Conditioning Self To Let Sleep Be As Restful...

Sundown - Lake Tabeo, Benguet PH

From college through my career days, my average sleep was mere four hours... yet being late and tiredness were non-issues with me. The difference? Sleep was always a complete rest.  Once set to retire for the night, I would be outright asleep... and through the four hours, I never would as much flinch. Dreams were relatively less than few. I would even often quip that I pretty much "resurrect" rather than just mere wake up. If I had to wake up at a certain time, all I had to do was sleep four hours prior... after which I would then timely wake up and get up. An alarm clock was one less item to have. Naps... very rarely I took.  I believe that my body would turn to rest but my mental functions wouldn't... thus siestas would simply send me to dreamland. And the typical dreams scenarios were about "being chased but can't seem to run... or in search of something seemingly impossible to locate"... making me only restless after instead.

I give utmost credit to Dr. Karl Albrecht, my college professor and a noted author on stress management. Taking to heart the approach and techniques he identified, became instrumental in my grasping the personal regimen I then structured for myself... to which I have stayed with since. 

Sea Lagoon - 
Limasawa, Southern Leyte PH

The process is conditioning mind and body on how to arrive at a most restful state. It's a more or less five minute exercise. Others would turn to biofeedback therapy (too cumbersome for me)... others to a yoga discipline of sort. (I hope to eventually get there, but for now... a little too regimented for me still.) What I elected instead... is visual association. What it is is... adjusting self to a most relaxed position (which may include loosening ties, belt, unbuttoning collars...) choosing a visual image with eyes closed... and while closed and the image constant... essentially feel and sense the release of physical energy from the top of head to out the toes... lingering a couple or so minutes at the arrived state... then slowly let calm self open back to let in filtered energy, from toes to top of head. The idea is for the process to be repeated enough to a point when a mere visualization of an image is all it will take for the body and mind to take cue on the need to be in a most relaxed state. Once the technique is fully grasped, it can then be exercised at bedtime, or pretty much randomly throughout the day... to instantly revitalize self or let off stress.

After retirement... I kept the routine for a year or so. I once commented how in retirement... I can carry as much a crazy schedule and not "lose sleep" over it. Nowadays, I still have my "waking-up-after-four-hours" norm... I get-up and stay up for about two... to work on a need, brainstorm, or satisfy a whim... then go back for a couple more or so hours of sleep. This would please my dear Danish psychiatrist friend Kate Nillsen who would insist I need to have more sleep. I even almost habitually take an hour or two naps now on typical days. Yes, there are dreams still during siestas... but surprisingly, they no longer are about "chases" and "searches"... instead, nuanced ones with real characters and mostly poignant or dearly amusing scenes from related life events... past, fairly recent or likely to occur.

I love being sixty-nine.

                                       Scenes of peace and serenity to calm restless souls... 

Crater Lake, Mt. Apo PH / Mayo Peak, Mt. Guiting-Guiting PH
Mesquite Sand Dunes - Death Valley CA / Zion National Park, UT