The Importance of Rest

One of the things I, as well as others, overlook is the importance of rest. We live in a 24/7 news hour frenzy where new things are happening all the time. Including when most of the population is asleep in America during the late evenings. 


One of the things that have helped me to deal with the stress of today's turmoil is making sure I get enough rest. I've even experimented with changing my sleeping patterns. I'm mostly a late night sleeper. I like to go to bed at 2-3 am most days and wake up around 1030 am. For about a week I tried a morning schedule where I went to bed as early as 930 pm and woke up at 5 am. As you can imagine, if you're a night person, no matter how much sleep you get, you will not like being a morning person.

Anyways, I can't stress enough the amount of turmoil going on in the country right now. I believe that most of my friends, peers, and acquaintances have been lulled into a false sense of security. The reality is that COVID-19 is still running rampant, killing people every day, and the protests while itself is a good thing, is actually bringing out all the provocateurs and racists to the streets, where more black and brown people will get hurt by said racists as well as cops. What's a guy to do? 

Well, for starters make sure you stay informed and that you vote. Stacy Abrams had a good op-ed in the NYTimes yesterday about how important the vote is. Don't forget that. Read through a variety of news periodicals online and not just your favorites. Take part in political talks on Facebook if you like to get your point across to a lot of people. Always be aware that we are not safe right now, nobody is really safe from COVID right now, nor is anyone safe from police brutality, especially if you're a black or brown person or protester. If you aren't worried about anything you are completely oblivious. Not everybody has the luxury of being oblivious because we work hard jobs, have rent, and have family to support here or abroad. 

Remember those white people who stood on state capitol buildings because they wanted to go back to work during the height of the first wave of the pandemic? [They were carrying AR assault rifles, some of them.] That's what oblivious looks like. Protesting something so trivial in the middle of a pandemic. Now, some people have compared that to the protests that are taking place now, protesting the brutal murder of George Floyd. To that, I say it's not the same thing at all, yet the risk is the same, if not worse. The problem is that we have a serious pandemic sweeping the globe but nobody seems to take it seriously enough because if they caught COVID they had a very mild case or they don't know anyone that's died from the virus. Trust me, if everyone had a personal friend, family member, or acquaintance that died from COVID, every American would take this virus so seriously that we would've already quelled the disease like China, South Korea, and Japan. 

Start me up, I never stop. We are not like computers. We all need to make sure we get plenty of rest. The body must be shut down and restarted like a computer every day. Some of us need more sleep than others. I would say the average for me is 7 1/2 to 8 hours but I've done well with six hours as well. Although that isn't ideal. 

Today I had a lot of errands to run. I left the house at 1030 am and got back home around 5 pm. I was so tired from all the running around that I slept from 5 pm to 11 30 pm almost straight, waking up but not even getting out of bed. Obviously, for most people this would disrupt their day, they would fall behind on their plans and errands, not contact their friends and family, it would cause them to stay up much later, and overall they wouldn't like the experience. 

However, although I know that sleeping the day away isn't ideal I also recognize that I needed it and that sleep is more important than ever nowadays. Think about how important sleep is for our mental health and well being. Without sleep or only a little sleep, we would all be mindless zombies. I missed my usual daily activities today but in the end, I was greatly rewarded because I got enough rest, I feel great, and I'm fully recharged for whatever the night brings me as well as tomorrow's morning. 

Sleepytime, time, all the time. I can't stress enough how important sleep is. Most of the time when I'm irritated, annoyed, or stressed out its mostly because I'm too tired and need sleep. With all this chaos going on in American cities right now, the pandemic ravaging the land, the highest unemployment numbers in record history, and a possible rigged election already in the works for 2020, I would say that this is the most stressful time period of my young life. The kicker is that it could only get worse. 

The second wave of COVID could hit much harder and cause a longer and more extreme shutdown and quarantine. The protests and police brutality could fizzle. They could pass measures that attempt to reduce police power but in the long run they might never defeat systemic racism and the brutalization by cops unto black and brown Americans. Trump could win reelection and the United States could become an even more diffusive firepot led by a despotic Nero. 

So sleep it off. Tomorrow never knows. Keep everything in your memory and your records because everything going on right now is particularly noteworthy. This is a historic time period. Always be skeptical, always be questioning. Don't focus on the noise being made by idiots or people dumber than you. The future is you. The world outside is important but so are you and your own personal life. In order to be at your best, you need rest.