Techniques for Sleeping well: Understanding sleep, Dealing with insomnia, Taking care of your rest

El siguiente texto es un extracto del libro Techniques for Sleeping well (ISBN: 9781807131258) Conocerlo, entenderlo, interpretarlo y ayudarlo, escrito por Giorgio Di Mola, publicado por de Vecchi /DVE ediciones.

Introduction

Every night, the setting of the sun, the gradual fading of light, and the arrival of darkness—barely softened by the glow of the stars or the lights of homes—herald, for millions of people, the beginning of the hours of sleep. If we estimate that we spend about a third of our lives sleeping, we see that a huge portion of our existence is spent in that state. Even if we take a life expectancy of 65 years as a reference, at least twenty of those years are devoted to sleep and deep rest. That alone is enough to give us a sense of the enormous importance of sleep in the life of any living being. We devote many hours of the day to sleep, suspend our consciousness, and reduce some of our physical activity, and yet we tend to take it for granted.

However, it is a complex phenomenon full of surprising aspects. Sleep has always aroused curiosity and fascination due to its origin, causes, and manifestations, which are often difficult to control. Only in relatively recent times have physiologists, psychologists, and other specialists managed to explain, at least in part, some of the mechanisms and functions of sleep. Today we know that there are rhythms of activity and rest common to many living beings, and that sleep is part of these major biological cycles.

But in everyday life, not everyone sleeps the same way. For some, resting and falling asleep is no problem at all; for others, however, getting a restful night’s sleep can become a daily struggle—sometimes so intense that it requires medical or psychological help. Why are there such marked differences? Why is it sometimes so hard to rest well? What role do dreams play? What strategies can help us sleep better, with as little disruption as possible and in the most natural way?

Maintaining a good physical and mental balance is a basic necessity of modern life. And if sleep takes up so much of our lives, yet its absence leaves us without energy or well-being, the question is inevitable: what can we do? In these pages, we’ll try to answer those questions with clear information, practical guidance, and behavioral suggestions to help you understand and address a problem that continues to affect millions of people worldwide: insomnia. Before considering remedies, it’s important to understand what sleep is, how it works, and why it’s sometimes disrupted.

What Is Sleep ?

“He who looks outward dreams; he who looks inward awakens” – Carl Gustav Jung

Answering the question “What is sleep?” remains, even today, a complex task. In this chapter, we’ll try to approach it in a clear and gradual way, combining a scientific perspective with some cultural references that have accompanied sleep since ancient times. Understanding—even if only roughly—how sleep arises and how it is organized not only satisfies curiosity but also helps us understand why, at times, our relationship with it becomes difficult.

Who Was Morpheus?

You’ve probably heard the expression “fall into the arms of Morpheus” or “be embraced by Morpheus,” and you may have wondered who this figure associated with pleasant sleep was. The origin of this image lies in an ancient myth. It’s worth briefly recalling this because, as we’ll see, people have always tried to explain many phenomena of the psyche through myths and legends.

The literary tradition of ancient Greece bequeathed to us a series of deities intended to represent forces and phenomena of nature. Thanks to authors like Hesiod, we know that among Morpheus’s most distant ancestors were Night and Erebus. Night united with Erebus, the deity of the dark depths, and from that union were born Day, Heaven, and also two twins: Hypnos, sleep, and Thanatos, death. This myth already contains a dual vision of the night: on the one hand, a time of rest and repose; on the other, the origin of dark and fearsome figures who embody fear, punishment, or fate.

It is within this symbolic universe that Morpheus finally appears. Hypnos, the god of sleep, took Pasithea, one of the Graces, as his wife. Tradition holds that countless children were born of this union, among them Morpheus, associated with the human forms that appear in dreams. His name comes from the Greek morphé, meaning “form.” Other brothers of his fulfilled different roles in the world of dreams: some gave shape to landscapes and objects; others, to animals or unsettling figures. There are also those who link the name Morpheus to ancient Greek words associated with darkness and night.

Now it is easier to understand why we say “to fall into the arms of Morpheus.” Hypnos, the God of Sleep, was depicted as a winged youth who moved silently among humans and sprinkled substances upon them capable of lulling them to sleep. Later on, we will see how these myths also contributed to psychology—especially in the interpretation of dreams—to explain certain experiences and some sleep-related disorders.

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