Sleep- an amazing, underemphasized coping mechanism.
Our category of people, we’ve got a problem? We sleep first😴🛌
No, we are not weird, in fact, there are a number of us sitting pretty on this table.
We don’t cry, because most times, sleep follows the shedding of tears, so what’s the point? Why not get started with the part where we have to run away from our problems for a while🥺?
You want to say that crying helps and it’s beneficial, for mental wellness and release of emotions and yaddy yadda I know it does. Google told me it helps…a lot.
I will tell you in return that sleeping helps…a great deal. You don’t know about it. Have you slept before after realizing that you are in some deep trouble, or confused, or helpless, or you’ve got so much to do and little time? It helps, everytime. Trust me when I say this.
It is called running away from the world. For sometime, you run away. Then, you wake up, back to reality, with a clearer mind, and a reminder that your wahala dey wait for you, that your problem has not moved an inch, and had probably not reduced in intensity.
It reminds you that “Omo, I don enter am. Even after sleeping, this yawa never disappear? I have got to do something, and do it immediately”
What this realization moves you to do? Man or woman up, to think of ways to solve the problem, to open your mind to the fact that even if you do rant, on your status or anything, if you share, which by the way is healthy, you probably still have to deal with it on your own, or with some assistance.
So, back to talking about my category of persons:
We sleep like a baby, except that a baby does not have much to think about, but getting fed, playing and sleeping again. We sleep like a baby because we sleep for long, to run away; not because our sleep is trouble free. We feel while we sleep. We know we are not babies, our problems are far beyond feeding and sleeping again. Laughing out loud😅,because sleeping too much too is not even in the option, in the middle of all the “rogbodiyan" of life.
No, we are in every way different from babies,
- Babies don’t sleep to run away from their problems, they sleep because they can , they have all the time in the world to.
- Babies don’t wake up to meet the same problems unsolved. They wake up to their mother ready to feed them, carry them, and play with them. We wake up to think of ways to solve them problems.
When there are problems, different people do other different things to cope and deal:
- Some people cry;
- Others complain over and over, others share their problems with their friends, family, WhatsApp contacts via status updates;
- Others do all these and shed tears afterwards, others sleep after shedding tears and wake up hours later with splitting headaches;
- Others simply move on with their lives without thinking too much of their problems, others watch movies and/or read books to drown out their pain and sorrows. These set of people can either read or watch tragic stories/movies, and express their emotions through the character, especially the protagonist, or read/watch comedies and laugh their lungs out, so much that people around them start to wonder if the comedy is really that funny.
Little do they know. Little do they know that the laughing effect is not from the movie; it is from deep within, the ability to want to see their world through their movies or books for a brief moment, to feel that the world isn’t so full of shitty circumstances that change everything.
- Others don’t feel. As senseless as that seemed when you read it, that is a simple truth. The truth is that feeling can sometimes slow the process of thinking of a solution, a way out. It takes time to feel and express emotions, so some don’t bother doing that. They do what? They meuve😞
- There are still some others that blame everyone for their problems. Someone is always to blame. A bad exam? Their teachers. A bad day? Someone they met while carrying out their activities. Inability to read? Light wahala. What do these people do? They tell everyone who cares to know that their problem wouldn’t be a problem if so and so person did not do whatever and what not. I personally feel these category of people waste time the most. To be honest, having to still think of ways to solve a problem after spending half a day blaming everyone must be draining
- And then, my category: we sleep. Some of us rant before we sleep,others cry a bit before sleeping;just a bit, some just go to sleep directly. I like to think I’m in the former category. Voice notes are the best ways to rant, whether you agree or not.
There is something many don’t know about the category of people that don’t cry so much or cry at all. They think these don’t have human feelings. But why do these cry after seeing a tragic movie, cry when they lose someone they love, and laugh hard when they are happy? Why do these ones express genuine happiness when good things happen, but have no tears left to cry when they have problems?
Someone once told me that she intentionally shies away from crying because she ends up sleeping for too long afterwards, way too long. She said that she doesn’t cry because she’ll have to spend time oversleeping when she should be doing other things.
Another person said that she wants to cry sometimes, but the tears don’t often come,or come out well, and that she feels that deep within her, she has become programmed to accept problems and just have her head wired to provide a solution.
I would say, therefore, that not shedding tears is not always from a place of being depressed, or lacking human feelings, or a characteristic of people that are wicked or psychopathic.
I think it comes from a place of unconsciously wanting to channel energy into converting negative feelings to positive ones, to producing better results.
If you also ask me, I would say that it is a way to avoid going crazy in the world we live in, with everyday problems.
So, my friend, when next you see someone that doesn’t cry often, don’t be quick to suggest therapy or quickly believe that they are crazy or abnormal. The truth is that, while crying is a good way to express oneself, sometimes, there can be alternative ways to express emotions
You’ll be doing well by recommending a very tragic movie to such one, or something really emotional.
Don’t be shocked however, if the person still doesn’t shed tears.
It does happen.
P.S: Do not forget to clap as many as 50 times, and tell me what you feel. Till I come again with my words of wisdom😅, ciao.
