The Bigger Picture: I am often struck by just how many people struggle with sleep.
Whether it's sleeping too long and too heavily or not long enough and way too lightly, a striking number of people are waking up exhausted.
Furthermore, it's an issue we're complacent about. People I speak to regularly about their health will not think to tell me they have sleeping problems. They won't even recognise it until I finally ask, "How well do you sleep?" And then, the matter-of-fact tone hits me straight in the face. "Ah sure, I never slept well. I'm not a sleeper. That's just the way I am."
This state of mind is of even greater concern. It's as if they're saying, "It's not an issue. Don't worry about it. There's nothing that can be done."
We behave as if sleep were not one of our most important physiological activities, and a right we should fight for. But it is deeply important. Without sleep we don't function properly. To make matters worse, we deeply misunderstand this crucial process.
Most of us don't think of sleep as an activity. We believe it's too passive for that. In fact, we barely differentiate between losing consciousness and being asleep.
As such, we happily take drugs or drink alcohol to bring us into a slumber, neglecting to understand the vast operations occurring underneath our slothful demeanour are vital and hindered by intoxicated efforts.
In actual fact, sleep is a dynamic, deeply active state of being. It is during sleep that our bodies gain the chance to regenerate and process what we have been through during the day.
It is our only opportunity to address our needs at a level impossible to reach while alert and moving around. We need sleep to heal, learn and develop a better perspective on things.
While we can see this clearly in children - how they run around flat out, taking in everything, and then fall lifeless, snoring into their dinner - we forget this about adults. We, too, never stop learning and growing, intellectually and emotionally. As much as anyone, adults need sleep.
Without sleep, we get irritable and can neither concentrate nor remember things well. Our functioning slows down rapidly, even though we feel like we're running a mile a minute. In fact, long-term lack of sleep makes us less efficient and uninspired. Our ability to innovate is greatly compromised. Creativity becomes more and more difficult to access. We simply go through the motions of life, tackling things far less well than we could otherwise.
Still, knowing we need sleep and being able to do it are two different things. Often the pressure of "having to" shut down is overwhelming - the hours tick by, making us all too aware of the approaching morning. "If I could sleep, I would. But I can't, so don't make it worse for me!" Given that sleep is our most elusive state of mind, finally being able to catch hold of some may require an exercise in logic and conscious thinking.
As sleep is a state of deep relaxation, it is useful to think about what we do in our last waking hour before going to bed. For example, most of us watch television. Now, for anyone who thought that television was a good way to relax, think again. Television operates on an emotional level, and most of what we see is meant to distress us so that we'll keep watching.
It activates our brains while strangely also making us extremely passive. Thus, we become both disempowered and disengaged. A bad combination when you struggle to sleep.
Moreover, going to sleep requires letting go of control, and for you control freaks out there, this can be especially hard. We must trust that we are safe in order to be able to turn off our defence mechanisms and focus on our internal structure. This is nearly impossible to do if you feel constantly under threat or feel as if all the world's problems fall on you to solve.
Thus, while there are things that need to be done, they don't always need doing in the middle of the night. We certainly don't need to be thinking about them in the wee hours. This kind of thinking is useless and a waste of time, because it's not followed through with action. Sure, you're not going to build the extension in your pyjamas anyway.
Decide what is worth worrying about, and decide to do something about it while the sun is up. Then, having done what you can do, let yourself go home and deal with anything else in eight hours' time, after you sleep.
Finally, not only do we need sleep, we can really enjoy it. Incredible things happen in the places from where dreams come, and there is no doubt that getting good and consistent sleep makes us more beautiful. Not only do our cells get a chance to repair themselves, but the rest allows us to be genuinely more loving people. No doubt we will never achieve what we want or be truly happy unless we allow ourselves to give in to it.
• Shalini Sinha works as a life coach and counsellor and presents the RTÉ television intercultural programme, Mono. She has a BA in comparative religion and anthropology and an MA in women's studies.