“O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee? That thou no more wilt weigh mine eyelids down and sleep my senses in forgetfulness?”—William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, Scene 1
The state of worldly affairs is enough to keep anyone awake, but when our sleep is regularly disrupted, it sets off a vicious cycle of fatigue and anxiety. Luckily, there are ways out of this loop besides sleeping pills—and you likely don’t even need the mythic eight hours of sleep per night.
There are some rarely discussed factors surrounding sleep that we can use to get the rest we need without having to alter our brain chemistry with drugs….