Sleeping With Books
Some things never get old... like stuffing all of your class notes under your pillow the night before a big exam. Childhood rituals often follow us into adulthood. Our human nature yearns for familiarity and tradition and we sometimes find ourselves completing behaviors and we don't even remember why.
Let me tell you how a 28 year old woman ends up sleeping with books....okay 32 year old woman. I’ve always required perfection of myself, even as I child. I was the type of kid who cried if I received a B. I remember a time in my younger years as a kid being extremely nervous before a big test. I tried to stay up all night studying. My dad told me not to worry. All I had to do was place my notes and my book under my pillow. "Get some rest and you will ace your test in the am" he said. He said that it was an old wise tale, place your books under your pillow and you will gain all of its knowledge. I believed him whole heartedly because when you're a poor girl growing up in rural South Carolina and you have a father that is actually raising you... he's a god. What he says is law and I didn't doubt for a second that it wasn't a fact. So I snuggled in, quite uncomfortably, with a stack of papers and a fifth grade science book under my head. And the next day.... what do ya know I passed my test !
Now fast forward twenty something years. In my adult life I find myself pursuing educational goals yet again. As I struggle with the balance of the intricacies of being a single mother, the difficulties of careers and exactly what is a freaking neuromuscular junction ? ! At one AM I find myself crawling alone into my oversized king bed and stuffing an anatomy and physiology book under my pillow.
Does it work? Who knows ? What's the science behind this behavior? Is it the power of positive thinking? The Bible says As a man thinketh he shall become. Does the information somehow unconsciously seeps into my brain while I sleep? Does reading things right before bed scientifically stabilize information into our memories? I may never know, but I DO know that it makes me feel better. And THAT within itself is all that we as humans can ask for.
Peace and blessings,
BB