SLEEP

Growing up, I always thought of sleep as a waste of time, and tried to get as little of it as possible.  Beginning in my twenties, my schedule was as follows: Bed at 1AM, after the Tonight Shows.  Wake up at 6AM  to lift weights and think.

As a young child, at bedtime, my mother would lead me in reciting this jingle:

"Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my Soul to keep,

If I should die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my Soul to take."

This little jingle raised lots of questions for my developing brain, such as:

Why can't I sleep sitting in my favorite chair?

Who is this "Lord" that I want to "keep" my Soul?

And, what is my "Soul" anyway?

Could I really die in my sleep, before waking up?

What does it mean to "die?"

What does it mean to "pray?"

Where would this "Lord" take my "Soul?"

..... Lots of scary questions for a young boy.  (Some answers were never revealed to me.  I had to try to figure them out by study and intuition.)

A monk nick-named Anam Cara ('soul friend' in Celtic) showed the world a little nicer sleep prayer jingle:

"I lay me down to rest me,

I pray to God to bless me;

If I should sleep and never wake,

I pray the Lord my Soul to take"

But, the jingle version I like best is:

"Now I lay me down  to sleep,

With a bowl of cherries at my feet;

If I should die before I wake, 

You'll know I died of a tummy ache."

Famous pop singer Helen Forrest (1917-1999) liked to sing about sleep and dreams:

(With Harry James) I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night

(With Artie Shaw) Two Sleepy People 

(With Harry James)  I had the Craziest Dream Last Night

(With Artie Shaw)  Deep in a Dream

..... see how I segued to a sleep product, dreams.

Hamlet said it all in his soliloquy To Be Or Not To Be:

"...  To die, to sleep:

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, ..."

During my recent long term in Hospitals and Home Hospice, I learned what I should have learned as a child.. that sleep is good.. it relaxes and it heals. The National Sleep Foundation suggests that healthy adults need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.  Right now, I'm enjoying adhering to their suggestion.

..........

Sweet dreams, mes amis!