Healing 101(b)

Healing the body.

This is a long one, but it comes first. I am staring at the clock right now, and I should be going home, but I feel like I can spare some thoughts right now and I want to hear myself talk. Or type, or...moving on.

Healing the body. Take two.

There are several aspects to healing the body in a situation such as mine. my approach was devided into several parts: 1) Optimizing the organism 2) addressing exceses, and 3) addressing deficiencies.

Optimizing the organism.

I began with the notion that a budy receiving proper care will recover before a neglected body, all other things being equal. This sounds ridiculously obvious. Yet it is my experience that most people think little about this while they are young, and even when they are old, are more prone to perpetuate habits than to think criticaly about the environment that they are creatig within themselves.

The first step optimizing the organism is is defining, for yourself, "healthy". For me, this abstractly means adequate sleep, rest, food, sunshine, and play. And cool clothers. (ok, not cool clothes. I just wanted to see if you were nodding off. besides, I cannot recall the last time I said cool. I feel so very young again.) However, as an attorney, I know perhaps better than anyone, how much play can be wrenched from the word adequate. There are probably no absolute answers out there. Each person must reach his own conclusions. There are preferences, life circumstances, and biological individuality. But I find, that so long as one lives on purpose, and observes with some objectivity thier surroundings, then one will find something that nears an answers for what adequate means for them. Furthermore, one must have a decent sense of humor, because life should be laughed at and enjoyed.

I read a lot about sleep. How much sleep do people foreign to modern post agricultural society get? The answer is that noone knew until just a little while ago. Still, noone probably definitivley knows, but the answer is that the 8 hour sleep recommendation came from averaging sleep habits of industrial owrkers around the turn of the century. Hardly careful research. I read an article, which I may never find again, where some sleep scientist asked that question. They foudn sleep, like most things in life, is cyclical. Humans sleep longer in the winter months than in the summer. Further, they discovered that people rarely sleep 8 hous straight. They tended to fall asleep, then awaken again in the "little hours" also known as the "wee hours", of the night between midnight and 3. Then there would be some activity. Adults in bed, you do the math. There was also eating, and soemtimes just napping, which is a lighter state of sleep. The answer is that they slept an average of 14 hours a night in the winter, but as little as 6 in the summer. Interesting.

Modern sleep therapist divide sleepers into Long, short, and regular sleepers. Some people rapidly descend into delta sleep, and stay there without the characterstic peaks into alpha and beta. Thomas Jefferson owuld have been one, reputed to need but 3 hours sleep a night. Some people need 10 even 12 hours to reach the state of restedness. Obviously, all these requirements are impacted by health, stress levels, and age (all of which I will argue are at the least related and probably the same thing).

Darkness is essential to sleep. There is an alarmist book out there called "lights out" that raises some interesting questions about sleep. The authors conclude that america, or rather the world, is not getting enough quality sleep becuase we have forgotten how. They cite a report in which researchers measured brain wave disruption from shining a flashlight on the back of a patient's knees during sleep. Even though the light never touched his eyes, his sleep was distrupted signifigantly. interesting. they recommend total darkness for sleeping.

I experimented with this. yes, this requires you look like a lunatic with aluminum foil over the windows, but I did discover I woke signifigantly, and regularly, earlier when I slept in total darkenss. Even an eye shade, lame as they are, decreased my need for sleep by 30 minutes a night.

There is an old saying "an hour of sleep before 11 is worth 2 after it". I think this matches the circadian rythm a bit, indicating we should mirror the light dark pattern of the planet when we sleep.

In Feng Shui, practioners will tell you not to store anything under your bed, with the exception of linens or like material. They will also tell you that optimal bed position is reached by placing the foot of the bed facing the door. This can be corrected with a mirror if need be. The authors of the book I had, attributed this to the practice of laying out the dead with their heads toward the door to indicate that they are at peace, because they no longer worry about someone creaping in on them. Take what you will from this.

Materials. In general, I try to use all cotton. The dyes are probably going to kill be, but we all have our own thresholds for paranoia and that is mine. besides, at least once a week, I sleep at my girlfriend's house on an infatable matress with polyester sheets, and I would not trade it for all the cotton in Egypt.

So where does this leave me? I go to sleep around midnight. I have blackout shades. I have a fan on for white noise, becuase I live on a busy street. I have all cotton sheets and I sleep better with company. Hey, as I said before, you have to enjoy this life.