I recently got a small health tracker to wear on my wrist. After the first night, it informed me that I had slept for eight hours. It showed periods of deep, REM, and light sleep. It estimated my heart rate throughout the night and gave me a score for the quality of my sleep.
What is Sleep?
Science has many answers. Memories are consolidated, emotions are processed, tissues are repaired, and the brain performs essential maintenance. Sleep is important.
Many spiritual traditions, however, speak about sleep differently. Rather than seeing it as a time when consciousness is diminished, they say that consciousness is expanded. The physical personality recedes into the background and our higher self becomes more accessible.
Some mystical Christian teachings describe sleep as a temporary return to God. Some Hindu traditions say that deep sleep offers a glimpse of our true nature beyond the individual self. Dream yoga traditions within Buddhism believe that consciousness continues its journey while the body rests.
Sleep researchers sometimes jokingly describe REM sleep as “a waking brain in a sleeping body.” REM is associated with vivid dreaming, memory integration, creativity, learning, and the rich inner experiences many people remember upon waking. During REM sleep, the brain is highly active while the body is deeply asleep. In fact, the body is temporarily paralysed, preventing us from physically acting out our dreams. While our body is motionless in bed, our consciousness is free to travel.
Our waking life is not the whole story.
Continue reading “Sleep Tracking and Beyond”
