This week’s topic, for me, strikes close to home.  I want to discuss the wonder of sleep.  Something that I personally am lacking in at this writing.

Sleep is an amazing time where we get to reset.  We pause, we stop our actions, and we re-energize ourselves.  For two to twelve hours at a time, we sleep.

“To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;” – William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Many people spend their time in sleep dreaming of elaborate places and worlds.  Some people see visions of past, present and future in their dreams.  Some people have incredibly odd dreams about talking cows or worlds populated almost entirely by brine shrimp and such.  Some of us do not recall our dreams at all, thought medical science says that everybody dreams.

When you are tired, your eyes are drooping, and your focus is fading, there is nothing quite like that moment where your head hits the pillow, yours eyes close, your breathing slows, and the world around you fades into a warm, peaceful din.  Sleep allows the body to reset.  Sleep lets us recover from the actions of our day.

When we are ill, sleep is often prescribed to allow the body to recover.  When we feel down, sleep will sometimes allow us to escape, to awaken feeling better.

“Sleep is the best meditation.”  – The Dalai Lama

Every night before I go to sleep, I pause, reflect, and meditate on my day.  I focus on the things I am grateful for, and I focus on the positive things I want for my life.  I let my day be cleared, and then I turn over and let Morpheus enfold me in his arms.

Sleep is necessary.  No matter how long we are able to stay awake, everybody needs to take the time to get some rest.  Some of us can function perfectly well on less than six hours of sleep.  Some need eight hours or better.  And some can sleep in dribs and drabs, twenty minutes here, and hour or two there, at various intervals in a given day.  But no matter how you sleep, sleep is a wonder of life we all experience.

Sleep is a necessity, but a wonder?  You might be thinking just that – and my explanation is simply that for everything a person does, all the thoughts, all the actions, all the feelings, emotions, senses experienced in a given day, it is wondrous that we have this ability to put that to rest in order to recharge.  When you think about it, it truly is an interesting notion, and a wonder that we have this opposite side to our regular activity.

And unlike that which is often equated with sleep – I am now talking about Death – Sleep is NOT a permanent state.  We pause, we go inactive for a time – but wondrously, we come back to carry on.  Further evidence of the wonder of sleep.

“A well-spent day brings happy sleep.” -Leonardo da Vinci

What do you like best about sleep, and how much time do you spend on it?

I am MJ Blehart, your sleepy, silly, sometimes serious “Wednesday’s Wondrous World” writer.  Every week I share a wonder of this amazing world, and I hope you will enjoy the journey with me!

Check out my blog, The Ramblings of a Titanium Don, for more of my work.

Also now available, Pathwalking: A 21st Century Philosophy in Book and Kindle form!