The Doorway to Sacred Sleep

Do you find yourself wakeful and worrying at night when you want to be sleeping?  I have heard a variation of stories from many people who lie awake at night tossing and turning, both physically and mentally, concerned about some work situation or a problem to be solved, whether family or mathematic or financial, or some project or trip to be planned, and of course, the bigger picture of what is going on in the world.  People frequently mention having wonderful sleep on a vacation only returning to night worries when the vacation nears its end, as though returning to regular life means one must get a head start on worry.

Recently reading Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow, I found this delightful description of night time worry:

Like a reel in which the dancers form two rows, so that one of their number can
skipping brightly down the aisle, a concern of the Count’s would present itself for
his consideration,  bow with a flourish, and then take its place at the end of the line
so that the next concern could come dancing to the fore.

Delightful, yes?  But I’m guessing as enjoyable as that picture might be, few of us find worry through the night either delightful or enjoyable.  I certainly don’t.

I have a friend from college who even in our older years, always sleeps well.  Night time, afternoon nap, she does not toss and turn, and has often mentioned lightly in an e-mail to me, “It’s time for sleep.  Ahhh, sacred sleep.”  I like how she says that, and have even passed it on to others like me who at least from time to time were not having that lovely sleep experience.  Really, though, I never wondered about her words at all, until one day for some reason, I thought to ask where that wording, sacred sleep, came from.  And she told me:  her mother.

My friend explained that her mother always had called sleep sacred, and she did not like to awaken her children from their sleep because it was sacred.  OH!  Wow!  I had to laugh.  My mother, always hard working, was still setting her morning alarm for 6:00 AM well into her 90’s!  And I am certain that the message that I had gotten as a child and after was that sleeping “too much,” whatever that might be, was “lazy.”  “You gotta’ get a goin’ if you wanna’ make a showin’” might have been more like it, and probably more apt to be expressed with a frown than a lilt.  Oh my.  No wonder.   What a contrast in the two concepts of sleep from our mothers, these women, both of whom were born somewhere before 1920, and each of whom was only teaching what she had been taught.

So naturally this little conversation with my friend stayed with me and expanded my thinking.  I had been doing some meditations from time to time that involved visualizing walking through a doorway to the field of possibilities.  Simply imagining that in the field of possibilities anything could be solved in ways that I hadn’t considered.  It was quite a wonderful experience to pass through that doorway and feel all that could happen in that field of possibilities.  So why not pass through the doorway to sacred sleep where all things can be solved and all is well…and beyond that, I do not have to figure out the method by which the solutions would  arrived?  Why not indeed …

I have known for some time that during sleep when our consciousness is not so busy, we are more open to other information, less able to be resistant to new ideas for ourselves.  So I began my practice of closing my eyes for sleep and imagining moving through that doorway, the one to sacred sleep.  Some nights I might have something specific that I would like to have solved while I slept; other nights I would simply be aware of entering a place of possibilities where all is well.  Sometimes I would find myself looking forward to the experience itself. Truly, if nothing else, I did find that my sleep seemed more restful, and occasionally I would awaken with a sense of peace before my mind became fully active.

I will admit to being someone who moves in and out of a practice, doing something I like for some weeks or months, and then letting it slip away as though I never knew about it.  I might try something different or choose to return to worry … why in the world would I do that besides that worry is a familiar pattern, even though worry has never served me well … but I do return to worry sometimes, which will then eventually turn me back to options that feel much better!  Consciously visualizing walking through the doorway to sacred sleep where problems are solved and all is well is certainly one of those options.

I invite you to give it a try and let me know what you think about that experiment, how you experience it. And may you find in those moments that indeed all is well.

As always, I am including love to you…

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