The book is actually Sleep Disorders for Dummies, and the question is actually why there isn't tons more research on this. It's 1/3rd of our life (at least it's supposed to be) and we have no real sense (at least not anecdotally) how the process works, tricks of the trade (that sheep thing is nonsense) or what the REAL context is for our health. I'm fascinated by the shift between times of good sleep and bad sleep and horrible sleep. The impact of eating within hours, drinking, coffee, and most importantly images.
There is a connection that I'm trying to isolate between the our imagination and our dreams/sleep. Consider the imaginal experience you're having as you put your head to the pillow. Are there images involved (or just thoughts), are they measured (paced vs. manic), what are they referencing? Initial thoughts are some testing shows that there is something about TV pre-bed that seems to surpress to imaginal experience AS I'm falling asleep and reduce the depth of dream state during sleep. I've tried to replicated by using surfing intensely online before bed, and there is a similar effect.
My curiousity is in the spontaneous imaginal experience that is probably at the core of our dreams, and during our waking life, we usually encounter during reading or other non-intentionally meditative activities. Is the television experience an sufficiently powerful image experience that our own imaginal interpretation/referencing sort of gives up.
What's so interesting is that cinema doesn't have the same effect (at least some cinema) and the mind is provoked into further imagination. Admittedly, this is only one data point.
Last year there were two major research studies that showed correlations between TV/Video Games and screwed up sleep in children. Story . It suggests that flashing lights might be resetting circadian rhythms. Too simplistic.
Comments