As day light gives way to darkness and the night creeps up on us, one thing is certain. Somewhere in the list of things to be done for the night, everyone has 'Sleep' penciled in. Except for the night shift workers and your friendly neighborhood insomniac. And everyone who sleeps invariably wakes up (Of course there are exceptions for this too). And that is what I want to talk about. Waking up.
Over the years I have noticed people doing this using a variety of techniques and somewhere along this path I also started making a note of how I was doing it too. I was surprised to find that I use most, if not all, of the different ways that I have seen in others. Here's a list of 3 different techniques I usually use:
The 'Background to Foreground' Transition: This is the method where external stimuli, like door bells, people shouting your name and the alarm going-off loud enough to wake your neighbors, start making their presence felt in your sleeping brain as some distant background activity. This background activity, instead of fading away, persists long enough for your nearly unconscious brain to start paying more attention to it. Because of this sheer persistence the brain wakes up to promote it from being in the background to the foreground. A few blissful moments later the fully awake brain sends the necessary signals for the rest of the body to be fully awake and that's the end of your sleep.
The 'Did I Actually Sleep' Transition: This is the most peaceful of all the methods. You won't really remember when you fell asleep. And you won't remember anything to do with your sleep. One moment you are reading that book at around 11 in the night. The next moment you are wide awake and it's 6 in the morning. And for the life of you, you don't remember sleeping.
The 'I am dead meat' Transition: Situated diametrically opposite to the previous one, this is the worst method of coming back to the land of the living. During the course of a regular nightmare you reach the point of no return where, in the nightmare, you come to the inevitable conclusion that there is no way out and you are dead meat. And for some un-explained reason, the moment this conclusion is reached, you wake up. In a sweat, probably panting and with a pounding heart.
Apart from the three mentioned, I have also noticed a couple of very intriguing but iffy looking techniques.
The 'I am waiting for an excuse to wake up' Transition: Now this looks phony to me but having seen it in a few people I am forced to accept that this is indeed a valid, non-phony technique. This is where sleeping folks wake up for any sort of external stimuli. You switch on a light, they wake up. You sneeze, they wake up. You open a door, they wake up. Leave alone a pin dropping; they will probably wake up if a strand of hair falls to the floor. Am still skeptical about this but folks I know swear by this.
The 'I will wake up when I want to' Transition: This one is definitely phony, no matter what anyone tells me. They wake up, then decide they don't want to wake up and so go back to sleep. Or at least that's what they want us to believe, while all they do is loll around in bed with their eyes closed till they have decided that the time is right for them to 'wake up'. Hmph! As far as I am concerned, this is proof that 'You can wake up a sleeping person but you can't wake up someone who is acting to be asleep'.
Anyway, those are my observations. What happens before you say Good Morning?
Over the years I have noticed people doing this using a variety of techniques and somewhere along this path I also started making a note of how I was doing it too. I was surprised to find that I use most, if not all, of the different ways that I have seen in others. Here's a list of 3 different techniques I usually use:
The 'Background to Foreground' Transition: This is the method where external stimuli, like door bells, people shouting your name and the alarm going-off loud enough to wake your neighbors, start making their presence felt in your sleeping brain as some distant background activity. This background activity, instead of fading away, persists long enough for your nearly unconscious brain to start paying more attention to it. Because of this sheer persistence the brain wakes up to promote it from being in the background to the foreground. A few blissful moments later the fully awake brain sends the necessary signals for the rest of the body to be fully awake and that's the end of your sleep.
The 'Did I Actually Sleep' Transition: This is the most peaceful of all the methods. You won't really remember when you fell asleep. And you won't remember anything to do with your sleep. One moment you are reading that book at around 11 in the night. The next moment you are wide awake and it's 6 in the morning. And for the life of you, you don't remember sleeping.
The 'I am dead meat' Transition: Situated diametrically opposite to the previous one, this is the worst method of coming back to the land of the living. During the course of a regular nightmare you reach the point of no return where, in the nightmare, you come to the inevitable conclusion that there is no way out and you are dead meat. And for some un-explained reason, the moment this conclusion is reached, you wake up. In a sweat, probably panting and with a pounding heart.
Apart from the three mentioned, I have also noticed a couple of very intriguing but iffy looking techniques.
The 'I am waiting for an excuse to wake up' Transition: Now this looks phony to me but having seen it in a few people I am forced to accept that this is indeed a valid, non-phony technique. This is where sleeping folks wake up for any sort of external stimuli. You switch on a light, they wake up. You sneeze, they wake up. You open a door, they wake up. Leave alone a pin dropping; they will probably wake up if a strand of hair falls to the floor. Am still skeptical about this but folks I know swear by this.
The 'I will wake up when I want to' Transition: This one is definitely phony, no matter what anyone tells me. They wake up, then decide they don't want to wake up and so go back to sleep. Or at least that's what they want us to believe, while all they do is loll around in bed with their eyes closed till they have decided that the time is right for them to 'wake up'. Hmph! As far as I am concerned, this is proof that 'You can wake up a sleeping person but you can't wake up someone who is acting to be asleep'.
Anyway, those are my observations. What happens before you say Good Morning?
7 comments:
'Background to Foreground'
This one is very useful for me. LOL.
It saves me from being late at school.
'Background to Foreground'
If I would to choose. I will pick this one... This is very useful for me as a student.. lol
:). That I how I wake up most of the times too.
Before I say good morning I listen to the news.....this can always be relied upon to wind me up in some way! After that, the day can only get better!
That's an interesting way to look at making your day better!! :)
Well, with what passes as news these days, I try and avoid it at any time of the day
What about waking up to check time to see if its time to wake up already or not!?!
Sometimes I am up waiting for my alarm to go off, so I know I have exactly 10 more minutes to snooze.
Hmmm. Forgot about that one. I used to do it a very long time back but not anymore. And that 10 minutes to snooze is when you usually get your best sleep. :)
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