Sleep and Waking Up

I woke up early this morning. Difficult to wake up, when an entire day is staring me down; the only thing we want at such times is more minutes of sleep. I believe americans achieve 5 hours of sleep a night, on average. Most of us are dead tired when awaking, but getting up early, we certainly achieve some measure of competency.

Naps during the day, like cool, refreshing water, splashed against our face. It helps improve function, reduces the risk of heart disease, makes the sleeper calmer as well. It is strange, however, that we americans get less sleep, and yet waking up earlier often proves to energize instead of drain.

I do not mean that all people need to sleep less. Oversleeping has a marked effect on us, causing sluggishness, lost productivity, irritability. Getting not enough sleep, without siestas can cause the same reaction. We must get our sleep, but waking up early has it's advantages. I woke up early this morning. A grump. Yet I rose all the same, and as I walked out the door, hair neatly combed, my dirt-colored windbreaker sheilding my chest, I look up and see a sea of stars.

Driving to school, I get to hear the early morning show, and I fiddle the nob, turn the volume up. I eat a good, mexican breakfast. It helps.

And then, there are our dreams. We have dreams. Hardly think to wonder what they mean. Just dreams. And yet, the head of reasons to not get up is because we are rudely interrupted, not from our sleep, but from running fictive in our head. It is strange, that we always want to complete our dreams, but if we were to sleep longer, they still do not end.

Frued believed dreams were the unconcious way of telling us about our sexually repressed desires. Our incestuous motives and our wildest fantasies to ever come out of the bedroom. I do not agree, but with the idea that dreams are our own private musings, the minds resting and thinking things that we could never come up with while awake. Pay attention to your dreams, if not because they can be helpful, then simply because they are wonderful remnants of fatastic sides to ourselves, and our fascination with them can last a lifetime.