Rem Sleep @ MindSay 
_____________________________________________________
Date Line June 30, 2007
Now here is a piece of insight. Brain researchers have finally gotten a handle on why meditation works.
The brain has emotional centers which are calmed through a process which identifies the emotion. If you name it, it is yours to control. In the process of meditation, emotions are identified, they are labeled, a name is given to them – poor
Rumpelstiltskin.
Rumpelstiltskin. Remember him? It was just a matter of naming him and he would vanish; and his claim on the child with him.
Name the emotion, identify it, and the emotional center calms. Remove the unknown; identify the source of the noise, and the fear it instill diminishes to the point of non-relevancy.
We know Freud. Old Sigmund and his couch taught us that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them. It is said that we do not know why this is true.
Psychologists, Priests, or any seeking University tenure researching the esoterically narrow realms of human behavior might not know. It is possible that white tower occupants are too secluded from the real world to know what the children of the nursery are taught
Discover the name of the dwarf, tell him he is Rumpelstiltskin; or have your mommy tell you that the noise is the wind, the shadow a branch, and the fear eases away.
Put a name to an unknown, make it known and the fear which is intended to keep you safe need not continue. Ancient responses to very real dangers, fear of an unidentified, which can threaten or kill, is a survival mechanism. Name that fear, and it falls into its proper perspective.
We fear the real, can control the imaginary, and can dismiss what we can place into a past, present, or future, context.
Meditation is one process by which emotions can find context. It is our conscious tool for the handling of day to day problems. Sleep is our unconscious tool.
In sleep, the mind goes into deep rest and then pulls to the surface in what is known as REM sleep. REM, Rapid Eye Movement, is named for the physical trait which allows the outsider to know the sleeper is dreaming.
The body, the eyes, "look" at what is seen in the dream; and the eyes track the action with the concurrent effect that the pupal marks a trail across the closed eyelid.
Awake in meditation, or asleep in REM, we allow our mind to process information. Strangely, we also sleep when we watch television. Oh! We might be awake and recalling the show, laughing, or crying, pondering events as the script unfolds; but, for our mind, the passive activity is akin to sleep.
The TV serves as REM, with the difference that it imparts its story rather than allow us to invent a tale from what we experienced during the day.
What researchers will eventually put together, but which is really already widely known, television, passive entertainment with a story line, must still be processed. The fantasy becomes intertwined with reality and our rationality shifts accordingly.
The fantasy of passive fiction, well written, can alter the thoughts of a society. Take reality, place it in a fantasy, a mythological, context, and the fantasy becomes truth.
The politician, the would be leader, who can tap the fantasy reality is the one who gains power or the rational realist. Reality is context.
Identify the source of the fear, and the fear vanishes; even a lie about the source can alter the reality based reaction. A cord of recognition is struck by a catch phrase, by a buzzword, by an unfounded yet irrefutable claim, and the lie becomes the truth which destroys.
A simple survival mechanism; controlled by its owner or another, the very simplicity by which it can be subverted becomes a threat to survival of the individual, the lineage, tribe, clan, nation, species.
_____________________________________________________
1. Scott
2. Scotto
3. Scottwilliams
THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. English
2. French
3. Native (Ojibwe) ...not significantly, but it's true as far as we can tell.
THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. Silence
2. The future
3. Eating in public. Seriously.
THREE OF YOUR EVERY DAY ESSENTIALS:
1. Coca-Cola
2. Computer
3. Sitting down.
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE BANDS/MUSICAL ARTISTS:
1. Aerosmith
2. The Beatles
3. The Clash
THREE THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. Intelligence
2. Sense of humour/charm
3. Conversational ability
Oh, and looks. I'm at least a little shallow.
THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE HOBBIES:
1. comic book creation
2. watching movies
3. bowling
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. Get un-sick really fast
2. Skip school (not that I will)
3. Eat
THREE CAREERS YOU'RE CONSIDERING/YOU'VE CONSIDERED:
1. Writer of all things
2. Journalist
3. Figurehead ruler of the world.
THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. New Zealand
2. England
3. New York
In reality, I'd like to go just about anywhere. Travelling excites me a little.
THREE KID'S NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Mork
2. Kedzie
3. Falafel
...no? Yeah. I just don't want my kids to have generic-sounding names.
THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. Get published
2. Get appreciated
3. Get some damn money for it
Well, on the first day, I was on a strict 2-6-10 schedule (which means that I get six 30-minute naps, at four hour intervals), and it worked out pretty well.
I read somewhere that I should cut out caffeine, because it messes with REM sleep. So, for the second day, I cut all caffeine, and did the 2-6-10 schedule. Unfortunately, my body was not prepared for going cold turkey on caffeine, and around 2AM, I slept through my alarm. That night, I ended up getting around 2 hours of sleep instead of a 30 minute nap.
I was a little depressed about that, but I vowed not to let it happen again. More reading on the subject that day led me to some new discoveries. I came up with a new plan, where I would get 20 minute naps every 3 hours (instead of 30 minute naps every 4 hours). That way, I would have more opportunities for training my body to jump instantly into REM sleep. Also, it would be easier on my system to have smaller waking times, because that would make it less likely that I would get overtired.
I also came up with another good idea. I'm going to tie my diet in with my sleeping schedule. The way I figure it, I can lose weight if I limit myself to a 2000 calorie-a-day diet. But instead of eating three big meals, I'm going to eat a smaller meal (250 calories) after every nap. That way, the body is digesting all day, rather than loading it down with digestion at key moments. Also, by eating after every nap, I decrease the chance that my body is digesting while sleeping (which could inhibit REM sleep).
So, the new plan was eight naps a day, followed by a light meal. It's a good plan, one that I believe in.
Then the bad news hit. I had to go to a dinner party with friends last night. I had a good time, I managed to screw up the diet pretty well, I drank a lot of caffeine, and I skipped the 10 PM nap.
Now, one thing that all the data I've read about polyphasic sleep agrees on is that, when people fail, it's usually because they slip on naps (oversleeping on one, or skipping naps and crashing later). I figured that missing one nap wasn't the end of the world, but when I got home, the combination of a really big meal, the sudden influx of caffeine, and missing a nap made my body totally crash. I slept for about five hours. Damn.
It would be easy at this point to call the system a failure, and go back to my monophasic sleep schedule. I'm not going to do that, though. Instead, I see this as a new opportunity. Instead of saying that I failed on my second day, I'm going to say that, right now, I'm restarting the plan. I'm going with the 1-4-7-10 plan, and I'm going to eat my light meals after every nap.
So, let's call this day one - again, and just say that I'm starting with a much better understanding of what I need to do.
It works like this: six times a day, you take a nap. You nap for 30 minutes, then go on about your day. For me, I take naps at 2, 6, and 10 (both AM and PM). That means, I've got 3.5 hours of waking time in between 30 minute naps. It also means that I will be living on 3 hours of sleep per evening.
The practical upshot of this is that, if it works correctly, your body will adjust itself to the short-nap cycle, and it will drop into REM sleep a lot faster. The other cool thing is that, you can live your life with a 20-hour day.
I'm on day two now. In the past 48 hours, I think I've had around 6.5 hours of sleep. I can't speak for how this will feel in the long term - or even how it will feel next week. But I can tell you that I'm awake, lucid, and I've been able to work for far longer than I had ever thought possible before. It's really pretty cool.
There is one odd thing, though. I'm starting to lose track of time. I mean, I know what time of day it is (because I have to get my naps), but the days all start to blend together when you don't have a big sleep cycle to separate the days. I know I went to the gym recently, but did I do it yesterday, or this morning? I honestly don't remember.
Anyway, I'll keep you guys updated on this, in case I start going slowly insane.