A lark at my 20s
I get my priorities straight. It comes in the order of sleep, eat, me-time, work, exercise and sleep again. And if you haven’t noticed, sleep is in the top-most order of things.
Sleep is the most tranquil thing one can experience. One thing I have observed these days is that the youngsters actually prefer sleeping to staying up late unless necessary. The introverts often prefer to sleep in than going out. It’s become their personal way of chilling. People reading this who do not agree to this, perhaps you and I are hanging out with a different set of people.
There is also a psychological phenomenon that if you mention the same word again and again, you might get the feeling of the verb associated with it.
Suppose, if I keep repeating food — food — food — food — food — food repeatedly, you might feel hungry. Similarly, sleep — sleep — sleep — sleep at least 4–5 times then you might feel sleepy. I feel there is a second personality in me who keeps uttering these words because I am always hungry, sleepy and grumpy ( I wonder who keeps uttering grumpy — grumpy — grumpy in my head).
Sleep, as some might say, is psychological. Suppose you are a little sleepy but still you decided to attend a Coldplay’s concert and you are in front of 1000s of people yelling at the singers then obviously you wouldn’t doze off at that place. But with the same amount of sleep, if you are having a normal family dinner, then you might fall asleep.
Sleep might be psychological or physiological and can be caused because of many reasons as it is a normal function of the body to sleep.
On a technical term of the normal functioning of the human body, sleep is of utmost importance to improve your brain, give you the adequate amount of rest, improves mood, makes us feel fresh, etc etc but as time passes I have seen youngsters as in people my age and even older touching the 50–60s have grown to enjoy sleep. They don’t just see as a normal reduced physical activity but as a relaxing event that gives you the peace, the opportunity to unwind, declutter and mitigate your thoughts. If there is something stressful going on in your mind or if you are going through a tough time in your life or have overcome a shock, many people say to sleep on it and think the next day. So, it is safe to say that sleeping can be used as an escape mechanism as well.
Well, it is for me. Especially during exams when I was the most stressed out I used to be very sleepy and I always wanted to sleep. But just as exams were over and I had all the time to sleep, I wouldn’t feel sleepy at all.
Sleep can also be associated with mental health. A disturbed person cannot sleep often and sound. One of the cures for most mental health problems is adequate sleep because without the necessary amount of sleep, your brain is constantly spiraling with thoughts which leads to overthinking and the train of thoughts turns into something completely negative and hence more worry, definitely unnecessary ones.
The major ground of all this is to say that my relation with sleep has been one of the most placid experiences. I do not just need sleep now, I want to sleep. I do use it as an escape mechanism but not from my problems but to avoid some events or meeting people I really don’t want to meet and have run out of excuses.
I have turned out to be this person more like her mother who cannot keep her eyes open beyond 11PM. I am in my 20s and 20s as it is described on the holy-book-of-the-20s-club that one shouldn’t even think of sleeping until 2–3AM.
The nocturnals would say “Whatta boring life! As it is the most silent at night, peaceful, calming and full of silence” Huh, have you ever slept at night?!
I went to a party the other day and my eyes were shutting on their own post 10.45 at night and I guess I have started to become a party-pooper wherever I go.
I am also a Software Engineer. If you see people who code and do coding for a living, it is an implicit trait of a coder that he stays awake at night. Once, it was even considered cool to stay awake at night and coders who did that were considered passionate about coding and eventually tagged as good coders. I was always under this predicament between my mind and my body which wouldn’t allow me to stay awake but the mind wants to stay awake and be cool like the good coders.
Finally, after deep thought and after a constant battle between my mind and my body and my mom, I have come to a conclusion that “I AM A MORNING PERSON”. Kill me, assault me, I am. I used to be ashamed to be called a morning person but then I saw an interview by Alia Bhatt and she said she was a morning person and I was fine. 😛
Jokes apart, I’ll be honest with you and it might sound like a very first-world problem but I had a huge problem with myself for not being a night person. I used to always think that people who have succeeded have always worked all night and pulled out many all-nighters. But then, I have also seen people who have stayed up all night, missed meetings in the mornings constantly and have dug a grave for themselves at work.
As time passed and upon churning numerous thoughts in my head, I had made peace with the fact that my body had refused to work beyond 11PM at night.
It doesn’t mean that I’m like a switch, I wouldn’t be awake whatsoever but given a choice and chance I wouldn’t prefer to stay awake at night.
I have also observed one thing. I function better when I get good sleep. If I’m constantly stuck at night on one problem I need to solve, if I sleep on it and try it in the morning it would have solved perhaps much quicker than it would have solved at night.
The point of writing this blog (if anyone hasn’t still questioned it) is to bring it on to the table that sleep is the most important part of life, slumber-parties are the best parties and no person can be termed as the best in their profession because of their sleep timings. If anyone asked me, I would say I would always prefer being a morning person as it’s so dark at night whereas the mornings are beautiful. The perfect dawn, colorful sceneries, the veering weather from a cold night to a warm morning, as the peace associated with all this is what I enjoy the most and would always love a good book on a grassy land on a pleasant morning (turns out, I am a country girl at heart).
I don’t want to talk a lot about sleep and make you readers sleep, but on the whole if you feel like sleeping, sleep. If you are sleeping 18 hours a day, then see a doctor, if you are not able to sleep, then read this blog and I’m sure you must have dozed off by now but do not feel guilty if you are sleeping early, if you cannot party and have to chose between party and sleep, choose sleep. Always. You’ll always be thankful.
Don’t think that you’re missing out on the fun parts of life because this is really not the fun part. If you feel you are not able to make friends because you cannot spend enough time with them till late nights, then find friends who are ready to spend time with you during the day. A good breakfast at an aesthetic cafe with some lovely pancakes will not only go best with some whipped cream but also with some interestingly whipped conversations. If you feel there is a peer pressure to stay awake late at night or if you feel tagged for being a bore who sleeps early, well today it is sleep, tomorrow there might be something else. It’s okay to be a lark in your 20s.
Happy R̸e̸a̸d̸i̸n̸g̸ Sleeping
Bhavna Haritsa.
