Sleep On It

Just sleep on it. I'm sure you've heard that before. But why does it work? I have a theory.

Emotions are strongly related to what's happening bodily. That's what Piper and C.S. Lewis suggest when he says, "When the music of spiritual joy plays in the soul, it gets 'transposed' into physical sensations. But since the spiritual "orchestra" is richer and more varied than the physical "piano," the same piano keys have to used for sounds that in the orchestra are played with different instruments." (When I Don't Desire God, 180)

Piper gives an example of the difficulty between distinguishing love from lust when looking at your lover (which I don't think is a very good example). But there's more than Piper recognizes to the idea that the same piano key must be used for varied spiritual emotions. The interesting thing is that the same 'piano keys' are used for the same physical emotions as well.

For example, how do we know we are afraid of something? Our heart beats faster. Our palms sweat. Maybe we pee our pants. Yup, if all that is happening, I must definitely be afraid.

Wait a minute, you might say. You've got the causality all wrong. It's because we're afraid that our heart rate quickens and our palms get sweaty.

Not necessarily. There's an interesting study that had men perform a dangerous task, I think it was cross a narrow rope bridge over a river. The experimental group had a woman approach them in the middle of the task and offer them a drink of water. The control group had a woman approach them before the task and offer them a drink of water. When the men were asked to measure their attraction to the woman, the experimental group rated their attraction to the woman as significantly higher than the control group. The scientists concluded that the men who were in the middle of the task, who had their adrenaline pumping and sweaty palms, read their physical state as meaning that they were attracted to the woman. So the study suggests that even very different emotions play on the same piano key. Apparently our body responds physiologically to outside events more quickly than our brain recognizes, and our brain has to catch-up and translate one step later. We have to be careful how we read our bodies and translate our bodily experiences into emotions and thoughts.
motions are strongly related to what's happening bodily. That's what Piper and C.S. Lewis suggest when he says, "When the music of spiritual joy plays in the soul, it gets 'transposed' into physical sensations. But since the spiritual "orchestra" is richer and more varied than the physical "piano," the same piano keys have to used for sounds that in the orchestra are played with different instruments." (When I Don't Desire God, 180)

Emotions are indivisible from our physical bodies. That is evident in a study of amputees that measured their emotional states. The study looked at their experiences with depression, phantom limbs, etc. But what the scientists were surprised to discover is that the amputees reported having lower levels of emotion than they did before losing their limbs. They experienced less happiness, less grief, less anxiety - all of their emotions were muted. Apparently, when you don't get sweaty palms, you don't feel as nervous. Isn't that fascinating?

So how does sleep play into all this? Well, say late one night I've thought up this terrific idea to make mountains of money by opening the Five Guys franchise in India, and I'm feverishly excited, and my heart is racing, and I'm imagining my glorious retirement to my magnificent mansion in Mumbai. I go to bed. But somehow, when I wake up in the quiet blue calmness of the morning, I can't remember what got me so excited about the idea the night before. The idea seems pretty stupid. Especially when I realize that a lot of Hindus don't eat beef and Five Guys with Chicken doesn't seem so exciting. I used to think that because I couldn't rouse the same emotion, whether anger, or passion, I must be forgetting the really good ideas. But I'm beginning to think that we put too much stock in our emotions.

So beyond the memory consolidation and 'learning' that occurs during sleep, my theory is that sleep also serves to reset our bodies, and by doing so we are more clear-eyed about our thoughts. And that's why it is often a good idea to sleep on big decisions.

The resetting of each morning is a blessing. The anger, the passion, the despondency which settle like a blight to the soul, may prove to be a passing storm that clears in the morning. And because we aren't hanging on to our emotions , our bodies' forgetfulness may be for us a healing.

Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord Who rises
With healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after the rain.