Gods New Hairdo
Copyright 2006 Donovan Baldwin
Okay, theres a story behind the title. Its a running jokebetween my wife and myself. A few months ago, I made a crackabout how her hair looked one morning. Something about Elvis. Ididnt get out of the doghouse for a week. Fortunately, she hasa sense of humor, even if its a little slow sometimes.
I usually get up an hour or two before she does, and one morninga few weeks after that faux pas, she came out with her hair inwild disarray (as usual). She looked sleepily at me and said, “Ilooked in the mirror….Gods been arranging my hair again whileI sleep.”
Since then, we often greet each other with some remark about thenew hairdo God arranged overnight.
Silly little joke, but it got me to thinking.
So often, I will go to bed, puzzling over some problem. I mightbe working on an article, or even worse, be completely unable tocome up with one. I might be worried about the bills, or thekids (even though theyre grown and gone), or retirement (whichIm halfway into anyway). Im lost or bewildered when I go tobed, but when I wake up in the morning (and have that first cupof coffee), I have a handle on what to do. No matter how thingswere when I went to bed, I have a different, and usually better,take on it when I wake up.
Now, this is not particularly surprising. For years, manystudies have demonstrated the ability of the your brain to solveproblems while you sleep. Most commonly this consists of onegroup of people being given a problem to solve while awake,while another group has the opportunity to, well, “sleep on it.”Many students, including myself, have used the technique ofreviewing or studying right before bed. When the material isscanned shortly after rising the next day, the student often isbetter able to understand and retain it.
Many scientists and leaders in business and politics have usedand praised the
technique. One of the more famous examples isthat of Friedrich August Kekule, who described a major breakthrough in the structure of molecules coming to him as he dozed.Some studies have even shown the ability of an athelete to”practice” and improve his or her technique while asleep. Suchproblem solving and nocturnal improvement in both physical andmental areas is often ascribed to your brains attempt to “makesense” of everything it has encountered during its wakingperiods. Very often, this attempt to “make sense” manifestsitself as a dream.
In April, 2004, psychologists at the Western PsychologicalAssociations 84th Annual Convention in Phoenix dedicatedseveral sessions to discussing sleep, its effects on health andimpact on social policy. Experts representing such institutionsas Scripps Mercy Sleep Disorders Center, the University ofArizona, and the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic discussed manybenefits of sleep, including its affect on health and memory.One piece of information presented was that during sleep,information is often stored in long-term memory. During sleep,your brain is at work replenishing neurotransmitters thatorganize neural networks essential to remembering, learning,performance and problem solving, according to James B. Maas,PhD, former chairman of the psychology department at CornellUniversity, and author of the book “Power Sleep”. Dr. Maas wenton to state that lack of sleep “makes you clumsy, stupid andunhealthy.”
While sleep has many benefits which I have not gone into here,its good to know that we can learn and grow each night whileGods arranging our hair.
About the author:
The authors interest in fitness and health began in 1970 whenhe first read Dr. Kenneth Coopers “Aerobics”. He has articleson weight loss at http://nodiet4me.com and athttp://nodiet4me.blogspot.com . He has an online herbalsupplement store at http://eherbsstore.com .
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