The quiet little space between sleep and awake

An obvious title for this blurb would be Sleep or Waking Up or Morning. I have chosen The Grey because it is winter in Sweden and everything is grey. Who turned the lights out? gets mentioned every day, at least once. My recent studio adventure lead me to sort my pencils and now you may see why my pencils are out in the first place. They can capture that perfect, grainy, fuzzy grayness. And is it gray or grey for you, I seem to write both? On Perplexity, grey is the British english and gray is American but both mean a shade of dark.

2023 has been a year that we have taken our sleep more seriously. A good nights sleep is the key to happiness, it really is. Unplugging the phone, dimming the lights, popping a few magnesium supplements, and breathing exercises before sleep have become routine and my morning wake up has changed too.

When I wake up, the room is completely dark, thanks to window blinds, a rolling black out shade and a heavy blackout curtain. Three layers of light blocking! During swedish summers the sun is working hard almost all 24 hours and winters it may be barely visible for 4 hours, but I still use 3 layers of protection.

When I come to, if an alarm hasn’t woken me, I try to slowly assess my wellness, awakening my consciousness. Things come to my mind, they just come. Maybe things I worry about, or something that I remember from a dream, sometimes they really surprise me or enlighten me. I solve things, I long for things. It is the longing that makes me curious. I will lay there in bed and just think, or let my mind wash over these thoughts. It is a strange kind of unthinking I guess. (I am probably not explaining this clearly.)

But this is the only time of the day that I have this kind of clarity. My mind is fresh and free flowing. There is a still, quiet, and gentle energy that flows and creates a progression. Realizes things that I need to fix, or do, or accomplish, and then I can lay there in the quiet greyness and solve these forecoming thoughts. I see things. Not like in a creepy way, but I can see things that I don’t see when the day is turned on. The greyness is comforting and beneficial as its lack of distraction keeps a focus on what is in the minds’ thoughts.

Once out of bed, you are supposed to look at light, sunlight if you are lucky and wake up those neurosensors in your brain. Drink a glass of water, hydrate your organs, save the caffeine for at least 45 minutes, journal your thoughts, write a to-do list, do some yoga, stretch, meditate, breathwork, put in a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher, make it to your 7am spin, home to do some art. Vrrooom Vrrooom Phew. I quite like my grey time in the morning.