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A R E Y O U R E A L L Y A W A K E ?

עפעפי יני ותנומה מ ע נה מ לך העולם, המעביר ש ינו מ ברוך אתה יי אלה

Blessed are You, Hashem our God, King of the Universe, who removes sleep from my eyes and slumber from my eyelids...

WHICH BEST DESCRIBES YOU?

Question to think about: Why is this bracha the last in the series of morning blessings? Surely it should be one of the first?

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THE STAGES OF SLEEP

The invention of the electroencephalograph allowed scientists to study sleep in ways that were not previously possible. During the 1950s, a graduate student named Eugene Aserinsky used this tool to discover what is known today as REM sleep. Further studies of human sleep have demonstrated that sleep progresses through a series of stages in which different brain wave patterns are displayed.

TYPES OF SLEEP

Our bracha talks about two types of sleep- sheina and tenuma.

What types of sleep are these?

What is the difference?

Vilna Gaon משלי ו ד :א"הגר Sleep is internal in the removal of thought, and tenuma sleep is external when one is asleep but not asleep, that is that his eyelids are closing but his thought has not been removed from him, for if you call to him he will answer you.

ותנומה היא , שינה הוא בפנים בהסתלקות המחשבותינו שעפעפיו והי, מבחוץ כאשר הוא נים ולא נים

דקרי ליה , סגורות אבל אין מחשבתו נעדרת ממנו ... ועני

WHY DON'T YOU REMEMBER YOUR COMMUTE?

Adapted from Lifehacker.com

We've all been there before: you snap out of a daze, look around, and realize you've driven all the way to your destination without really noticing it. It's a bit scary when you think about it, but it happens to all of us at some point. The idea that we can forget about large chunks of time is unsettling, but it really just boils down to how we perceive time in general. In this particular case, it's about how time and memories are formed together.

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The reason is simple: the longer it takes for our brain to process information, the longer the period of time feels. So, when the brain isn't doing a lot of processing, like, say, on your commute to work that never changes, the time it took to do so doesn't feel that long. One study suggests that the more attention we pay to an event, the longer the interval of time feels. Another study from the Journal of the Association for Psychological Science had similar findings. It makes sense too. Think back to the last really great day you had. Chances are by the end of the day, you felt like full days had passed since you had breakfast. Now, think back to that morning commute. Despite the fact you were actually stuck in congested traffic and bored for much of it, it likely feels really short. Essentially, new experiences make it feel like time passed more slowly. In the moment, that commute may have felt like it was taking forever, but when it's done, it felt like it flew past. Think of it as though your commute has just a few prints of film in it to fill up a whole hour. When you play it back, you can watch the whole thing in 10 seconds. Now, think about that great vacation, all those memories fill up a lot more film, and thinking through those memories takes a lot longer than the commute. Effectively, that makes us perceive that time is actually extended. So, how do you actually remember your commute? You'll need to recalibrate your reality a little and pay attention to the world around you. You can increase your powers of observations with practice, and when you break out of your comfort zone you'll inevitably create a new set of memories that help you parse time better. Our attention is valuable, and when you use it to create memories, you're effectively making it seem like time stretches out. When you don't, it just flies by like your boring commute.

HAVE YOU EVER EXPERIENCED THIS? WHAT

HAPPENED?

WHY DO YOU THINK THIS HAPPENS TO PEOPLE?

ARE YOU REALLY AWAKE?

Messilas Yesharim – the Path of the Just is the Ramchal’s classic work about the fundamentals of the purpose of life.

Messilas Yeshorim Introduction הקדמה ישרים מסילת ספר The writer says: I have written this work not to לבני ללמד חברתיו לא הזה החיבור: המחבר אמר

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teach men what they do not know, but to remind them of what they already know and is very evident to them, for you will find in most of my words only things which most people know, and concerning which they entertain no doubts. But to the extent that they are well known and their truths revealed to all, so is forgetfulness in relation to them extremely prevalent. It follows, then, that the benefit to be obtained from this work is not derived from a single reading; for it is possible that the reader will find that he has learned little after having read it that he did not know before. Its benefit is to be derived, rather, through review and persistent study, by which one is reminded of those things which, by nature, he is prone to forget and through which he is caused to take to heart the duty that he tends to overlook.

הידוע את להזכירם אלא, ידעו לא אשר את האדם תמצא לא כי. גדול פירסום אצלם ומפורסם כבר להם אותם יודעים האדם בני שרוב דברים אלא, דברי ברוב פרסומם רוב שכפי אלא, כלל בהם מסתפקים ולא

מצוי מהם ההעלם כך, לכל גלויה שאמתתם מה וכנגד מזה הנלקט התועלת אין כן על. רבה והשכחה מאד

אפשר כבר כי, אחת פעם בו הקריאה מן יוצא הספר שלא קריאתו אחר חדושים בשכלו הקורא ימצא שלא מן יוצא התועלת אבל. מעט אלא, קריאתו לפני בו היו

האלה הדברים לו יזכרו כי. וההתמדה עליו החזרה חובתו לבו אל וישים, בטבע האדם מבני הנשכחים

ממנה מתעלם הוא אשר

ACCORDING TO THE RAMCHAL, WHY IS IT IMPORTANT

TO REMIND OURSELVES ABOUT THESE PRINCIPLES?

HOW OFTEN DO YOU TAKE TIME TO REFLECT ON THE

PURPOSE OF LIFE?

Rambam Hilchos Teshuava ג פרק תשובה הלכות ם"רמב Even though he sounding of the shofar on Rosh Hashana is a decree, it contains an allusion. It is as if (the shofar’s call) is saying: Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise, Inspect your deed, repent , remember your creator. Those who forget the truth in the vanities of time…

רמז הכתוב גזירת השנה בראש שופר שתקיעת פ"אע הקיצו ונרדמים משנתכם ישינים עורו כלומר בו יש

וזכרו בתשובה וחזרו במעשיכם וחפשו מתרדמתכם הזמן בהבלי האמת את השוכחים אלו, בוראכם

ACCORDING TO THE RAMBAM, WHAT ARE THE

CONSEQUENCES OF BEING SLEEPY AND WHY IS IT

SO IMPORTANT TO BE AWAKE?

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DAVID FOSTER WALLACE, IN HIS OWN WORDS

It is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a

much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about "the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master".”

BACK TO THE ORIGINAL QUESTION

Why is this bracha the last in the series of morning blessings? Surely it should be one of the first?

When we say this blessing, the idea is not to merely thank God for waking us up. We already did that when we said “Who differentiates between day and night”.

Rather we are recognizing the two levels of sleep we experience. We are awake from our deeper state of unconsciousness- sheina. But we are now focused on being awake, focused and intentional about our tasks for the day. We bless Hashem for removing

the slumber from our eyelids, the tenuma that can leave us just going through the motions.

When we face the day, after we have completed this series of blessings, it should be wide awake and fully conscious and aware to achieve everything we can.