Something I've noticed. If I lie down and take a nap during the day―if I can somehow swing that―I usually feel refreshed when I wake up, and I can get more done. If I do the same thing after 10 at night, my concentration is shot and I generally can't accomplish anything. This is frustrating, but not inexplicable.
What seems to work better at night is if I lie down for a bit but keep my eyes open. That seems to avoid sending my body a surrender signal.
2 comments:
It's funny you should mention napping because I find the same as you that if I sleep for a liitle while during the day I'll be refreshed, the difference being that if I nap at night I'll have a hard time going to sleep later - which means I'll need a longer nap the next day.
On the other hand, lying down with your eyes open at night is the basis of all meditation practices.. only the monks do it sitting up (sometimes wrapping a strap around their back and legs so they don't topple over).
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Here's the link I told you about called Regreening the Desert with John D. Liu. In 1995 he was a videographer working for CBS when he went to China to document the huge reclamation project they were planning for the Loess Plateau. That was when he found he had another calling in life and this video is something of an overview of what he and others around the world have been doing since then. Half way through he spends some time with Geoff Lawton, the English Australian permaculture specialist who was originally a surfer who went to Australia and instead of bigger waves met one of the permaculture pioneers of the late 60s.
It's a bit long at 47 minutes long but I found it encouraging enough to recommend.
Paradoxically if I try napping at a later hour I'll know approximately what time it is and have a full memory of how I got there. If I'm going to be disoriented at all on waking up it will be during the day. Yet that's when I'm more refreshed, like you. Go figure.
Hindu and Buddhist practices have been sustaining people for millennia, so there must be something to them. I don't know if I have the discipline for that kind of life myself, but there are bits of it that I've found helpful by extension.
I've watched a good part, albeit not all of that John Liu video. Does give one more hope. The methods to re-greening the deserts could be a good thing for humanity to have in its back pocket in the future.
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