The December 1987 issue of National Geographic had a long article on sleep. This morning when I was waking up, I had a strong impression, probably partly dream-like, that I understood sleep with deep insight. The impression faded with daylight, as it usually does, and it seems far less impressive now. In the light of day I can only call it a string of hypotheses. But I will try to correlate it with the stages of sleep as described in the National Geographic.
The diagram on page 796 of the National Geographic article shows the sleeper descending a staircase from wakefulness into stage 1 sleep where the alpha or beta waves of wakefulness get attenuated and visual images often appear in a semi-chaotic manner; to stage 2 sleep where jagged spikes and spindles start occurring in the EEG pattern; to stage 3 and 4 of deep dreamless sleep where slow delta waves of high amplitude appear in the EEG, heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and blood flow to the brain is reduced to a minimum, and even thermo-regulation (sweating or shivering) is suspended. There then follows a rapid ascent to REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, during which vivid dreams occur while muscles are disconnected from the brain, and EEG shows a pattern similar to wakefulness. This 2-hour cycle repeats 4 times in a normal night’s sleep.
My insight was that during the downward part of each cycle, the brain actually flirts with death. It is like Psyche, in the myth which I discuss in an essay in Section VIII, having to descend to the underworld to fetch Aphrodite’s magic ointment, but acting under strict rules of conduct to prevent herself being trapped there for ever. It is like dangling from a very long string over a deep precipice, and yet being still attached by that slender thread. Somehow it is necessary for the brain to carry out this dangerous exercise 4 times every night; why? Perhaps to re-link to the fact of the dizzy heights at which normal wakefulness operates, to fully realize our precarious state of being. Or, perhaps, even more fundamentally, to bring back something essential from the depth of non-existence in which we are rooted: that magic potion of Aphrodite. What could that potion be?
“Re-linking” is another term for “religion” (re-ligio). What we would bring up from the depth is our connection with God, the indwelling Holy Spirit, normally covered up by the noise of conscious wakeful activity. We need regular nourishment from this source, even if it remains unconscious. Mystics can make it conscious in a third state (neither wakefulness nor sleep) called meditation; but we all need it, mystics or not. Why Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love? Partly because God is Love, partly because sexuality and spirituality are related. That is why puritanical religion is so jealous of sex, that it should not divert attention and energy from divine worship. The connection between death and sex was noted in my essay on “Psyche’s Labours” and is well known. (pain and pleasure may even be carried by similar neurons and the same neuro-transmitters, the difference being only the placement of their receptors in the brain, and hence the mental interpretation.)
It has been noted that more deaths occur during early morning hours than at any other time of day. I noticed that when I wake up about 2 hours after going to sleep I feel cold and unwell, while waking up in the morning I feel warm and refreshed.
At the bottom of very deep sleep, the brain suddenly gets alarmed at the proximity of death, and starts its rapid ascent up the slender life-line, like a startled spider hurrying up to the home web. It is not clear whether the muscle paralysis of REM sleep is a carry-over from deep sleep or is peculiar only to REM sleep. In the latter case, it would be Nature’s benign protection against our hurting ourselves by moving about violently during vivid dreams; in the former case, perhaps the nearness to death includes the cessation of muscle function. The two explanations do not exclude each other, if indeed paralysis occurs in deep sleep.
The function of REM sleep is quite different from that of deep sleep. In this phase, we are digesting experiences lived through during the day, reworking them in symbolic manner, rearranging them, establishing connections, even solving problems. It is an activity like an office worker filing reports in alphabetical files and generally tidying up to clear the desk for next day’s incoming mail.
We can gain many insights by remembering and analyzing our dreams, but we have to catch them “on the fly” by writing them down immediately, preferably with eyes closed and in the dark (the writing is usually legible enough), before they dissolve into the nothingness where all lost information goes. We should not follow anyone’s scheme in analyzing our dreams; neither popular witchcraft nor Freud nor Jung. We should merely inquire (non-rationally and spontaneously) what the dream suggests to ME, the dreamer. Analysis should be almost like a continuation of the dream, one thing suggesting another by free association of ideas. And it should be done the morning after, while the traces are still fresh in the brain, tracks not covered by dust or snow.
Possibly in one of the next cycles of deep sleep in the same night, we do not visit the underworld, but visit the collective unconscious, to deposit there our day’s experiences into the common racial memory of humankind, the master file of the species. While bringing in our input, we may linger for a while as in a library, browse among the shelves where other people’s experiences are recorded, and use the facility’s computers to retrieve what we may need for the next day.
Why four such cycles per night? Perhaps there are two additional places to re-link to or visit, that I have not thought of yet. Or maybe we repeat the visits to the two places already mentioned. In any case, sleep is essential for the efficient performance of next day’s wakeful tasks. We can string along for a day or two without sleep, but not very well, and certainly not for longer than that. We need continual refreshment from our deep sources and connections. Just as our body needs food to maintain itself on a daily basis, so our mind needs spiritual food to maintain itself in top working condition.