CAROL BURNETT on INSOMNIA

I love Carol Burnett and laugh more at her old tv shows than any others.
Last night I watched a Youtube video of Dick Cavett interviewing her
and she said she had and still has insomnia problems. He asked what she
does when she can't sleep and she said she gets out of bed and steam-cleans a rug,
writes letters, takes a hot bath, and sometimes does a yoga exercise like
standing on her head.

She said she has learned a lot about relaxation from yoga which she began
three months ago. Yoga exercise and deep breathing are helping her a lot.

I am going to post another new thread in the General Discussion Subforum
on yoga deep breathing.

 

By the way, Carol Burnett said both her parents were alcoholics.
Her father was not a mean drunk, but her mother was.
Carol lived most of her girlhood with her maternal grandmother
while her younger sister lived with their mother.
When the sister was in her teens, Carol had her live with her.
So neither of them had a really easy childhood.

 

Thanks Walt, I'm loathe to re-post the great BBC article about insomnia, because I've done so many times, that says insomnia is only a "problem" if one thinks it's a problem. This is due mainly to the cultural meme, that we must all get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep a night. If any one has missed it, if you search "BBC Sleep" it should come up. Carol Burnett does exactly what this article, highlighting a study about sleep from an anthropological perspective talks about. She gets up and does maybe a couple of hours of productive activity--like headstands or shampooing a rug.

In the non-industrialized world, where sleep patterns are tied into a natural environment, sleep patterns fall into what's called "segmented sleep"--two distinct sleep periods divided by an awake time of maybe a couple of hours of activity like, grinding acorns, making crafts or making babies.

I now accept that waking up is not a problem, but a time I look forward to when the world is quiet and concentration is easier. I'll do elective enjoyable things like reading car magazines, catching up on shows on the DVR, or not making babies. I don't lie awake, staring at the ceiling, ruminating and getting depressed.

The invention of a societally dictated sleep pattern, of uninterrupted sleep and insomnia, was invented for the industrial revolution, so everyone would get to the assembly line on time, so as not to hold up productivity.

 

Hi, Tom. I like your reply about insomnia. I used to toss and turn a lot but find that deep breathing gets me to sleep.
And telling myself that I will worry about things tomorrow.

When I really can't sleep, I get out of bed and do some sewing. The concentration on sewing up holes in socks
puts me in a sleepy mood.