It's Frustrating:
Sleep Onset through Sounds
At times I do have a little frustration with this business of sleep onset and visualization. I
certainly can understand what one might have felt in the 1890's describing radio to people. I'm not a radical thinker. Virtual Dreaming is not a radical idea. The reality is that our grandparents knew all about
visualization and sleep onset when they told us to imagine counting sheep to fall asleep. I am sure they were not thinking about Alpha, Theta, or Delta sleep patterns and they probably did not study the secondary visual cortex or REM sleep. But they knew.
Relaxation Through
Visualization
They knew that if you picture sheep in your mind doing something... anything, you might fall asleep. What I always thought about that particular homeopathic remedy was that, if nothing else, the act of counting sheep
could simply bore you to sleep. Not so. The act of visualizing sheep stimulates the secondary visual cortex... the same part of the brain utilized in dreaming. The basic premise is the same with virtual dreaming and even meditation, for that matter. We just take it to another level. What we do is mix naturally soothing sounds with a simulated real environment. There are audio sequences that one can visualize and, ergo, fall asleep to. One example might simply be a flag flapping in the wind, as in The Old Lighthouse, but visualizing that flag sets certain sleep bio-mechanics in motion. There is no narration or subliminal
hypnotic messages... no binaural beats or mythical 'delta tones'. Further, the sounds become more potent with each listen as the listener becomes more familiar with the scenario and can anticipate the visualization.
Another frustration factor I am having is with the demographics of our patrons. While we have some USA sales the bulk of purchases are made overseas. Americans seem quite dependent on their various drugs of choice
to bring on sleep onset. Been there, done that. Being a chronic insomniac I have taken almost every sleep medication the pharmaceutical community could shove down my throat but I have always resented having to take something to fall asleep (or should I say get knocked out?). Sleep should come naturally. Do you remember what it was like before you had any sleep issues? Going to sleep and waking up felt pretty darn good.
It should always be like that.
Return
to Sleep
Thoughts
