DNA Celebrity Column: Sleep, writes Ayushmann Khurrana

The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I’ve promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep.”
— Robert Frost 

These lines were also the favourite of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It talks about giving up on sleep and carrying on with life, in general. It’s a sort of self-motivation. Sleep has been termed as a luxury.

This activity, which consumes almost 1/4th of our life, is the key to happiness. It is the answer to the toughest questions. It is better than sex. In fact, sleep post-sex is better than sex. But sleeping immediately post-sex could be the worst thing ever. Talk, pretend, cuddle and just sleep. Okay.

The kind of clarity you get post-sleep, is magical. But sleep deprivation has become a state of life. There was a time before 2012, I used to get no-frills sleep. I used to sleep for a minimum of eight hours. And I used to sleep like a baby. I haven’t slept really well since the release of my first film. My mind has never rested in peace since then. It’s always working.

The diverse purposes and mechanisms of sleep are the subject of substantial ongoing research. Sleep seems to assist with improvements in the body and mind. Research in the 21st century is investigating whether sleep is a period of maintenance for removing metabolic waste compounds from the brain. Post a good sleep, you look bright and feel bright.

Have you ever heard about the American band called R.E.M.? I love their song Losing My Religion. Reminds me of my time in Moscow. The song was a hot favourite on radio in Russia. By the way, the full form of R.E.M. is rapid-eye movement. It is a form of sleep. Dreams occur only during R.E.M. But most of the dreams I’ve had were dreams with my eyes wide open.

The dream of becoming an actor, a star who could act, sing and dance and become a triple threat in the performing arts. I may not sleep till I become really awesome in these things. And I’m too self-critical to achieve awesomeness. Anything I do would be an inch less than awesome. So, sleep will always elude me.

But I’m still happy. My mind keeps getting excited about the day. The beauty of the early morning sun. The lessons I learned with my every project are so profound, that sleep eludes me. Yet, my eyelids don’t feel the heaviness. My soul sings as I’m a born singer.

Sleep eludes me because I’ll never let life elude me. I’ve seen politicians sleep in Parliament. I’ve seen my batchmates sleep in class during the last period of the school. I’ve seen travellers sleep in the bus/train/flight or at the airports. I’m one of those travellers who always carries a neck pillow with an eyemask tucked in. The idea is to sleep whenever you find a dull moment in your life.

Sigh. I don’t find any. That’s the best and the worst part of this beautiful life. But you also detest the time right before you go to sleep when you automatically think about all the things you want to forget. Good night.