Do You Sleep?

Consider this question.
Seriously.

Most of us immediately will say yes or no.
Either we collapse in exhaustion.
Or we suffer from debilitating insomnia.

I realized after getting sober I had not really slept in 10 years.
I either anesthetized myself until I blacked out, collapsed due to physical exhaustion from training, or I simply slept 3-5 hours then woke up and the next night slept hard due to an incurred sleep debt.

Sleep is, IMHO, the single best indicator of overall well being.
It is the true barometer of where you are on all levels/cylinders.

If you are so stressed out you do not sleep you have unresolved issues dominating your life: professional, romantic, personal, familial, whatever.

If you dream vivid nightmares you have underlying stress cancerously spreading through your subconscious and manifesting itself accordingly.

If you have turned to sedatives and the like to numb yourself to your modern life you are avoiding your own paradigm and your own structure and honeycomb of discontent by slapping some salve on there instead of performing surgery to address the wound.

The crazy thing about the human condition is that we can limp along for decades this way.
The machine will not necessarily break down completely.
You will live.
You will survive.
But only you will directly feel the pain which occurs.

Do you eat well?
Do you exercise regularly?
The above two already exclude the vast majority of Americans.
Do you overdose on prescription pills, level and illegal drugs?
Do you balance your life or go on video game benders of 5 hours at a time?
Do you lash out at others rather than hold yourself responsible and accountable to make meaningful and substantive change for yourself and your life?