Sleep - the odder sensual pleasures of
Created | Updated Mar 1, 2002
Sleep is a form of rest in the form of unconsciousness that allows the body and brain to recuperate from daily exertions. Sleep and the act of attaining sleep offers a number of additional pleasures and experiences that you may wish to sample beyond the compulsory dreaming and relaxation it offers.
THE SENSUAL FLIP (not as fun as it sounds)
When you're in bed, not actually sleeping but nicely tired and well on the way to slumber, your aural system seems to enter an inward-looking state. The messages being received by your aural system are noises the brain is expecting: those created by your body, the shuffling of material on material as you move, the general near-silence of the room, the ticking of a clock. These do not disturb the brain, as your aural system does not register them as a disturbance in the same way that your tactile sense does not register self-tickling as being ticklish; it knows what sensations to expect and so ignores them.
However, when something happens that the brain is not expecting, i.e. a cat yowls noisily below your window, the phone rings or a car alarm goes off, you discover that your hearing has not become inward-looking at all - it's alert and ready to kick you into action for danger. This is of course a rather primitive response where every irregular sound is classified as a danger in order to give dozing primitive man a fighting chance out on the plains when he was in need of a nap.
As soon as such a sound occurs, your aural system transmits full audio to your brain and gives it a good kicking so that it takes notice.
When this happens you fleetingly experience the aural equivalent of looking at a picture of an infinite tunnel, only to have the image suddenly flip to seem that you are looking down on an infinitely pointy pyramid - your silent inner aural world flips all your senses to concentrate on the noisy outer aural world (and squirts a bit of adrenalin around for luck). This is followed by a sense of loss and mild annoyance, as the former inner state is rather pleasant - however the experience of the flip from inner to outer is quite unique.
This flip-effect does not just affect your hearing - all senses that were previously seemingly focused inwards or just plain off suddenly look outwards or come online; usually the sense most affected is the sense that triggered the flip (as this sense is obviously best suited to detecting danger in this case).
Visual
Someone turning the bedroom light, waking you up and flipping your senses outwards is a particularly nasty instance, as your eyes are so adjusted to the dark that you cannot open them as they will seem to be incapable of adjusting back any time this week. Forcing your eyes open in this instance will result in them slamming shut with ferocity, and the best compromise you will achieve is to walk around with one eye clamped shut and the other trying to roll around your skull in a vain effort to hide.
Tactile
Once well settled for sleep, brushing up against something you didn't know was there or that close can produce a tactile flip as your skin suddenly becomes super-aware of all sensations (pressure on mattress, weight of covers, temperature, textures). Your arm brushing against a cold wall that you thought was half a bed away is a good example - your warm partner is probably not.
Smell, Taste and Everything else
Smell and taste are rather unusual methods of achieving a sensual flip - no doubt you could try burning your house down, vomiting or getting people to insert sharp or foul tasting substances in your mouth, but if you really want to experience a sensual flip other than through light and sound I recommend developing a sudden desire for a pee.
The 'sensual flip' comes under the law of "you don't appreciate what you've got until you lose it"; Inner state to full outer sensory alert - you can never fully appreciate the state you are in whilst you are in it - hence the beauty of the moment of flip.
VISUAL NON-ADJUSTMENT
Another fairly pleasurable experience is reading in bed, finding later you are very tired, and turning the side light off. Doing this makes everything you look at invisible and total black, as your eyes will not have yet adjusted (and will take considerable time to do so). You can glance about to your hearts content and enjoy the lack of depth perception, and perhaps know a smidgen of what it is to be blind.
The eyes un-adjustment to the dark is a sort of inner state whilst attempting to experience the outer state. The sensual pleasure of this effect lasts until:
a) Your eyes adjust to the dark and it's over
b) You bump into something as your brain will suddenly map out the entire room in your head from this information, and the effect is lost
c) You're walking about and think you could tread on the cat at any moment - this fear will dispel any pleasure
e) You can't find your dressing gown to go and have a pee
f) You've found your dressing gown but can't find the armholes because it's upside down and inside-out
g) You have your dressing gown on, but as you walk to the toilet you can hear an odd scraping noise following you, which turns out to be the rope of your dressing gown dragging across the carpet.
THE SENSUAL FLIP (not as fun as it sounds)
When you're in bed, not actually sleeping but nicely tired and well on the way to slumber, your aural system seems to enter an inward-looking state. The messages being received by your aural system are noises the brain is expecting: those created by your body, the shuffling of material on material as you move, the general near-silence of the room, the ticking of a clock. These do not disturb the brain, as your aural system does not register them as a disturbance in the same way that your tactile sense does not register self-tickling as being ticklish; it knows what sensations to expect and so ignores them.
However, when something happens that the brain is not expecting, i.e. a cat yowls noisily below your window, the phone rings or a car alarm goes off, you discover that your hearing has not become inward-looking at all - it's alert and ready to kick you into action for danger. This is of course a rather primitive response where every irregular sound is classified as a danger in order to give dozing primitive man a fighting chance out on the plains when he was in need of a nap.
As soon as such a sound occurs, your aural system transmits full audio to your brain and gives it a good kicking so that it takes notice.
When this happens you fleetingly experience the aural equivalent of looking at a picture of an infinite tunnel, only to have the image suddenly flip to seem that you are looking down on an infinitely pointy pyramid - your silent inner aural world flips all your senses to concentrate on the noisy outer aural world (and squirts a bit of adrenalin around for luck). This is followed by a sense of loss and mild annoyance, as the former inner state is rather pleasant - however the experience of the flip from inner to outer is quite unique.
This flip-effect does not just affect your hearing - all senses that were previously seemingly focused inwards or just plain off suddenly look outwards or come online; usually the sense most affected is the sense that triggered the flip (as this sense is obviously best suited to detecting danger in this case).
Visual
Someone turning the bedroom light, waking you up and flipping your senses outwards is a particularly nasty instance, as your eyes are so adjusted to the dark that you cannot open them as they will seem to be incapable of adjusting back any time this week. Forcing your eyes open in this instance will result in them slamming shut with ferocity, and the best compromise you will achieve is to walk around with one eye clamped shut and the other trying to roll around your skull in a vain effort to hide.
Tactile
Once well settled for sleep, brushing up against something you didn't know was there or that close can produce a tactile flip as your skin suddenly becomes super-aware of all sensations (pressure on mattress, weight of covers, temperature, textures). Your arm brushing against a cold wall that you thought was half a bed away is a good example - your warm partner is probably not.
Smell, Taste and Everything else
Smell and taste are rather unusual methods of achieving a sensual flip - no doubt you could try burning your house down, vomiting or getting people to insert sharp or foul tasting substances in your mouth, but if you really want to experience a sensual flip other than through light and sound I recommend developing a sudden desire for a pee.
The 'sensual flip' comes under the law of "you don't appreciate what you've got until you lose it"; Inner state to full outer sensory alert - you can never fully appreciate the state you are in whilst you are in it - hence the beauty of the moment of flip.
VISUAL NON-ADJUSTMENT
Another fairly pleasurable experience is reading in bed, finding later you are very tired, and turning the side light off. Doing this makes everything you look at invisible and total black, as your eyes will not have yet adjusted (and will take considerable time to do so). You can glance about to your hearts content and enjoy the lack of depth perception, and perhaps know a smidgen of what it is to be blind.
The eyes un-adjustment to the dark is a sort of inner state whilst attempting to experience the outer state. The sensual pleasure of this effect lasts until:
a) Your eyes adjust to the dark and it's over
b) You bump into something as your brain will suddenly map out the entire room in your head from this information, and the effect is lost
c) You're walking about and think you could tread on the cat at any moment - this fear will dispel any pleasure
e) You can't find your dressing gown to go and have a pee
f) You've found your dressing gown but can't find the armholes because it's upside down and inside-out
g) You have your dressing gown on, but as you walk to the toilet you can hear an odd scraping noise following you, which turns out to be the rope of your dressing gown dragging across the carpet.
