BS: Waking Up Smart

Subject: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 11:05 AM

Maybe it's SAD, maybe it's age, maybe it's sleep-deprivation....

But do you sometimes wake up MUCH smarter than you've been for DAYS, without even trying?

Four or five BIG practical problems I'd been mulling for several days all clicked, this morning. Easily. Maybe it's the pain management finally working for me, but suddenly I'm tempted to tackle world peace!

I'll skip the world-peace thing for now-- I got stuff to DO first! :~)

But seriously-- does this ever happen for you?

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 11:17 AM

Yes, and I think it's because your un/subconscious mind has been mulling the problems over and has put together solutions your conscious mind can enact.

Of course, you also have to be open to the solutions boiling to the surface....

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 11:34 AM

Your brain does a lot of processing of information when you're asleep, and it is also "programmed," as it were, to do a big data dump of unimportant stuff from the cache overnight. Forget walking to the curb to pick up the newspaper, what you had for lunch, what the traffic looked like when you drove the kids to school. No longer needed, unless you work to retrieve it and store it elsewhere. Brains aren't computers, quite, but there is research that shows why a good night's sleep is so important to letting the brain reset itself with the proper kinds of sleep.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 11:52 AM

I can recall one very specific instance when a frustrating problem was solved miraculously during sleep. I found the answer when I awoke one morning, but when I asked at the office for materials to check it out my management objected.

When I told them that I found the plan beside my bed when I woke up, and "It must have come from God, telling me what to do," they apparently believed me¹, even though the "answer" was written in ballpoint pen on a Kleenex rather being chiseled into the standard stone. They agreed to let me have the $3.72 worth of parts for the test.

It worked perfectly, but was never used because the supplier who needed to build it said it was "too complex" for their people to build. (Their real objection was the $3 worth of parts, since they'd submitted a fixed-price bid.)

The actual answer was that while asleep I'd grabbed the pen and drew the circuit diagram - without waking enough to clearly remember doing it in the morning. (Although I did wake up with a clear feeling that a great burden had been lifted.)

¹ This was in Kansas, so it was a common enough explanation when that particular management didn't quite understand something "technical."

John

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 12:13 PM

It happens for me, often. My doc thought I was bipolar until he began to understand the physical problems that create an alternating rehabbing pattern of pain/wellness, dysfunction/bursts of extreme and eager functionality. (I may be a LITTLE bipolar but mostly I think this is simply the reality of rehabbing an injury or whole body, and of getting past the hardest parts perimenopause hormone surges.)

Back to work-- learning not to overdo and cause the next pain episode by having too much long-awaited fun!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Alice
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 12:42 PM

Could this just be a manic phase?

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Alice
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 12:44 PM

I only say that because of the feeling of "tackling world peace" that comes with the smart feeling sounds like a manic phase, as I've seen it exhibited in a friend.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 01:44 PM

Alice,

Earlier in life I had some pretty big responsibilities with some pretty interesting problem-solving challenges, professionally; my own small part of "world peace" was included. In my post above, that "world peace" line was just my way of reminding myself that I have other priorities now-- that although the old stuff was a lot of fun, it's not on my playground so much anymore.

No, I was just kidding around that after several days of fog, pain, and poor sleep, a number of pending issues suddenly don't seem so overwhelming and it's fun to be back to what's normal for me-- inquisitive, creative thinking.

That rare cup of morning coffee didn't hurt, either, obviously. :~) On topic, caffeine in small doses has been shown to aid thinking. (The trick is SMALL, when LARGE tastes so good. Today's was a tad large.)

It's a functional phase, since what I have been doing since the last post has been a series of small but overdue housechores punctuated by chair rest. My knee, the current part under rehab, is starting to hurt and swell from the day's chores, but I know from the week's doctor visit and past experience that I need to keep moving but not overdo it-- not sit too long but sit long enough-- etc.

New anti-inflammatory regimen to work into the picture as well.

The trick of any sort of rehab is to keep moving through it depending more on logic than on short-term feelings and sensations.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Alice
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 02:51 PM

I remember perimenopause being a foggy phase. I don't know if there was a specific time when the fog lifted and things were more clear again, but eventually the fog was gone.
Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Slag
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 03:03 PM

Delusional in the morning, waking dream, overlap? Still sleepy, Yawn! Roll over. MMMMMMM It's so good to be retired! warm, MMMMM this must be world peace because my world is peaceful right now. Back to sleep. Hey! come on. I earned it!

Jesus said "My peace I leave with you. Not peace as the world gives, give I you." First have peace with God. Live your life peaceably and promote that peace where and when you can. The peace that the world gives is an armed standoff! or the peace of the cemetery. The best the world can do is a set of rational rules (laws) agreeable to the majority and all keeping the same. Yes do what you can. Have faith. Keep the peace.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Peace
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 03:04 PM

I wish . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 03:12 PM

Hmm. No, I more often wake up feeling stupider than I did the previous day! ;-)

But seriously, Susan, it may have happened on the odd occasion, I guess, but not in some time now.

Good advice, Slag.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 03:15 PM

Avec Dieu et mon droit.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 03:34 PM

PS, the phenomenon SRS describes is enhanced with counseling techniques where deep catharsis based on positive thoughts and actions leads to deep re-evaluation/resorting that all occurs automatically.

See www.rc.org and no, that is not the Roman Catholic "rc."

I practiced that for years and no kidding, I got so zippy in my processing speeds that it was hard to handle.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 08:00 PM

I can see clearly now, the pain has gone....

sorry...

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Bert
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 09:34 PM

No, but if you could bottle it, I need some.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 01 Dec 07 - 10:35 PM

Bert, go to that www.rc.org site I mentioned above, and you can get what I got.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:12 PM

My wife (Ferrara) used to be a programmer who had to design databases & such. She used to wake up in the night and head for the computer/modem thing and fix problems she just woke up 'knowing' the answer to.

   I mostly dream about problems in metaphorical ways and never resolve anything. But a GOOD night's sleep can improve my attitude so that I can deal with 'em while awake.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:15 PM

I wake up with great ideas pretty regularly. But I wake up with really stupid ideas just as often, so they sort of cancel each other out.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Bee
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:17 PM

Hmmm... Susan, AFAICS, I've done that kind of thing for years with friends - never knew it was a technique, just a normal close friendship.

On topic, I have smart days and stupid days and average days. My sister and I independently described our 'smart' days as times we feel the 'electricity has been turned on'. Eventually it came up in conversation that we used the same description. But that is what it feels like. At those times we become more creative, more able to solve problems, more able to learn new concepts. Can't blame it on hormones, as I'm years post-menopausal and she isn't. Wish we could find a causative agent, but so far, nothing obvious.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:25 PM

Oh...and be careful. It could be like the now famous story "Flowers for Algernon" (made into a movie called "Charly")

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:30 PM

Bee, RC techniques ARE just like a close friendship-- it's a natural process-- only more organized and intentional in application so that progress on recovering mental flexibility continues over a long period of time (after the urgency of the feelings fades).

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 03 Dec 07 - 02:29 AM

I've just had a thought (shuddup John!) - Who is goinhg to volunteer to wake up Maxwell Smart?

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Slag
Date: 03 Dec 07 - 02:43 AM

Or "The Lawnmower Man", Bill D      .\ /.
                                    WWWWWWW
                                    MMMMMMM

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: GUEST,SmartMan
Date: 03 Dec 07 - 03:06 AM

Could be a blues song in here somewhere -

Well I woke up this morning,
Feeling kinda smart.
Woke up this morning,
Feeling kinda smart.
Got outta bed right away,
Cause you should never trust a fart.

I made it to the bathroom
made it A Okay.
Made it to the bathroom,
Made it A Okay.
Wrote a 3 book novel,
And a scientifice research paper on the causes and cures of global warming on the way.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Mr Red
Date: 03 Dec 07 - 01:29 PM

FWIW the New Scientist had an article on this sort of thing Aug 18 page 30.
Basically breakfast on bananas &/or porridge (soluable fibre generally) and brains do better than starch and sugar eg cornflakes.
If you do manual work the good old English Breakfast and bread & cheese for dinner works better. If that sounds like a ploughman's lunch - it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Dec 07 - 01:58 PM

Oh...and be careful. It could be like the now famous story "Flowers for Algernon" (made into a movie called "Charly")

Yes..... sometimes I wish I had never seen the movie or read the book, because sometimes on a foggy day that comes to mind, instead of the question, "OK, what do I need to do now?" And that Algernon thing gets in the way of being just purely grateful for the smart days, and taking them at a level pace instead of using them up so hard that something in rehab flares up and I'm back on a roller-coaster.

I KNOW that sounds so bipolar... I was raised in a home with an undiagnosed bipolar parent, and I think that is why the roller coaster seems more normal to me than taking things on an even keel. I mean, I know I have bipolar patterns of behavior, but I can always, always trace the appraent highs and lows to other phenomena, change the behavior (self-directed or with a reminder), and get back onto the upside pretty easily. ( :~) OCD is more likely! )

Mmm, yes, blood sugar (do people really EAT in daylight?).... coffeeeeeee.... must go adjussssttt....

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Bert
Date: 03 Dec 07 - 03:30 PM

WOW. Great site WYSILUV.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Dec 07 - 04:36 PM

You betchum. You didn't think my whole secret was churchy stuff? :~)

Gee, I miss you. We got a new couch but we saved your old one too.

Don't miss the anti-racism stuff there. POWerful, effective.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 04 Dec 07 - 10:33 AM

I was Daddy's Girl, not Mama's Girl. By the time I was old enough to break free of that paradigm in my dad's dysfuctional decline, and appreciate my Mom, and learn from her, I had missed a lot of simple tricks of daily living. I'm still developing new ways of handling what she might have taught me, that fit the life I have now.

One area of persistent need of improvement has been brekky. Between Hardi and I, nowadays the oatmeal crockpot usually gets cleaned out each night in time to set it up for the next AM. I add hot tap water to soak it when I empty it for my serving (later in the AM than Hardi's).

Another area is dishes piling up-- I'd gotten pretty good at soaking what would end up in the DW and loading and running it before it got out of hand, even in our crazy-busy lifestyle of ministries. This got even better when I started re-using my AM wake-up teamug for my oatmeal bowl. :~) Silverware was still going unwaashed, too often. I hate doing the silverware. Our DW doesn't handle it well..... we bought a bigger set. But that still doesn't mean I can or should leave it forever....

Another area has been reducing portions sizes all day, now that my metabolism has finally recovered from the medically-imposed metabolic crash of the late 80's-early 90's, after much hard work. Fat that would not burn, prior, is starting to burn. It's time to shrink the stomach, from the inside out. (We DO NOT NEED gastric bypass to do this!) I got some good strategies in place for that too.

(BTW, NONE OF THESE ARE HELP REQUESTS.)

Well, this morning I hit the trifecta in new strategies.

There's a Pyrex glass measuring cup I use every night to make the oatmeal. 1/2 cup of oats, 1 cup of water. The hot water for the oats rinses the cup well enough, I only wash it once a week. Weekdays, it sits stovetop, drying, in reach for the next night's crockpot setup.

So today instead of the teamug as a bowl, I used the Pyrex. LOVED the handle, loved the mixing space it provided to stir in the peanut butter, loved the measure marks to keep the milk-added inside my chosen limit, love how it sits in the sink soaking now, waiting to catch and soak the day's silverware. If I want oatmeal tomorrow, I'll have a day's silver to whip as I pass through the kitchen, one bowl less to wash, etc.etc.etc.

Waking up smart, yes.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 09:11 AM

Ta-Daaaaaaahhhhhhh!

Waking up smart at 4AM is as good as doing it at 8 or 9, especially if there's a jackpot, redball, or [plainspeak alert!] sack of sh*t to dodge.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Peace
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 10:20 AM

On the rare days I wake up smart I go back to bed.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Bert
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 10:43 AM

WYSILUV,

try English (or Scottish) steel cut oats for a nice change. Better texture and more nutty flavor.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 10:44 AM

If you're smarting too much in the morning, hydrocortisone may help.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 11:07 AM

They say that proper sleep alsos the mind to make engrams for onlg term learning. Without proper sleep yesterday's learning could be for naught.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 10:34 AM

I could do with a sleep like that...

i really could.

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 03:00 PM

WLD, if I had a scanner I'd post a book chapter that goes into detail about the amazing things that happen in deepest sleep that we miss if we don't get that kind of sleep. But I can xerox and snail-mail it if you PM me an address, and I'd be very happy to do it. (It also mentions in passing how to get that sleep.)


If only the smart wake-ups didn't tend to dribble out into utterly stunod evenings.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Sep 09 - 10:04 AM

Red-letter day.

All the swirling "procrastinations" connected to one unmet need/project turned out once again, to be "info-gathering" periods of time. I woke knowing exactly how to proceed on a BIG project, now that the right helpers are on the horizon and I know exactly what help is needed.

If only I could remember that these little gaps in projects usually have to do with PEOPLE who are not yet on the horizon, I'd pray their quicker arrival, for arrive-- they always have. I COULD learn to trust that, DUH!

In fact at the moment I am awaiting contact with a great pair of potential buddies in another state who may help us advance on another goal, which I know, already, will take several years to ripen. (I know who they are-- by first name and location-- I just have to track them down and I'm waiting for their union people to hook me up.)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Waking Up Smart
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 May 12 - 11:09 AM

It turns out that to wake up smart, it helps to have a THYROID [gross understatement].

Mental stamina and in particular waking clarity have been much improved with even the initial ("non-optimized") dose of Synthroid plus bedtime DHA (brain food).

It also turns out that waking up smart correlates with getting not just enough sleep but enough of the right kind, and that physical energy correlates as well-- duh! :~)

This AM's dose of Synthroid was the first increase towards optimazation. It feels like circling above Planet Normal, from a soonish safe landing.

~Susan