Normally I sleep pretty well, but last night was not normal. I went to bed at around my usual time, but kept waking up after dreams, which is uncommon - both to wake up, and dream. I don't dream as much as I used to before the stroke, but lately I have noticed there is somewhat of an increase. Not sure what that means - likely nothing.
I have an Oura Ring, which has been pretty good at giving insight into a number of areas, including my sleep patterns. I actually had to get a new one though, after mine stopped working properly with the batter going from about 6 days of life, down to 2, and then shutting off randomly despite still having charge. They replaced it and it came in a couple days. I got the replacement Tuesday and all is well again.
As you can see, not a great night's sleep.
I normally get between 5-7 hours sleep a night, with five being a little bit too little, and seven being a great amount. If the sleep quality is good, anywhere over five is enough. I have always been a night owl, but I haven't been a good sleeper since I was in my mid-teens and got ill. However, since I started writing and clearing out my head before bed into posts and articles, I have generally slept pretty well, falling asleep fast and deeply. It is actually possible that the reason I didn't sleep well last night was because I didn't write late, like I normally do, and I have written less in the last few days with so much Christmas activity ongoing.
Not enough thought spent, too much thought left.
People who have trouble sleeping, should probably spend more time thinking. I reckon that for many these days, it is a problem as we consume a lot, but think very little, with the majority of our thought being pretty easy thinking. More mental challenge and the brain burns extra energy, and clears itself out to the point that it requires sleep to function again. Not enough thought and the brain doesn't require as much sleep, yet people are in the habit of getting a lot of sleep, despite not actually burning the different energy types required to need it. Oversleep is just as bad as undersleep.
Too little sleep and we feel tired, but too much sleep leaves us lethargic also. There is a sweet spot in there somewhere so that we have enough energy to perform what we need to do daily, but not too much that we can't spend it in a day. We shouldn't be going to bed full of energy and if we are, we are not active enough. I think it is similar to our dietary habits,, where if we are eating more than we burn, we are going to put on weight. If we aren't burning enough of our mental energy, the weight we put on might not be physical, but it will slow us down just the same. Less capable, less willing, less structured.
Can we think too much?
No. But we can spend too much time thinking about the wrong things that don't help us face the challenges of or life. It isn't only thoughts of trivial content that doesn't help, it is also thinking about circumstances that we can't affect, that are out of our control, that are minor, but we are making mountains from them. The thoughts that can end up being compulsive to the point they are a problem in our daily lives, but seem all so important.
Stop thinking?
No. Instead, we should be working out what are the right things for us to be thinking about, rather than spending our energy on useless thoughts that make us tired, but don't lead to anything positive in our lives. Or are thoughts just to take up space, to take away boredom, to burn opportunity.
We can only think one thing at a time.
Multitasking is bullshit.Yes, we can do a couple tasks simultaneously, but not two things that require simultaneous conscious thought. It is easy to test. Try to work out two very simple maths problems simultaneously. 126/7 and 3.5x40. Not one after the other - at the same time.
So what we think in our conscious awareness is burning the only thought we can have at that moment. When we fill our thoughts with useless junk, it means that for that time, we have lost the potential to do anything useful with our thoughts. When we fill our thoughts with harmful content, it means that during those moments, we are doing ourselves harm. There is an opportunity cost to thought, and every thought we have is costing us every other possible thought we could have at that time.
We should spend our thinking wisely.
But what is wise thinking? For each of us it might be different, but I would assume that all of us have at least some areas of our life that we want to improve. So perhaps it would be wise to spend our thinking energy on how to improve those areas that we want to improve, rather than thinking about whatever entertains our mind. Perhaps if we stopped entertaining our mind and instead used it to solve the problems we face, we would be able to have more time to spend on the things that matter - and what matters might not be what we think matters today.
But what do I know?
I am just a guy who has had less than four hours of broken sleep.
Taraz
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