This is how seven (approx) hours of lying down on the bed would look like, on certain bio-mathematical graphs and shit. ( Image courtesy sleepcycle.com. I added this just to cast an impact that I have actually studied a lot about this stuff, which I haven’t)
I’ve been an insomniac for a long long time. When I finally discovered a groundbreaking way to put myself to sleep, I thought the secret must be shared.
But a little pre-talk first. Whatever I have to say is something that I have experienced, I have come across no book which validates or advocates this. But you have nothing to loose, so you might as well give this a try.
After months of observations, what I concluded is that our mind lets us fall asleep when it itself is in a state of confusion.
“Wait, what??“
Let me be clearer. The mind needs something or the other to put itself to while you’re asleep. It needs something to keep itself busy, so that you can just go to sleep instead of giving it conscious thoughts to think about (If you say your head is completely blank when you’re asleep, you, my friend, are either lying or are misinformed).
Well, that’s tricky, is it not! To give our brain (rather, mind) something to work upon without giving it problems consciously! Here’s where a little knowledge will come in handy. We do not consciously process paintings and music. We just look at them and our brain fires up its processors and starts crunching it over and over again, looking for patterns, anticipating and identifying known patterns, correlating new patterns to older ones, and so on. So the key to get it to work would be to look at a painting that starts off simply enough, and then keeps getting complicated, and gradually puts enough questions in our mind to suffice a good, sound sleep. It’s like feeding the brain. This is probably why counting sheep has been the age-old thing to fall asleep. It follows the pattern:
Simple –> Complicated –> Simple –> Stop.
But since you’re consciously imagining the sheep, it ceases to be as effective as we would think. So, we definitely would require a painting to do the trick.
But how would you sleep with open eyes? You cannot (normally). I used to put my little sister to sleep by chatting with her. We would talk about the usual stuff at first, and then gradually I would start talking about things like Pythagoras’ Theorem, about how our life would be so much more difficult had Tesla not lived ever, and about the merits and demerits of having to live our entire life in a spaceship. While some of these talks were interesting, they were compulsively a bit complex, as they had to be understood, but when she didn’t have to reply back, she would be listening passively, and would thus fall asleep (Thanks, brain!). But who would do for you what I did for my dear sister? Won’t be surprising to realize that the answer is “Probably no one.”
Music, which I mentioned above, is our very need of the hour. Classical music is supposed to be good for sleep. Reason? It picks up simple notes, builds a foundation and architects elaborate and intricate structures over it, reaches a peak of complexity, and then eases down in a simplistic and beautiful conclusion. It’s like caramel-dipped vanilla-chocolate ball or <your favourite dessert here> for the brain. Which means, our brain not only loves it, it craves it like anything!
But not just any music, mind you. Certain music might just wake you up to appalling uncertainty of ever falling asleep that night. But some selective music will flow like a breeze and puff you into the sweetest sleep you’ve ever had.
Recommendation:
Here is the soundtrack from the superbly awesome game Braid, which I use to put myself to sleep on a not-so-easy night. Just let yourself go, flow with it.
Each and every track of this game is relaxing as Joey Tribbiani’s chair. Give it one try at the very least!
Happy Sleeping!
