Awakened Sleep
Awakened sleep – this appears like an oxymoron. But this is what the Shunamite woman said, “ I was asleep, but my heart was awake ”. (SoS; 5:2) Was she in REM sleep? Where could she recognize that she was sleeping but her heart was awake? As she moved in and out of her NREM to REM, she kept recognizing her awakened heart? But the question I am grappling with is, what keeps my heart awake? For her, it was the anticipation that her lover would come at any time and call her out. A desire for her lover, as she went in and out of her NREM, REM sleep cycles. Neuroscience and physiology now say that in such relaxed contexts, like sleep, and music, diffuse thinking happens. “Diffuse-mode thinking is what happens when you relax your attention and just let your mind wander. This relaxation can allow different areas of the brain to hook up and return valuable insights.” Author Barbara Oakley, using the analogy of playing a pinball game writes “The diffuse approach… often involves a big-pict...