I want to tell you a bed time story. Don't get to excited it is nothing special, it is a story about bed time. Saturday morning I woke up and talked with my girlfriend online for an hour before a scheduled power outage where I currently live. After hanging up with her I figured I would go back to bed and sleep through the power outage. As I lay in bed wanting to go to sleep but not doing so I decided to play a little game. With my eyes closed laying in my bed I started imagining myself in different beds/bedrooms I have slept in. Lying in a bed with your eye closed the room can be whatever room you imagine so I thought I get myself to feel like I was in one of those rooms from my memory. I started with the room I stayed in after my mission in my parents house. The room that has probably been through ever single brother at different periods. I imagined myself there, with blue walls and a green/blue carpet, my desk the window to my left looking out on the back lawn the door to my right leading into the upstairs hallway. I was there. I noted that my feet pointed North in that particular bed. So I decided to see if I could envision a bed from my life for each cardinal direction. The next bed to come to mind was the bed I slept in occasionally through flight school in Alabama. I often times did not care to sleep on a bed but was content with the floor. Eric, my roommate, and I made a guest bedroom there for when his parents or brother would come to visit and I on occasion slept in it. Off-white walls, a tan carpet. Green bed sheets with a green and white striped comforter. TV in the left corner and a nightstand to the right. That bed pointed West. Next was my bed in Utah when I was living with my Aunt and Uncle. I thought of that one because it pointed East. Makeshift basement room, large window on my left looking into the backyard and up at the Wasatch Front. Bookshelf above my head, desk at my feet and plenty of blankets and pillows to keep me warm. Again, I was there. My current bed points south but as I was envisioning other beds in my life and imagining myself there the next thing I realize is that it is 11:00am and I am waking up again. Some where in my envisioning I had fallen asleep without even knowing.
I stayed up late last night working on projects and when it was time to go to bed I again lay there wanting to go to sleep. Realizing the success of the mornings memory exercise i decided to reenact it. That is all I remember. I remember deciding that I was going to envision different bedrooms and that I started to but the next thing I know is that I am waking up Sunday morning wondering if I had actually done so.
Try it out. If you have trouble falling asleep at night see if you can recall to your memory different bedrooms you have lived in and the beds you have slept in throughout your life and try and place yourself in them. I think much of the reason we have trouble falling asleep at night is not because we aren't tired but because our minds are racing thinking of things to do or things done that you wish you had done better. The mind is so carried away in thought that. My exercise gets the mind off those lists and burdens and gets me thinking about beds and sleeping. It is a fun challenge to see how many beds I can recall and the details of the room and it helps me fall asleep.
