Who Needs Sleep?

Oh sleep, what a wonderful thing. Our brain waves slow to the slowest wave pattern and we can finally put some gas back in our bodies. Our time of rest is a rejuvenating time where our body makes substances that keep us young. Spiritually, it is a time of reconnecting to an unbounded universe. It is a time for personal growth, and for some people, it is a time of enlightening messages from a higher realm. Sleep is good, no doubt about it.

Scientists have found that highly beneficial substances are released by the brain during sleep. Our brain waves slow to a pattern that is called Delta. It is during Delta sleep that the brain releases substances like the human growth hormone. The lack of this hormone accounts for many aging symptoms including loss of muscle tone, increased weight gain, loss of stamina, and many diseases associated with aging. It is during delta sleep that we rejuvenate ourselves and keep our bodies healthy.

I believe that, as spiritual beings living a human experience, we use sleep as a major connecting tool to a grander universe. I have had many experiences of higher awareness during sleep. I have received wisdom, premonitions, spirit contact (with past relatives and spirit guides), and all of these experiences have positively affected my life. I also believe that we can use sleep as a measuring tool for spiritual growth. How? Well I have noticed a trend by humans to replace sleep with other forms of transcendental experiences.People are now meditating and engaging in inspired activities like music or dancing, and/or sports. It has been found that in a deep meditative state, the same Delta sleep wave pattern is produced by the brain (and thus the same rejuvenating effects take place). The difference is that you are fully awake during meditation. I believe that as we realize that we are spiritual beings living a human experience, we strive to stay in the experience of life as much as possible. We don’t need to escape it through sleep to recharge and continue our journey.

Yogic sleep, for example, is an ancient meditation technique that induces a deep state of relaxation and delta patterned brain waves. Yogis have long been known to transcend their physical experience in such a way that they can manage to go without sleep or food for years. 20 minutes of effective yogic meditation is said to have the same effect as 8 hours of sleep. I believe this is the future of human kind. We are instinctively shedding our physical bodies and making our experience more spiritual.

Please don’t confuse choosing to sleep less (because of a spiritual craving) with lack of sleep for health reasons. Melatonin, as many people know, is a substance that helps to create restful sleep. Since we make less of it as we get older, the lack of rest can create many health complications over time. Lack of sleep is not the same as CHOOSING to sleep less when you have recharged your body in a different way (like meditation, for example).

I am talking about an evolution of the spiritual self, and I while I do know how healthy and beneficial sleep is for the human body, the human body is not all we are. We are much greater beings. We are beings that come from an unlimited unbounded universe, and we cry when we join earth in tiny little bodies that lack the freedom experienced by the soul before birth. From a spiritual perspective, I believe this is why we sleep so much as babies. As we get used to this crazy new world, we choose to spend more and more time in it without having to run back and recharge every few hours (sleep). Even as adults, when we encounter a boring situation, we become sleepy. I believe that is our higher awareness saying "I’m out of here; I’ll be back when something interesting is happening".

Sleep has always played a major role in our development as a species. We’ve lacked it, we’ve craved it, and we’ve transcended it. As we evolve further we will see new ways in which we can benefit from that beautiful time of rest. "zzzz"… I am off to bed, good night.