Tag Archives: awake

Jungle Fever

8 Nov
Djembe is a popular drum throughout West Africa.

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I chronicled the successful results of Falling Awake.

Waking up by doing the opposite of trying to fall asleep.

  • Think of a bunch of random things
  • Start moving and making noise using a drum of some kind

I successfully woke my reluctant self up quite handily this morning at 5:55am despite feeling a slight cold coming on and muscle soreness from working out yesterday evening.  The random thoughts part did not really do much but the drumming gently woke me up for sure!

I happen to have a wooden Djembe hand drum like the one above.  The Djembe drum I have is about 24″ tall, which seems a little large to be dragging under the covers, but I leave the top out and just start tapping on it.  Pretty soon I want to hear its full sound so I have to pull the covers back to uncover it.  Then to get a nicer pop, I have to focus on hitting it better which engages my hand/brain coordination.  Next thing you know, I am jamming out a groove on it and I am awake.

You could use an old coffee can or something equivalent.  I think any smallish drum type thing would work really.

It is kind of a Primal way to wake up for sure.  Give it a try!

Next I shall have to work on a standard post wake up protocol, something along the lines of the Basic Day Template.  I could probably just use the BDT, but I would like to somehow automate it.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Falling Awake

6 Nov
Awake (Julian Marley album)

OK, the Will to Win idea did not pan out for me today.  I tried, but i could not get into the winning mindset when I was sleepy.

Felt like I was stuck on the sleep train, and I wanted to just keep riding it.

I have a new plan for tomorrow, I am going to try to do the opposite of trying to go to sleep!

  • Instead of being quiet I am going to make noises.
  • Instead of being still I am going to wiggle and start moving.
  • I am going to start thinking of a million things.

All those things that prevent me from falling asleep may in fact help me wake up!

At least that’s my theory. I will post again if this idea works or not.

Fresh Edit:  It works!

I found a small drum and put it next to the bed.  I also found a giant conche horn.

Upon first consciouseness-

  • Counted to 10 silently, then again slightly faster, keep repeating until counting very quickly.
  • Grabbed the drum and pull it into the bed, started a slow beat, all I could muster up, then after a minute sped up the tempo slightly, a little more, then a little more, eventually I was jammin’ on a pretty fast beat.
  • At this point I was pretty darn awake, then I got up and blew the conche horn!
  • went to the kitchen and made coffee, brushed teeth, made breakfast etc.

I am quite surprised at how well this worked!

Tags: , , , ,