Why am I awake?

I couldn't sleep, so I got to thinking.....or was it the other way around? Either way, I had a few thoughts about why I was not sleeping.

There is so much literature and research on the benefits of proper sleep, but little is said about the why of sleeping. Why do we sleep? The physiological purpose of sleep is to allow the body to rest, regenerate, and recuperate from the punishment we do to our bodies, minds, souls while we are awake.

Then I asked myself; Why am I awake? My mind made its own Cesaer salad (with real anchovy dressing) at the thought of this. It wasn't that I had something pressing on my mind, I just couldn't quiet it down long enough to let the rest of me to nod off to snoozeville. Then it hit me on a bigger level.

Why am I really awake?

The answer came down to something very, very simple. This may come as a surprise to you, but the only physiological purpose for the human body to be awake is to consume enough food in order for it to continue living. That's right...if you did nothing but wake from your restful slumber in order to consume the requisite calories that your body NEEDS to survive, then your work for the day is complete. OK, there is the other hierarchy of "needs" of food, safety, shelter (thank you Mr. Maslow for stating the bloody obvious), but look at what is right at the top; food.

What you do with the other 23 hours and 40 minutes is why we sleep.

I hear people say, there isn't enough time to do ____. (I can't find the time to exercise, talk to my family, mow the lawn, play with my kids, etc.) I have also heard the excuse that there aren't enough hours in the day to do ____. We each find our own reasons to fill in the gaps as to what we do and do not have time for. We try to cram the highest level of productivity into our time allowed being awake. Without realizing that it impinges on giving our bodies the chance to recover from the damage we do during that time. We go and go and go until we can do nothing but stop from exhaustion. We drive ourselves to that point mentally, physically and spiritually because we think that makes us accomplish more. When in fact, we can fulfill our obligations to our awake time in just 20 minutes of eating. After that, we could very well go back to bed.

I felt comforted by these thoughts. I know that this is not the be-all, end-all of this issue and maybe it does over-simplify things a bit. But considering the amount of effort we go to to complicate our lives, don't you think it is time for a bit more simplicity?

How to be dead

I don't understand a prevailing theme I see in films these days. It is the drama or such that hammers home how bad we should all feel if we find ourselves alone when we die.

Let me set this straight; unless you know exactly the moment you are going to die, you are going to die alone. There, I've said it. I see it as incredibly selfish of a person who insists on people being near them when they die. The themes I see is that they are afraid of dying, afraid of being alone, want loved ones around them, etc, etc, etc. I have no intention of bestowing the burdon of my imminent demise so that it can be carried on like a blood stain on your favourite shirt.

I say that the goal is to live well while you are alive. Cultivate those relationships that mean something to you. Be good to yourself. Be good to others. Seize every moment you can out of this short existence. But when you are done, just go crawl into a hole and be done with it.

Sort out your fears before you die. Resolve anything left undone before you even go to bed tonight. Do it. You will sleep better, you will live better, you will die better. If you did not wake up in the morning, would you be satisfied with your life as you left it? If not, then you either die alone, die unhappy, or you better sort your shit out and sort it out fast. No regrets. Nothing left undone. No burdon for those left behind. Live with abandon, leave with dignity.