Nature’s Soft Nurse

Good sleep starts and ends with how you think about sleep.

You could think like Margaret Thatcher:

“Sleep is for wimps.”
—Margaret Thatcher

That is, you could think sleep is a waste of time.

You could think like Thomas Dekker:

“Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.”
—Thomas Dekker

That is, you could think sleep is important.

You could think like William Shakespeare:

“O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frightened thee?”
—Henry IV, Part 2 by William Shakespeare

“Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, the death of each day’s life sore labour’s bath balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course chief nourisher in life’s feast.”
—The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare

“Enjoy the honey-heavy dew of slumber.”
—The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

That is, you could come home to your nature and fall back in love with sleep.

Like you were when you were an infant.

As an infant, you hadn’t yet been conditioned by Thatcher-like thinking that other things are more important than sleep.

As an infant, you hadn’t yet been conditioned by Dekker-like thinking that the reason to sleep is because it’s important.

As an infant, you didn’t have any baggage associated with sleep.

You just zonked out when you feel like going to sleep.

And you loved every second of it!

You didn’t overthink sleep. You didn’t wrestle with its unimportance and importance. You just slept.

You were in harmony with your nature. You didn’t judge it. You didn’t question it. You didn’t analyze it.

You lived it!

This is how you slept when you were an infant, and this is how you can sleep again.

It’s still your nature.

About Jason Gootman
Jason Gootman is a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach as well as a certified nutritionist and certified exercise physiologist. Jason helps people reverse and prevent type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other ailments with evidence-based approaches to nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, holistic wellness, and, most importantly, lasting behavior improvement and positive habit formation. As part of this work, Jason often helps people lose weight and keep it off, in part by helping them overcome the common challenges of yo-yo dieting and emotional eating. Jason helps people go from knowing what to do and having good intentions to consistently taking great care of themselves in ways that help them add years to their lives and life to their years.