Let’s start this right

“Which side of the bed did you wake up on!?” A phrase that’s often thrown at me always has me yelling back “The usual one! What’s that got to do with it?” In my calmer moments though I often wonder why we sometimes wake up fresh and dewy, ready to face the world and beat the blues, whereas on other days, literally wishing we were dead. Where from does the grouchiness come? I think we can safely eliminate lack of sufficient sleep, constipation and uncomfortable sleep posture as reasons. I usually manage my 8 hours and more, my digestive system is made of iron according to many and if bad posture was the reason, the hubby should be grouchy every morning (See I am a diagonal sleeper and the man needs to either occupy one of the resulting triangles or sleep underneath me. Poor bloke. I will have to make it up to him after writing this. I will let him change the OS of my computer, again, just for kicks. Yet again. Once more. *I do hope the undercurrents are coming though here* While talking about sleep posture, I have to tell you that we did try to sleep like normal people, you know, side by side, arms draped lovingly over each-other and all that. And it seemed to be working. Till I was woken up in the middle of the night by a hard bony elbow making high-speed contact with my soft dreaming eye. I woke up to stars though we were of course indoors. He was stretching in his sleep. Who stretches in their sleep? Well I think I have seen babies do it, and cats too, but I was only just informed that it’s prevalent among adults. What a way to find out! I think I am the only person to have got a black eye while sleeping. I choked back the tears while he started crying out if I was OK. Yes that’s another problem, HE cries out when I’m supposed to be doing it. Sometimes, when he catches me waxing, I have to deal with him going “Owwww” every time I pull that strip. Hey, this is my moment to yelp, not yours! O well, needless to say we abandoned the side-by-side sleeping method and went right back to however-you-wish, watch-out-for-your-own-delicates, any-which-way random heaped structure. Now it's really time to get back to the outside of this parenthesis).

So what can it be that decides our mood even before we are fully awake? There are obvious ones like when in those 5 minutes after the alarm goes off and you’re shutting your eyes tight and willing time reverse itself, you recall it is Monday and the week stretches out like a never-ending escalator in your mind’s eye. But sometimes it’s not so obvious. Is it the dreams we see? They say we don’t remember all our dreams so maybe some nights we have these really bad ones which leave us all grouchy but we don’t remember them. Is it the nature of those 8 hours of sleep? My best friend Google told me that the REM phase should not last more than a certain number of hours too. Several cycles of short REM phases are supposed to be the most refreshing. Or is it the way we are woken up? I remember when we were visiting our grandparents in their villages growing up, the children were all banished to the terrace to sleep and the alarm clock there would be the relentless BRIGHT sunlight and house flies hovering all around our faces. See that can set you in a bad mood right away! Maybe, it is the very last thought in your mind before you fall asleep that dictates the mood you wake up in. In any case, think happy thoughts, hopefully that will decide the nature of your dreams and subsequently take care of the morning smiles. Good Morning Everybody!! Let’s Have Us a Great Weekend!