SLEEPING AROUND When you get older You will stop sleeping Or you will sleep fitfully You will understand The expression "toss and turn" Your king bed isn't big enough for the royal we. When you get older.
In the course of a night & if you have more than one bed
you will visit them all --
and the sofa
and the floor
in the course of a night.
Turning and turning in your widening gyre. Toss the blankets, sheets, pillows
Toss your bedmate to one side
& the other
Lie face to face
Face to feet
Turn your back, your front
Left side, right.
It's a pleasure to join this group even if I cannot promise to be a frequent visitor. Anyway, I was tempted to leave a comment on Lil's poem. BTW, I didn't know that Lil would venture on poetry, which is the ultimate distillation of literature. To me it's a delightful surprise! The piece is so personal and universal at the same time. Yes, we've been there too - only in cycles for the time being. At any rate, Einstein used to sleep only for four hours and lived til he was 76 in accordance with his on will to have an elegant exit. I wish everyone health. But, if Lil can create something like this out of her insomnia, I can barely wish her a better sleep and eagerly wait for more nocturne productivity ;-)
I already have trouble sleeping. Does that mean I'll be in for an even worse sleeping experience in middle age? (Also, fantastic poem!)
Yes, but there is better living through technology. I was just talking to a guy tonight who had an amazing improve-your-sleep smart phone app. He would put the cell phone on his bed and it would measure vibrations - so it could tell if you were tossing and turning. It apparently could tell when you were in the deepest sleep. Then there were ways of typing in how much and when you ate, whether you drank or not, whether you exercised or not, whether you socialized or not and the app collects data over several weeks. Eventually it would tell you which combination of behaviours gave you the best and deepest sleep. The guy told us that he wakes up more often now feeling fantastic. $3 app. He said the best thing about it was that it had an alarm that would not wake him in a deep sleep cycle. He would tell the app to wake him between 7:00 and 8:00 and it would sense by his movements when he is out of the deepest sleep. I think this is very cool. He looked pretty good too -- and had a busy software business and family life. I don't know what the app was called, but if anyone is interested, I will ask him.
That does sound like a good app... but it sounds like a lot of work for me. I could imagine a future app that just collected data for me without me having to input it. I think most people would use that. I have also read that some biologists are experimenting with getting rid of the need for sleep period. Application of such a compound or genetically engineered procedure is probably several decades away from practical application, but it may be something everyone could take advantage of in the 2050s and beyond.
I really enjoy sleeping and I think it does more than just rest my body/brain. I think it informs my creativity quite a bit. I would be shocked if there weren't adverse effects to eliminating sleep, even if resting of the brain/body were accounted for. My guess is that there are far more things happening that we don't realize on a psychological scale.
Oh most definitely agree. Sleeping is universal because it helps the brain rest and reorganize. Sleep is massively beneficial (obviously). However, once we understand the fundamental cause of a particular instinct (i.e., sleep, sex, etc.) we can, in principle, start to intelligently direct it how we would like it to be (as opposed to how natural selection designed it to be). My general philosophy is that the 20th century was spent understanding biological and physical law; while the 21st century will be spent tinkering it in profound ways. Tinkering with biological law will allow us to design our own conscious existence however we would like it to be. Tinkering with physical law will allow us to design space-time however we would like it to be. I doubt this entire process will take place this century. However, I do feel like we will make extreme strides this century towards redirecting our instincts in more preferable directions.
I understand where you're coming from, I just think that in this particular area I wouldn't be surprised if science thinks they've got a solution that allows for the elimination of sleep, while keeping people vitally energized both physically and mentally and it receives mass appeal, for obvious reasons. Then many years later people start to realize that for some reason, all the art, the songs, the literature are slightly less amazing or that they feel like their missing something, there's some void and they can't quite place what it is. I realize that they could create ways of getting people to a dream state immediately and for only 1 hour stretches to be more time efficient, but perhaps there's more to sleeping and dreaming than biology will reveal? It's a pretty amazing thing. Just playing devils advocate here, I have no scientific basis for any of this. However, I am a BIG fan of sleeping. I do it well.
Haha, fair enough. Sleep (or any other fundamental instinct) won't likely be changed easily or in the next few decades. I'd wager that sex and reproduction will be fundamentally altered quicker than sleep will be. However, I do see that the emergence of high-AI will be a selection pressure towards us altering our sleep profoundly in the 2050s. It won't be done if it substantially lowers our waking capabilities, and overcoming that will be a difficult challenge that I don't mean to underestimate. I just think the selection pressure will be strong enough and the intelligence in existence will be up to the task. Also, the necessary precursor technologies already exist.I am a BIG fan of sleeping. I do it well.
The poem was beautiful lil, and I realize it may not be literal, but I am responding as such because in our house we are constantly facing crisis of sleep. Whether it be a 2 year old that isn't sure she likes her big-kid bed or my wife that swears I snore, sleep is a hot topic these days. My whole life my grandparents have had separate rooms they sleep in. I've always pledged that this would NEVER happen to me. I better stop snoring. Beautiful poem lil.
Something you realize as you get older: A good mattress is well worth the investment. We have a sleep number bed which allows two settings for either side. We love it. When away from home a good mattress can make or break the experience. It's important stuff.