When the sun slowly kisses the skies goodbye and makes way for the moon as the night lingers, earth shuts down into dark moments of silence, bodies give up on themselves and crush down in vulnerability.
Life dissolves itself in the quiet and bodies lay to rest. Nothing happens and everything stops happening! The vigorous minds that were earlier healing the world now lay lifeless.
Lethargy engulfs us. Weakness now comes alive! We sleep. We bring to a halt all the runs, the energy, the pursuits, the hustle.
Whiles acknowledging sleep as a necessity for resetting the body’s metabolic functions, recuperation and restoration; it also makes an allusion for weakness. Of course, we sleep when we are fatigued.
The average human spends one-third of their lifetime sleeping. That means a 60 year old man technically would have spent about 20 years on slumber! This obviously differs depending on the age of the person, and is quite a lot of wasted time when you think about it.
Sleep is a wonderful thing. But considering how much time it takes up — over a lifetime you sleep an average of 26 years, we definitely must not allow its derivatives take centre stage of our lives.
The expression “Sleep is for the weak” metaphorises SLEEP as inefficiency, sluggishness, procrastination, laziness, leisure, unawareness, aloofness, indifference and death.
Before the invention of electricity, rather than sleeping through the night, many people would sleep for a few hours, wake up, read, write, socialize, pray, or reflect, and then got back to sleep for another few hours before waking up for the day.
The best dreams don’t happen when we are asleep; rather when we are fully conscious and have a full glare of the world around.
British author, Thomas Edward Lawrence said, “All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”
Sleep dreams do not materialize, for we do not even remember after all. Within 5 minutes of waking up, 50% of your dream is forgotten. After an additional 5 minutes, 90% of recollection is gone. It is believed this is because dreams represent our repressed thoughts and so our brain wants to get rid of them quickly. However, it is much more likely due to our brains simply being used much more as soon as we are awake and so we forget much of what we have dreamed about.
Achievable dreams are conceived, not in bed, but with conscious efforts. Live your dreams. Don’t dream them in a dream!
Interestingly, humans are the only species that can willingly delay sleep; an indication of how much authority we have over the things that make our lives sluggish. You decide to go to sleep whenever and wherever you wish.
Would you rather retire yourself to bed and lax in comfort whiles others make relentless efforts to stay awake? Would you throw yourself into bed, spending your youthful days resting at the expense of the everlasting moments of inactivity ahead? Isn’t there more sleep after death? Wasn’t there more sleep before birth? Why retire now?
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man – Proverbs 20:13
Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare. Sleep is retrogression. Sleep is poverty. Sleep is death.
The things we passionately desire will not happen if we do not rise up. Our youthful days are those times when we need to be on guard, stay alert and make every moment count. Until harvest time is due, rest is never an option.
You snooze, you lose!
Continue to persevere, exert without relief. Your hustle today will pay off tomorrow, when comfort will be abundant
So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. Sleep is for the weak!
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