In somnus, veritas.

There is such a mystery about sleep, even though it is one of the most fundamental things we all share. But for all that, we know and understand so little about it. And are so helpless before it. We take it for granted because....well, because all of nature does it. And we know the basic reason behind it - to grant our bodies time to repair and rest.

But when you think about it, it just feels so....constraining. Not because one wishes for longer periods of wakefulness so one is made to work more or think more, but because even when you do want to go without sleep, your body will betray you after a mere 3-4 days. You just cannot fight it, and you will fall victim to it. You have to sleep, and that's it.

(Although one wonders if it is possible to go without sleep for several long periods, if one does not do much work through the day? Would the body then still need that rest-period, or would it not, having been in a semi-somnolent state through the day?)

And then one used to wonder why people are so much more open and liable to tell secrets when they are sleepy or just waking. Now, professional interrogators will tell you how sleep deprivation causes the brain to stop functioning properly, and how it then can't conjure up the strength to put up barriers to hold details back. But that does not explain why normal people are more honest when they're sleepy. What about all that pillow-talk, and bed-time secrets? Why those? Surely people know they're going to say something important, which they probably don't want to.

One thinks it's because sleep, at its basic level, is the closest thing we experience to death. The body shuts down, and we are in a limbo-world, where in a sense, we do not exist anymore. Our physical bodies are not needed, because in our sleep (and dreams), we can fly and sing and dance and run and more.

And so, just as those nearing the certainty of death do not feel the need to go through the charades and mental masochism that we inflict ourselves in daily life, so do we all, as we near our sleep, feel the need to just let go and tell whoever is asking (or not asking) just exactly is on our minds and what we did and what we want. You just get to that point where you don't want to fight anymore, don't want to hide anymore. And so you blurt it all out.

Of course, we can always deny it the next day. And blame it, ironically, on the fact that our body and mind were tired, and so were not thinking straight.

Is there a point here? Sure. Make sure you gag yourself when you get sleepy around nosy friends and/or lovers.


Goodnight folks.