I'd like to talk today about outside influences. Physical ones. Well, part of this blog is about my observations, and I have a few I'd like to share :)

The first involves people who have had traumas (broken bones and the like), and even well after it heals, those spots seem unusually sensitive to atmospheric changes (namely how it affects the weather patterns in an area). I had an accident a couple of weeks ago, and hurt my shoulder. It's getting better, but not 100% yet. I thought it was merely a sprain, but today, the weather here is lousy. Humid and raining all day. And my shoulder is hurting a LOT. I've heard of these types of 'sensitivities' with regards to broken bones, but not sprains (I'm hoping I didn't fracture the bone in my shoulder, which would explain the sensitivity). But I digress. Why are these areas more sensitive? I really have no theory on this, but am just posing these questions to provoke some thought. Does it have to do with some kind of fragile connection we have (but don't realize) with our ecosystem? In a similar vein, why do gloomy, rainy days tend to make people more tired than bright, cloudless sunshiny days? I've joked to people that I was "solar powered" (this coming from having worked overnights for a long time, so I developed a certain appreciation for the daytime, especially sunny days), but is it possible we are in a way, truly solar powered? Or at least, solar influenced?

A second observation I'd like to point out occurs when there's a blackout or power outage. Now obviously, if you're watching TV or doing something at night with the light on, you're going to notice a power outage. But I have noticed that whenever the power goes out even when I'm sound asleep, and all is quiet, that I bolt straight awake. Why is that? I do have a theory on that one. The buildings and homes we inhabit, those around us, are filled with electrical wiring throughout. Could we have developed some sort of subconscious sensitivity to this wiring? Mayhaps even an ultra subtle noise that our bodies somehow, somewhere recognize, but it's too low (or high) for us to pick up audibly. However, we are so in tune with it, that when it disappears, our bodies subconsciously react. Again, there seems to be some subtle connectivity we share with our environment that has yet to be explored.

The third observation dwells more on the internal environment. Sleeping and dreaming. We've all heard that we need 8 hours of sleep a night. But we all know people who do fine on 4-5 hours of sleep, or those that need 10 or more hours to get through the day. We seem to go through certain "healing" cycles when we sleep. Cycles that help to keep our brains, even our bodies more or less healthy or normal. One of those cycles involves dreaming. We're not 100% sure why we dream, or how it connects to who and how we are. It has been proven that people can *die* if they go for two weeks not being allowed to dream (like by waking the person up just as REM sleep starts, or through some other form of dream suppression). Don't be too quick to say "I hardly ever dream and I'm just fine!". You have to wake up (or be in some form of consciousness/semi consciousness, if not outright woken up) within 15 minutes after the end of a dream in order to actually recall any of it (or even having had it at all). So chances are you're dreaming, but you're just not waking up soon enough to remember it. Now, onto my point: Have you ever had a night where you've had multiple dreams (obviously waking up soon enough afterwards to recall having them, even if you did fall right back to sleep), and woken up tired, maybe even exhausted? Dreaming, even if you move physically very little in your sleep, can be quite exhausting (although some studies have shown some people get quite a workout when their bodies physically react to the dreams they are having). I believe our "sleep requirements" on a personal level, are actually more accurately measured based on our penchant for dreaming. People who dream more, tend to need more sleep. People who get by on less sleep, probably don't dream as much, or as intensely. I believe vivid dreamers (people who can actually in some semi-conscious way interact with their dreams, much like a movie director) require more sleep as they seem to have a certain, deeper connection with the subconscious and dreams than other people.
So if you're one of those people who seems to need 11 or 12 hours of sleep, even if just occasionally (like on weekends. It usually means you've been deprived of one or two of the other healing sleep cycles), don't fret it. You're probably a dreamer ;)