Monday, March 02, 2009

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…

==== start of meme ====

(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.

==== end of meme ====


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

16 comments:

  1. That's quite a meme! Ha =) Soo many things to sleep on huh!

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  2. i dun hav problem sleeping during nighttime. ill fall asleep within 5 minutes :p

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  3. tekkaus
    You're welcome to try :)

    nic
    Oh... I hope I can be like you...

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  4. Oooh...reiki, sounds cool.

    You're studying part time? May I ask in which university? (I also study part-time lol)

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  5. JL
    I study in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman in PJ, Selangor.

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  6. What? You tagged me?! Aiya, not a fan of tags lah! But OK, I will do it cos very easy to answer since I have no sleeping problems. I sleep very easily and drop off to sleep in the middle of a conversation or at the traffic light! : )

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  7. Btw, thanks for naming the kueh in my blog. I thought it's called 'kam tan kou' in Cantonese? You called it 'tai kau min' - is that in Cantonese too, but why sound so different? Blogger Pete called it Ban Chien Kueh in Hokkien - refer here.

    Also how do you make your own gui ling gao? Interested to know the ingredients! : )

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  8. Haha... foongpc is such a sleepyhead... **laughing at his comment.

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  9. Thanks for participating! Lo ve the idea of standing meditation before sleep!

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  10. i used to be a light sleeper, then dont know why now i am a heavy sleeper. and even the house alarm couldnt wake me up, but phone rings will. O_o

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  11. foongpc
    Don't feel that you are being forced. As I mentioned, this is voluntary.

    neo
    Haha... sleep at traffic light (-_-")

    Peter
    You may try this trick.

    xin
    Heavy sleeper? You must teach me how to sleep!

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  12. A good read and which reminds me about sleep positions and what they say about a person.

    KS, no idea whether it's just on mine but the tags are showing up on your post, like before. Thought you'd want to know.

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  13. hahaha being tagged again!!!

    i am actually collecting all the tags to post later on =p

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  14. happysurfer
    Thanks for the info.

    Lisa
    You like to talk, right?

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  15. What a rather serious meme!!! :-P

    I love sleeping! It's a hobby, haha. I don't have trouble sleeping at night. I just lie down and zonk!

    I'm pretty boring even when falling asleep. :-P

    You are affected by a "national angst?" Woah...you should take a vacation or break.

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  16. Meditation does help in sleeping.
    During lunch break, I just concentrate on the breathing for 5 minutes then I'll fall asleep for about 20 minutes!
    Haha!

    Feel energize after wake up!
    So not tired continue working in the afternoon.

    If I can't sleep at night, I do the lying meditation just concentrating on breathing in and out and note that there is 'thinking, thinking,...' then blackout!

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