A Meme: How Do You Sleep At Night?

I rarely do meme. I am usually impatient of them. However, I have been tagged by Peter, my Dharma friend, lately. It’s a sleep meme. Since I have always wanted to write about this topic, I thought, “Why not?”

And here you go…

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(1) How do you sleep at night?

Is your sleep affected by the national angst? Do you drop off easily, as you always did? Or does it take a while to get to sleep?

Note: I suppose “the national angst” refers to the current economic situation.

Sleeping has always been a problem to me. I don’t fall asleep easily, and slightest sound could wake me up. Furthermore, I sleep with all the lights off. It is said that people with migraine are scared of light. Perhaps that explains why I like to “live in the dark”,

These days, I work full time and study MBA part time. Due to my busy lifestyle, I need to have good sleep, quality sleep…

(2) What strategies, if needed, do you use to get to sleep?

Pills? Sheep? Late night television show? And/or…?

Physical exercise, reiki, meditation… I avoid using computer at least 30 minutes before I go to bed. I also have a habit of drinking milk at night, but am not exactly sure if it helps.

Contrary to what Peter experiences, I find meditation effective in getting me a good sleep. Mentioning meditation, most people think of holy man sitting in cross-legged. I am no holy man, and I usually meditate in standing posture before going to bed. Standing meditation is more tiring. If I am tired, I will drop off more easily.

Despite all that are done, occasionally I still can’t fall asleep.

(3) Do you wake up in the middle of the night, plagued by obsessive thoughts?

I wake up for other reasons, but obsessive thoughts do prevent me from getting back to sleep.

(4) What strategies do you have to get back to sleep?

I am not going to gym in the middle of the night. Reiki is what I usually do. If I sense that I have ‘restless legs’, I know the problem is going to be serious. I would wake up and do some light reading. Not reading MBA lecture notes, though!

(5) Are your dreams affected?

Are they more anxious than before? Do they wake you up in a sweat? Or are they peaceful, innocent, undisturbed by the general malaise?

I guess my dreams are not yet affected by the general malaise, but then the worse of the economy is yet to come. The ‘L’ word is certainly something I dread very, very much.

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The rules of the meme are:

• Answer the questions
• Link back to the original meme
• Tag others to participate

Now, I would like to tag the following bloggers:

FoongPC

Lisa

Katherine 宝茹

Shingo T

Anyone interested

Okay, okay, this is absolutely voluntary.

Link:

Peter’s original meme