Something To Try
Tags: Dreams, First Post, Subconscious, Sleep, Coronavirus

A picture I’ve taken in the Detmold Freilicht (Openair) Village Museum

Here’s something to try next time you’re in bed which both requires no effort and a ton of effort at the same time. Trust me with this, give it a shot. It’ll be interesting to say the least.

I’ll cut to the chase, the part that doesn’t require any effort at all is lying completely still and not moving a single muscle. The first part seems simple enough right? Simple as can be.

Until you consider the second part of it, which is not moving a single muscle even though your body itches like crazy…all over. No joke, it feels super bad. Jumping into it like this isn’t doing it justice, so why don’t I run you through what’ll happen, start to finish.

Right, first thing is getting into a comfortable position, preferably on your back with your hands to your side, touching the bed. Make sure you’re truly comfortable because you aren’t going to be moving for at least around 10 minutes. After that comes the waiting phase, in which you do nothing, well except for waiting. Before the star of the show you will probably feel your toes touching each other, or the itching. What happens for me next is I feel very very very hot on my arms and my legs, don’t know if you’ll feel the same but I assume you will. Then you’ll start feeling heavy, like you’re being pulled into the bed or like something is weighing you down. And when this happens the real deal starts. It’ll feel like this tingling or pins and needles feeling in your fingertips combined with the being weighed down feeling that comes up to your forearm. Lastly, the final phase. The ascension basically. For me what happens is I stop feeling my hands and my feet at all. As in I don’t feel anything with my fingertips or my feet, I can’t even feel my hand on the bed. It feels like my hand or whereever I’m keeping completely still doesn’t exist at all. I’m assuming it has something to do with my brain thinking my hand has gone asleep because it hasn’t moved at all in so long. I wouldn’t know though, I’m no biology guy at all. The warmth of the sheets and the warmth that comes with the being weighed down feeling and the feeling of your hands and feet not existing at all come together to create this weird tranquility. Also seems to effect the dreams I have or the stupid things that happen to me when I’m half awake and half asleep, things I’ll touch up on later posts probably.

When you move your hand, your arm, your leg, your feet or anywhere at all that you were keeping still just a bit, all these feelings I’ve talked about just dissappear. In the blink of an eye. The hot feeling, the weight on your body it all just goes away in an instant in the literal sense of the word. That’s why it’s crucial to keep totally still. It feels super weird going from the totally snug, totally still and surrounded feeling, the -not feeling anything at all- feeling back to your normal sensing of the world around you. Which is why I urge you to give this ordeal a shot, in these days of being stuck inside the house this should give you something to do and something to think about.

I must admit, it fucks with you. It feels just a tad bit scary to me when I am sleepy and I’m trying this out. I assume it’s from the feeling of not being fully awake, fully conscious and in realization of what I’m doing. It’s probably a subconscious fear, not one I’m feeling but probably one my subconscious is. It may not be the subconscious exactly but you know what I’m talking about here, the primal thing in our brains that’s supposed to keep us alive and all that stuff. No biggie it is.

To me this feeling of not feeling at all -even though it scares the half unconscious me sometimes- feels like a sort of floating, a worryless moment in time before I go to sleep in which I’m free to consider anything I want, let the thoughts flow on or focus on my breathing and relax like my friend Berke has written about also on Medium (I suggest you read his text too, that’s also something interesting to try.).

One thing I believe I should add is how this works for different body parts at the same time, as in you could thrash your head around all you want but still get the feelings I’m talking about in other parts of your body provided you do keep them completely still. Another thing is how this isn’t my original idea, never claimed it to be. I first saw this in a video by Philip Dyer, 2kliksphilip on youtube. Precisely, this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMyBbFK2fvo . But it’s been so long since I’ve watched this one.

Bringing this behemoth of a text to a close I really have no idea what else to add or what’s missing or whatever. Though I hope this was an interesting read that gave you something to try the next time you can’t quite get to sleep. Cheers.