Silence and Sleep
There is a magnificent ability which exists in all human beings, indeed in all higher animal life, that is the ability to relax the body and brain into the silence of sleep. The strange thing is that with all our modern science, technology and research, there has yet to be a definitive reason as to why we really need to sleep and what exactly happens during sleep.
I offer a very simple theory, which I hope can lead to some further investigation and research. Is it possible that that which we call sleep is none other than the organism's necessary return to the Pure Silence of Being. In other words, sleep has been conditioned or learned by the organism as a way of realizing and returning to the ground of Being. All has come from the Pure Silence and all will return. The Pure Silence is that which nourishes and propels all life onwards and has allowed all forms to arise, awaken and be. When we sleep and awaken again, are we not practicing the great cycle of Being itself from light to dark, from birth to death? In essence then, sleep might be a simple reminder to us and all animal life of that which we are within: the gentle, still, nothingness of pure energized, creative, potential silence. And more than that perhaps sleep might simply be a way for us to practice death, that dark destiny we all fear so much, but which includes in its treasure the final realization that the we, as individual little egos never existed in the first place. Perhaps the organism practices this all its life to be ready for the final union with silence itself.
I can tell you plainly that there is a hidden gift here for you now. There is a gentle moment every time one lays down to fall asleep. It is that moment just before the darkness of no time, no thought, no activity occurs, before we succumb to sleep. In that pristine millisecond before sleep overtakes the body, there is a drift from awareness of body-mind to just awareness: from the self to the silence, from the "me" to a seeming nothingness where "I" am not. At this point all is let go of. There is a space without limit, without borders, without time or comparison. Seek this out. I know you know of this; I know you have experienced this. Look for this and you will be amazed. Then while you are awake look for this again. Perhaps you can relax into it right now: the space where you are not, where time is not, which there is no border and no need of comparison. There is your Pure Silence, shining brightly within you and without every second of your life: sleeping and waking. There is only this.
Sleep well my friend!