Читать книгу NORMAL Doesn't Live Here Anymore - Barb BSL Owen - Страница 27

You might think that rest and sleep are interchangeable words for the same activity. Go without sleep and your body begins to betray you by systems shutting down and erratic thinking. Your body needs sleep to repair itself and to reset for the next awake-period. Not sleeping is a lot like not eating or drinking. Stop eating, drinking or sleeping and you can’t sustain yourself very long. Sometimes during a time of unusual stress, you may find the ability to sleep nearly impossible. The mind/body doesn’t wind down far enough to let you drift off. So, what can you do if sleep won’t visit you? First of all, don’t worry about going to sleep. Worrying about not sleeping only makes it harder to fall asleep.

Try taking a rest.

Rest does not have to involve sleep but it does require you to stop your activity. Resting allows you to somewhat refresh, relax and recover. Sit for a while and put up your feet. Watch a pointless movie or read a romance novel or a magazine. Better yet, treat yourself to some sort of electronic device that, along with a set of headphones, allows you to enter another world through guided meditation, music, or listening to an audio book. And while you're at it, during these mini-respite breaks, enjoy the side benefit of blocking out noises like the phone and droning conversations.

One other thing—know that eventually sleep will return to you. It might not be the same as before the period of stress, but you will sleep again.

For the time being, just take a rest.

What is without periods of rest

will not endure

− Ovid

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