nighttime thinking .

Isn't it funny how it always seems that the best thoughts come to you right before you're about to go to sleep? It's like all of a sudden you can't turn your mind off and it refuses to just shut down and let you est. I remember before I started blogging this would happen to me all the time, and I wouldn't even be able to sleep well at night. When I woke up the next morning my thoughts were gone. Since then, I usually blog right before I go to bed, which certainly sort of clears your head a little bit.


Regardless, I feel like it would behoove most of us to keep a notepad next to your bed. When the ideas hit, you just gotta run with them. Often i would attempt to go to sleep at school, when something great popped into my head to blog about. Almost a little bit reluctantly, I'd pop back up and switch on my nightstand light and write about it. After all, some of the best inspiration seems to come when you're least expecting it, and you want to be ready.

The same goes for songs. I used to write lyrics and poems much more frequently than I do now, and often the inspiration would hit in bed. Of course I was lazy and said I would just remember it the next morning, but that never happened. It would be lost in dreamland the minute my eyes closed.

What is it that makes our minds want to think so hard before bed? Here's my theory: Your mind is full of things in the moment all day. You have a schedule to keep, work to do, you get hungry (Lord knows my mind is on food a LOT); basically you're just busy. But when you're not preoccupied with something else, your mind finally gets a chance to wander. There is nothing pressing, nothing important, other than sleep. This is why meditation can be so helpful and so enriching in a person's life. That is the time when you get to forget about everything and cleanse your mind. There is nothing else to keep you occupied. So your mind takes advantage of that opportunity.

Blogging is a bit of cathartic experience, which I have mentioned before. It does indeed clear your mind and allow you to focus on other things. I'm a Catholic but have always been fascinated with Buddhism and how you need to achieve inner peace and cleanliness (which I believe is called nirvana, in both Buddhism and Hinduism). In the same way, the idea of the Japanese zen gardens fascinate me as well.There is something really appealing about the idea of having a completely clear mind. The less things that are clogging it, the better you can focus on any one thing.

Imagine it like a computer. The more programs you run, the more processing power needed. And eventually, you run out. You need to be able to close programs sometimes so that one can pull more power. But it will run the smoothest if you only have one thing open at a time.

And so maybe the solution is to jump into bed an hour sooner than you normally do. I know in our busy lives, this may be asking a lot; but perhaps with an hour of down time your mind (and body) will be able to unwind and you will sleep better than you have ever slept before.