Because learning about your brain and sleep can be fun . . .
Years ago, before I heard of light therapy lamps, I had been living in northern California during the winter. It was a place that was very different from where I had grown up. Fog blanketed the land in the mornings, and it was always cloudy in the afternoon. Some mornings I’d have to drive 35…
For most of us, dreaming of someone before we meet them doesn’t happen to us every day. When it happens, what does it mean? Why are you dreaming of this person? Why don’t you dream of everyone you meet before you meet them? What’s going on? Do souls meet in dreams? There are people with…
If you’re a certain type of person, you should keep an acupressure mat on hand to use along one with more traditional forms of pain relief, like acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Acupressure mats are not for most people despite the glowing consumer testimonials. Pain, even just a touch of it, even if it’s energizing and somehow…
It’s common for people to have dreams and forget about what happened, especially when the dreams aren’t too vivid. This is a shame because dreams can help you understand yourself, others, and even things you’re supposed to know for work and school. When you’re sleeping, often you’re dreaming. When you’re sleeping, your brain is processing…
If you’re not willing to forget the notion that thinking about something doesn’t necessarily cause something to come into being or attract it to you, stoic mindset exercises aren’t for you. Stoic exercises ask you to meditate on the worst things that can happen to you and those you love. Is that depressing? Yes. During…
Sometimes dreams have obvious messages; other times, they’re not clear at all. We don’t understand the message. Even if we chart the dream using the SOM framework going point by point, for one reason or another, our conscious mind still doesn’t understand. This happens to the best of us. You can ask for a clarifying…
Slap a sleep patch on and go right to sleep—it’s that simple, right? Not so fast! Where and how you put them on can even be more important than what’s in the patch itself. That’s not to say that what’s in the patch doesn’t matter. It does. There are many different formulations. Some have a…
Sometimes there are spiritual meanings to dreams, though not all the time. The proposition that dreams can have spiritual meanings is generally accepted, and it’s been true in many cultures and recorded in the Bible, other spiritual books, and by anthropologists and archeologists. Fiction parallels the truth. If it doesn’t, the stories don’t seem believable.…
When it looks like you might have to suffer a night of little sleep, it helps to have a trick to help you fall asleep in your bag. One useful and flexible—and even enjoyable—technique is the fake scenario. Why does it work? Because where the mind goes, the body follows. What is a fake scenario?…
The one-subject dream is quick, a statement from you to your subconscious. Compared to a full-length novel, it’s a short poem. Compared to a symphony, it’s a 30-second-long ditty. Or compare it to one of those 30-second emotional TV commercials that play during the Super Bowl. A multi-season series it’s not. It’s an expression like…