"Balancing Acts: Celebrations, Pleasure, and the Sleep Dilemma ????"
Manohar Grandhi
Get rid of Insomnia forever in 45 days with the Insomnia Switch-Off Method??.I help IT professionals to sleep well and stay on top of their game. Talk to me if you want freedom from Insomnia. Author "My Sleepless Nights”
A few days back my daughter came to me and asked can we celebrate as my exams were over.
Definitely, it was a celebration time because she had done well in her exams. ??
Then she asked if we could do a Movie Night (watch a movie till late midnight).
I hope by now you know me and guessed I would say No to that.
But then she was adamant about watching a movie to which I agreed and we watched the movie. ??
This brings me to the point that there is a fundamental mismatch that is not aligned with the brain’s design when it comes to sleep.
The brain works on the logic to move towards pleasure and go away from pain.
When my daughter wanted to watch a movie it was going to the premise of moving towards pleasure.
I am sure you would have seen the advertisement on all the OTT platforms and all social media that want our attention. They want us to feel that we are left out by not consuming.
When we consume more by cutting down on sleep initially the pain part does not come into the equation it is all about the pleasure of watching a movie. This becomes a loop and you keep moving towards pleasure. ??
After some time the pain of not sleeping kicks in because the body cannot survive with little sleep. The pleasure of watching a movie is still there, then comes the other part of the brain that keeps you trapped.
External supplements, sleep aids, or painkillers that mask the pain. What starts as an initial pleasure goes into addiction and you want the pain to go away.
The brain cannot ‘leave the pleasure but still wants the pain to go away’ and here is the fundamental problem. This begins to start behaviors like depression.
This is what Arianna Huffington shares in her book Sleep Revolution. She says when we start demonizing the time spent in sleep and start rewarding the time spent awake, this mismatch happens.
Next time you want to celebrate by cutting down on sleep. Have second thoughts on this ??. Because as they say “Prevention is better than cure”.