Are You Living Your Life in Waking Sleep?

Have you ever had the experience of being in a meeting when someone turns to you and says, “What do you think we should do?” As everyone turns to listen to your great idea you realize you haven’t heard a word in the last two minutes. Where were you? You were asleep.

Most of us think of sleep like a light switch – you’re awake or you’re asleep. However, when you put brainwave monitors on someone’s skull you discover that sleep is a continuum.

While most of us assume we are awake during the day, researchers estimate that we spend up to 70% of our day in the state of waking sleep. You may be in a meeting, but you are really dreaming about the past or future. I see this at the start of workshops I run. When I introduce myself and say that I am from New Zealand, I can see half the room drift into thought, “I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand. How long is the flight and who would I go with?” They are in waking sleep planning their vacation and it takes about 30 second before they hear anything else I say.

The reason that waking sleep matters so much to your resilience is because all your rumination takes place in this state. Therefore, if you want to stop ruminating, the first step is quite simple. Wake up!

The way to wake up is to literally come to your senses. When you do this, it brings you back to the present moment and out of your dream.

The more you catch yourself ruminating and wake yourself up, the more you will feel your stress reduce. Your homework for the next 48 hours (or for the rest of your life) is to pay attention to how often you are in waking sleep. When people start to do this, many are shocked to see how much of their life they spend living in a dream.

As I started to wake myself up again and again, I saw my stressful rumination level drop from 10/10 on the assessment down to 0/10 over the course of two years. It was a game changer.

The above is an excerpt from my new whitepaper: Pressure is not Stress: 4 steps to be resilient in disruptive times. You can download it here. These ideas are based on the research of Dr. Derek Roger and the Challenge of Change program.