The little slices of death.....

Ever heard of this song in Guru? Most of you would definitely not have missed it, Guru's twin daughters sing it to him while he is lying down in the hospital-paralysed.

I love the lyrics..

jaage hain deer tak hamen kuch deer sone do

thodi se raat aur haisubah to hone do

aadhe adhure khwaab jopure na ho sake

ek baar phir se neend meinwoh khwaab bone do

What more can you expect of a dreamer? :D For as long as I can remember, I have never woken up from sleep and carried on with my day. No, I wasn't the kind that planned the day while in bed. I generally get dreams, and ,most often I remember them. I either think about them or I try completing some of the dreams I felt were incomplete. I don't how common this is, but I continue this even now. Sometimes I just dream, whether or not I thought about it in my sleep.

This whole sleeping process amazes me. I have understood how its works recently. No I am not talking about REM and alpha waves and the various stages of sleep. :D

Its nature's way of telling you to rest, to let go, to take a break, asking you to stop from pushing yourself beyond your limits. Good food and a deep sleep are considered to be the prescription for a healthy life and beauty.Its a natural painkiller, a stress reliever and helps cure m,any a disease.

I have also read somewhere, don't remember the exact words though-"Sleep now, you shall figure it out when you wake up". How true!! Most problems can be solved if you give it time- what's better than giving your system a break by going off to sleep. Its like charging your mobile every night. You wake up all charged up ready to face the world. Sleep is like a lover-takes away your problems from you, nourishes you, never leaves you, gives you the much required shoulder to lean on...

Why am I talking about sleep now? Because I have realised what it is not to get 7 hours of peaceful sleep every night!!! :D YES, I AM AN INSOMNIAC!!!! I have learnt many a thing during those nights while I toss and turn trying to fall asleep. :D I sometimes have had to take a day off because I couldn't sleep the previous night. And once I could get a few winks only after I calling in sick at office at 9 in the morning. :D (Well-what would I say, "I did not sleep?". My manager did not understand me when I said that to him once. :D)

They say you never know what you have until its gone. I knew what THAT felt like during my pangs of Insomnia. I never took it for granted again and has become one of my favourite friends. I spend "quality" time with it as much as possible, which meant going to bed at a decent time. :D. I realised the importance of keeping your body in harmony with nature -wake when the sun rises and sleep when its dark. There are these harmones that get you do that, but a fact most of us blissfully ignore, arguing that all that we need is 7 hours no matter which part of the day. Well it does, I experienced it firsthand while I worked in the graveyard shift a few years ago in a BPO. Going back to being in harmony with nature, this one fact made me realise it has to applied to other things too, eating for example. I have tried avoiding processed foods since then.

Ok, this is getting to be a little too preachy. All of us have interesting incidents related to sleep. I have plenty - I used to talk in my sleep almost everyday, practising speeches and assignments while I was at school. I have once even campaigned for a candidate for school leader while I was asleep. Sometimes, I have done sleep walking too and have become a detective once in one of those sleep walking trips looking for something called "Meecha Box". I looked into every cupboard, every room and every place in the house trying to solve the "mystery" of meecha box. ha! My family looked on with amusement while I set out on my adventure. :D. Blame it on all those those Nancy Drews and Famous fives I used to consume when I was a kid. :D

While all this almost vanished as i grew up, Insomnia caught on.. :D That's when it occurs to me how we take this one great medicine for granted and while I toss and turn in my bed, these words keep ringing in my ears..

"Sleep- How I loathe those little slices of death... "

P.S.: I have always sought the help of my other favourite -coffee, to get through my day when sleep evaded me, but these two favourites of mine never seemed to get along. Let's save talking about this intelligent drink for another day. ;)