Heard an interesting tidbit from my SIL the other day... It doesn't matter what time you go to bed, your body resets itself at 5am. Those who wake up before don't get that reset and have a shortened life expectancy. Apparently those who work the 12am shift have a shorted shelf life that those who work day shift.
I am an early riser. More accuartely an early waker - upper. With some help from my doc, it is a bit better now, but I still have to work for it. Most night/mornings, I just get up and start engaging my brain. News, FB, music and well before you know it, it is time for everyone else to get up. I already have 5 hours in under my belt.
Since this new information has come my way, I am trying to learn to stay asleep. This morning was a trial run and unexpectedly, it worked. What was different, what changed? only the inward resolve that try as you may, we aren't going to engage. We are staying in bed, awake if necessary. I went through a few of my rituals but the engagement kept creeping in. Finally, I went to my homeless shelter place. It is where I imagine I am homeless, sleeping on a mattress about 4 inches off the floor. I have a great line of sight under all the cots. I continue to listen to the noises around me, near and far. NO thinking about how I got here, that would be defeating the purpose but just taking it all in. This is a prayer for me, has been over the years. My father was homeless for a time, I iamgine what it must have been like for him.
I awoke a few minutes before the alarm was set to go off. It worked. To purpose to not engage my brain had allowed it to return to sleep. For me, this is a very big deal. 5am is still a wonderful time to be awake. The world is still, still in quiet and in the state of non-doing. While I will not always be successful at being asleep at 5am, I will try this again. Engagement is my default. I hit the florr running everyday. Want to be able to say that you can teach an old day new tricks and be, that dog...
