THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260439
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 50 lines
An expert on sleep advised Thursday morning on National Public Radio that if you wake up late at night, ``you just don't lay there and toss and turn.''
No, you certainly shouldn't lay there unless you're a hen who has a yen to lay an egg. What you do, is just LIE there and wish you could go to sleep.
Aside from not knowing when to use the verbs lie and lay, a mistake she shares with most of the nation's population, especially those on TV and radio who propagate the error faster than do ordinary mortals, the expert seemed to have sensible ideas on how to get back to sleep.
What you should try to do, first, she said, is keep your eyes closed and stay calm, and odds are you'll drift back to dreamland.
The first thing you should NOT do, she said, is look at the clock. When you merely turn your head to see what time it is, you break the tenuous connection with sleep. Nor, she said, should you lie abed and read or watch TV.
If you feel you must open a book or turn on TV, then get up and sit in a chair, she said, and the book or a movie should not be a murder mystery that might put you on edge. Tie into one basically boring and ere long you'll be drowsy.
I've found it helpful to get up and have a snack. Very light. A glass of cold milk and a cookie or two. A new brand of ginger snaps, not much larger than poker chips, has an appetizing extra flavoring of ginger, if you care to try it.
Perhaps the glass of milk takes us back to our childhood, hearkening to the sense of trust one felt when a parent brought the glass.
It helps me to say prayers. Mentioning that private matter here may strike you as a bit off-base, but I try to be explicit with you.
The prayer is a lengthy one, enumerating family members here and long gone for the Lord to look after, rivaling the begats of the Bible, and extending to grandparents on both sides, and uncles and aunts and a cousin or two and other persons close to me in childhood, and winding down with fervor through children and grandchildren and in-laws and friends who may be experiencing troubles.
When the yellow Lab, that docile female, fell ill at the last, I resolutely refrained from including her in the listing - it didn't seem right, with so much else wrong with the world, to tax the Lord to look after a dog. It asked too much, I feared.
But two or three times, working during the day while she was under treatment with the vet, my mind took over and slipped in a plea for her, too fast for the conscious me to block it. Too late! I let it go.
Sometimes, halfway along, I fall asleep in the middle of a prayer and pick it up to finish next morning. It ain't a bad way to start the day. by CNB