a window: if your sleep doesn’t fill you up and regenerate you, there’s something in your life that you need to look at.
Dr. Daniel Z. Lieberman discovered that humans have two dopamine circuits, one for desire and the other for control. The first is primitive, immediate and directly linked to addictions, not only to chemicals or sugar, but also to behaviors that are not good in the long term. According to this university professor, dopamine is one of the brain’s greatest forces and regulates the desire for more stimuli and surprises. It is thanks to dopamine that we thrive, that we want to discover the world and that we achieve success and it is released when we anticipate something. It’s that feeling of excitement, interest and feeling alive. Expectation is better than what you want. But we need motivation! So, what to do? The second circuit takes place in the frontal cortex and is sophisticated. It is the part of us capable of thinking long term and making plans. A simple example of how these circuits work and how they can make an unbeatable duo is recognizing that when you go to bed after a certain time, your sleep is not as good or waking up is much more difficult. The desire circuit wants to stay awake until you feel like it, without limits. The control circuit says: «Okay, you stay up late once a week, during the weekend, and during the week you put a warning on your cell phone with a sound you love, reminding you of your waking time. you go to sleep. Having someone to make these internal agreements with helps.
Sleep affects all areas of our life
We start with the proposal that, from today onwards, you consider your sleep as a high priority. Because sleeping well rejuvenates your mind and body, increases your energy reserves, helping you lose weight and maintain your ideal weight. Several studies demonstrate that levels of happiness and freshness of life are linked to the quality of sleep, as it influences cognitive capacity, positively affecting all organs, even improving disease states. The expression “Sleep on it” was proven in a Dutch study by Journal Science, which found that it is better to let the unconscious mind handle difficult topics. Common sense confirms that before making an important decision, getting a good night’s sleep helps a lot. Sometimes, waiting a week can even help you see things from a greater distance and from a different perspective, especially with restful sleep. Have you noticed that all the information you receive is more easily integrated and harmonized within you, when you have one of those nights where sleep regenerates you and gives you strength?
Everything you do is better with a good night’s sleep, right? Sleeping well is healing on all levels: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. That’s why we spend a third of our lives doing it.
Effects of Sleep Deprivation
What the vast majority of people don’t know is that a good quality of sleep is more important than sleeping a lot.
Some signs of sleep deprivation or poor quality sleep are:
» Reaction time decreases;
» The body continues to do things, but at a reserve level;
» The thought process slows down;
» Decisions are more hasty and with some mental fog;
» The likelihood of irritability increases;
» Memory becomes weaker;
» In some cases, it lowers testosterone levels;
» Libido may decrease;
» Affects the immune system;
» May increase obesity.
Perhaps learning more about this inevitable part of being human can help children fall asleep without a hint of guilt as they continue to explore the world, only the dream world.
Sleep Cycles
Knowing how our Sleep Cycles work helps us understand their importance, respect their function, sleep better and dream lucidly.
Sleep cycles last approximately ninety minutes. They may be slightly more or less. Some sleep cycles can last up to one hundred minutes.
The first three sleep cycles integrate and maintain the day. They last between four and a half to five hours. These first three sleep cycles have four essential parts, with a very small amount of REM sleep which is what provides vivid lucid dreams.
The last two cycles, or in some cases, the last sleep cycle (for people who only sleep six and a half hours and feel fine), change and are for another function, with extended REM sleep, which is sleep of mental restoration, where we change information from short-term memory to long-term memory. It seems that, according to the latest research, when we put a piece of information into the brain, it becomes electrically linked to other pieces of information, thanks to REM sleep. In other words, people who frequently forget their car keys, their grocery list, or who are in a room in the house and forget why they went there, most likely did not sleep their REM sleep.
did you know this @NightHawk999 ?
These approximate values and simplified sleep stages are intended to help you understand why it is important to have a good night’s sleep, where you get at least six and a half hours of sleep.
Sleep Chart
To increase your quality of sleep, there is something that can help you a lot: sleep tables. Inspiration comes from Dr. Michael Breus and many other sleep experts.
With the sleep table you can understand your optimal times to go to bed and wake up, helping you to consolidate your sleep.
If, for example, it takes you a long time to fall asleep, you can start going to bed later and this is one of the details of what you can learn from this self-investigation. The various parameters help you understand what is happening to you in terms of sleep.
Conscious and lucid dreams should happen with this foundation and structure of self-knowledge and self-regulation of sleep.
A sleep table can have the following data:
“Date” in the table shared above has eight days, but you can draw one with more or less days.
“I went to bed at” is the time when you turn off the light and go to bed.
“I fell asleep at” is when you fall asleep, this time is estimated and the objective is to understand whether it took you a long time or a short time to fall asleep, linked to your behavior during the day (what you eat, whether you take a nap, etc.).
«I slept X hours».
“I got up at”.
“I woke up X times” suggestion: also record the time you wake up during the night.
“Sleep Quality” from 1 to 5.
“Amount of Sleep” from 1 to 5, with 3 being the optimal quality for you.
“Energy upon waking up” from 1 to 5.
“Energy after lunch” from 1 to 5.
“Energy after dinner” from 1 to 5.
«Observations» where you can write what you learn about yourself.
With a table you can organize and internally clarify your internal rhythm, being able to structure your bedtime in a harmonious way and tailored to your needs.”