Text/Tan Feng
I just received a call from a friend, saying that he has been unable to sleep recently and asked me what to do.
Looking back, the word insomnia is indeed unfamiliar to me. In my 30s, I still don’t know what it feels like to have insomnia.
Thinking back hard, the last time I suffered from "insomnia" can be traced back to my distant teenage years. I still remember when I was in the second grade of junior high school, it was a hot and uneasy summer night. I lay on the bed, wet sweat flowing from my neck to the pillow, and some flying insects would take advantage of the situation and circle around me.
At that time, there were no air conditioners in Chinese homes, and the weak wind from an electric fan was the most advanced tool for me to sleep peacefully. After a while, I fell asleep.
A friend asked me why I could fall asleep so quickly in such a "harsh" environment. I said, it's actually very simple. Clear your mind and you will definitely fall asleep within three minutes.
Sleeping is actually a mental activity. But it’s not about using your brain; on the contrary, it’s supposed to be mindless. When we usually talk about "brain work", we tend to focus on how to use our brains, but we ignore that sometimes not using our brains and treating ourselves as "waste" is actually part of "brain work".
For many people with insomnia, not using their brains is a particularly fatal experience. On a quiet night, it is easy for people to think about things like home loan, car loan, job, wife and children, pressure, success, desire, nostalgia, regret... In such a modern society, who can Can you think about nothing? Who can simply close their eyes and fall asleep? ——This is simply something even more unrealistic than using your brain.
The more a person thinks about it late at night, the more he really can't sleep. The prerequisite for sleep is to be empty and forgetful. It is not passionate or full of joy. But the crux of the problem is that modern people are accustomed to accepting the logic of life that is omnipotent and can think of everything. On the contrary, they lack the "skill" to make themselves lazy and completely indifferent.
Many things in life cannot be obtained through hard work, but can be "at your fingertips" without hard work. Some things should be "powerless", and only "powerless" can achieve true perfection. For example, when it comes to sleeping, the harder I try to sleep, the less I can fall asleep; the more idle I am, the sweeter I sleep.
At 10:30 every night, I always turn off my phone first, and then I turned off the big light in the bedroom at home and turned on the small lamp on the bedside table. With the faint light and indifferent music, I curled up and fell asleep carelessly.
When my brain receives a certain signal, I will accurately perceive that I am about to fall asleep. This signal is similar to some dense clouds of water vapor floating in my mind. Except, there are no distracting thoughts. I enjoy this feeling.
Many people think that going to bed on time every night is a kind of self-discipline, but I think it is not self-discipline, it is actually a kind of enjoyment. When you close the valve of your brain circuit and allow your body to completely perceive the peace of the world, it is the most intimate and equal dialogue with the world. To a certain extent, this kind of enjoyment is better than racking your brains during the day. The state during a stroke is more unique and rare, and it also gives people a greater sense of accomplishment.
When a person's sleep is a kind of enjoyment, it is no longer a task or a routine of life. He won't lose sleep when doing gimmicks, because enjoyment itself is a kind of gain.