Getting back to sleep

[Mark Foote]

Apech posted a link to a BBC article entitled The Myth of the Eight Hour Sleep. The article states that at one time, most folks went to bed about 9pm, and woke up somewhere between 2am and 4am. They would stay up for an hour or two, sitting in bed reading or otherwise occupied, then go back to sleep for another couple of hours.

 

I commented that I had written a piece, Waking Up and Falling Asleep, that described a practice that helped me get back to sleep.

 

Tao Bums regular "humbleone" read my practice, and tried it out, in hopes of resolving his own difficulty in getting back to sleep in the early morning hours. He reported that it worked for him. He wrote as follows:

 

so after a week of your Waking Up and Falling Asleep, I am pleased to say it works for me EVERYTIME without fail. Nights of insomnia, tossing and turning, hopefully are behind me. This has made me much more productive during the wakeful hours.

 

These are quite significant results Mark, I would urge you to get others to try out your practice and report back.

 

If you have trouble getting to sleep (or back to sleep), and would like to try out the practice I describe, I would be grateful for any feedback you might offer. I'm willing to answer any questions you might have. If this works for a lot of people, I can see if there's a way to bring the practice to the attention of more people who could use it; I think a lot of people could use it, but I'm probably going to have to prove it to procede from here.

 

Thanks, all!

 

Mark

Edited March 9, 2012 by Mark Foote

[Everything]

If I had trouble getting back to sleep, I would celebrate! No more falling asleep on the toilet seat! Yay!

 

Or I would lie in bed lucid daydreaming all night long! I that like nighydreaming?

[Mark Foote]

If I had trouble getting back to sleep, I would celebrate! No more falling asleep on the toilet seat! Yay!

 

Or I would lie in bed lucid daydreaming all night long! I that like nighydreaming?

Falling asleep on the toilet seat? Really?!?

[Mark Foote]

If I had trouble getting back to sleep, I would celebrate! No more falling asleep on the toilet seat! Yay!

 

 

Reminds me, have you ever tried the hand movements of Tai Chi short form whilst hovering between waking and sleeping thereat?

[madMUHHH]

So, can this only be used for getting back to sleep, or for falling asleep in general (haven't read it yet), as this is the only aspect I sometimes have some troubles with.

[Mark Foote]

[Mark Foote]

 

(humbleone:) 'could you please elaborate on what you mean by physical sense of location in space?

so you mean this literally, i mean objects in the room etc.

 

If you can please give an example.'

 

(me:) 'Ok, it's a feeling, for sure- if I slip and start to fall but recover myself, the place my mind went is what I'm talking about.

 

Now a question I have is, is it necessary to practice something like sleeping sitting up or a martial art like judo before a person can recognize that their mind is connected with a physical sense of location? That is to say, maybe some people don't notice that their mind moves when they start to fall, that the location of awareness moves to where it needs to be to catch the fall- maybe they would say that their mind was between their ears the whole time!

 

When I sit, I become aware of referred sensation from the nerve exits along the spine: my ability to feel my feet, my little fingers, and my jaw are involved in some way in the activity of my posture. Again, this is allowing my attention to drop where it will, and reminding myself to include my whole body as I inhale and exhale.'

 

An expansion on the above reply.