SLEEP

 

          SLEEP

“Sleep” is defined as condition of the body and mind such as recurs regularly every night in which the eyes are closed and the muscles, nervous system, etc., are relaxed. Its synonyms are slumber, doze, nap, drowse, repose and rest.

Miguel de  Cervantes (1547-1616) the Spanish author of the novel Don Quixote says blessings on him who first invented sleep. It covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak. It is meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. It makes the shepherd equal to the monarch, and the fool to the wise.

To quote one more author, Leigh Hunt , the English critic  and essayist (1784—1859) : It is a delicious moment, certainly that of being well nestled in bed and feeling that you shall drop gently to sleep. The good is to come, not past; the limbs are tired enough to render the remaining in one posture delightful; the labour of the day is gone. A gentle failure of the perceptions creeps over you; the spirit of consciousness disengages itself once more, and with slow and hushing degrees, like a mother detaching her hand from that of a sleeping child, the mind seems to have a balmy lid closing over it, like the eye ----it is closed ---the mysterious spirit has gone to take its airy  rounds.

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G.R.Kanwal

15^th December 2023