Do you think non-thinking in toward sleep at night?

[Jishin]

You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need. - RS

Gasho, Jishin, _/st\_

[Kyonin]

Hi guys,

Once upon a time I had a really heavy insomnia problem. I cured myself developing good sleep hygiene and habits. I get up early and go to bed early... and then I just sleep.

Sometimes I remember dreams and quite often I wake up laughing because a lot of my dreams are comedy jewels!

But when I sit zazen, I only sit zazen.

Gassho,

Kyonin
#SatToday

[Jishin]

If you have trouble getting the sleep you need, work shifts, or simply cannot seem to find the time forsleep, then "sleep hygiene" is a practice that you need to work on more than others.

• Go to bed only when sleepy. Try a relaxing bedtime routine (e.g., soaking in a bath).
• Establish a good sleep environment with limited distractions (noise, light, temperature).
• Avoid foods, beverages, and medications that may contain stimulants.
• Avoid alcohol and nicotine before going to sleep.
• Consume less or no caffeine.
• Exercise regularly, but do so around midday or early afternoon.Over-training or exercising too much is not advisable.
• Try behavioural / relaxation techniques to assist with physical and mental relaxation.
• Avoid naps in late afternoon and evening.
• Avoid heavy meals close to bedtime.
• Avoid fluids before going to sleep.
• Use the bed only for sleep and intimacy (Do not eat, read or watch TV in bed!).
• Establish a regular wake time schedule.

Gassho, Jishin, ST

[Banto]

I'm grateful I've never had a problem falling asleep (except when I try pillow shikantaka) that would be rough.
I'm typically out in moments. Ahhh

Gassho
SatToday

[Kairu]

As to the question of what trigger I'm using while I sleep: it's the startup sound for the Sega Dreamcast.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sOsw-Au9JCo

It's a sound that will not wake me up, being that it's pretty ambient. I have set my volume for this specific notification to be quieter than, say, my text alerts. However, it's loud enough for me to hear it clearly, even in REM.

Another thing I do is set an alarm to wake me up 6 hours into my 8 hour sleep cycle. Before I go back to sleep I make sure to allow any mental visuals pass by, but take a close look at them as they go. This not only helps me get back to sleep, but also pick what I'll be dreaming about. Want to do zazen in some fancy temple in Japan? Well stare at pictures of that temple for a long while, briefly think about doing zazen and that temple before you go to bed, and boom... You're there.

I'd like to think that this "reality" is just as important as the other made-up ones while we sleep. So why not make good use of them?

I hope this helps out.

Kyle,
Sat2day.

[Rich]

Sorry, I don't understand why someone would do this??

SAT today

[Kairu]

Sorry, I don't understand why someone would do this??

SAT today

I don't fully understand it yet myself. I think I'm shooting to have more control over my mind. Perhaps it will bring positive results. If it does nothing, then I'll toss it to the side. There's no point in becoming attached to it.

Kyle,
Sat2day.

[Rich]

I don't fully understand it yet myself. I think I'm shooting to have more control over my mind. Perhaps it will bring positive results. If it does nothing, then I'll toss it to the side. There's no point in becoming attached to it.

Kyle,
Sat2day.

Thanks for your openness.

SAT today

[Banto]

Anyway, Buddhism teaches us that this "real" world we perceive is more of a mind created dream than we realize. Daily life is a lucid dream!

Yes that is so intriguing to me. I create my world in my mind to correlate to sensory input. Not just categorizations and differentiation and labels but most of what we perceive including color. Color is formed in our perception. As I understand it, color isn't "out there" what we see as the color our brain forms. Thus I don't know what you see as green is what I see as green, but we put the same name on it so we can communicate. If perception of the physical world is this way, imagine how we are perceiving situations/scenarios. We live in the Matrix, our own. Onion layers of perception.

Sweet dreams. Oh, and to answer the original question, sometimes I do a little zazen on the pillow, just to quiet the monkey, but for me falling asleep seems to be it's own thing, more like letting the mind drift... like Rodney said, as if dreaming is the onramp of sleep.

Thank you Byokan. Glad to know others have observed the same. I wonder what it would be like to drift to a sleep from just laying, open, not dreaming.
Interesting to my how my mind isn't content just being, that it craves something other, leading to dreaming or to thought sequences.

Gassho
SatToday