I am a firm believer in taking naps. I was talking with a friend last night about how it is basically the equivalent of hitting 'reset' on a piece of electronic gear which has ceased to function normally. When it comes to naps, I am blessed. I can benefit from a very short nap. I can lay down feeling beat for just eight minutes and get up feeling new. The result isn't one hundred percent, but it's in the seventies for certain. And considering I play hard an fast with a night's sleep it's understandable that I would occasionally be so far overdrawn from the sheep bank that I nothing short of death would lead me back to rest.
This isn't what I meant to say about naps at all. I wanted to talk about my extra set of arms. I think naps are great for more than the rest/reset reason. There is something to our sleeping life that is mystical. Yet in the course of a long sleep we go so far that most of it never travels back, least of all the body sensation of how it felt to be there, or when we are deep in it, the sensation of our physical body at rest is forgotten.
At work on my breaks I will lay down on some chairs I have pushed together in the warehouse and set my alarm for 12 minutes. I will then pull my hoodie down over my eyes, but not my nose, as I cannot sleep while I can't breath. I will cross my arms over my chest and shut my eyes. I don't try and fall asleep, I just sink into the dark. Soon my thoughts completely drift and I am on the edge of a dream. What I've noticed lately is that very often my mind comes around to encountering an object, I seldom know or remember what the object is, it's usually something mundane. What I find striking though is that I am physically manipulating the object with my hands, yet at the same time I can feel my arms and hands folded across my chest.
Today when I awoke from my nap I thought to myself, is this how it feels to be an amputee? Obviously not, because rather than a lack of limbs I have an abundance. It is a very powerful feeling to have four arms and I now look forward to the sensation as much as the resting.
1 comment:
I have said the exact same thing about a short nap as an electronic reset! Except I'm not really blessed with the ability to nap at all, so the most I ever get is that brief second of falling asleep only to be yanked back out of it almost instantly. But somehow even that can make me feel a million times better.
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