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ISSUE TWO, VOLUME ONE

FREE!

TO SLEEP, TO DREAM...

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I DON’T KNOW ABOUT MY DREAMSOr yours! Stop calling me and asking

SING ME TO SLEEPYour favourite band helps you sleep..

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Oh Hi! Welcome to issue two of Fermata. Against all odds, this issue made it, and I think it’s one of the rare sequels better than the original. This whole thing wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Becca Long, Manu Somerville, Martine Ribbotin, Jasmine Thomas, Susan Overend, James Hall, Kirstie Jones, James Bastin, Roscela Bolaños, LCD Soundsystem, Passion Pit, Bon Iver, Florence and the Machine, Toro Y Moi, Ben deJager, all of Viscom Year Three 2012 and you! So thank you and Good Night. Sweet Dreams!

SLEEP HABITATSOr: an excuse to publish Simpsons quotes.”I hate when waffles stick together” “Sticking together is what good waffles do!”

SLEEPING WITH FAMOUS PEOPLEOr how to run a country entirely from your bed

“You take a really sleepy man, Esmé, and he always stands a chance of again becoming a man with all his faculties intact” -J.D Salinger, “For Esmé, With Love and Squalor”

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Dreams are wierd. That’s a fact of Science. That’s probably why there are a billion intense theories about them and the deep psychological truths they contain. Science still isn’t entirely sure why we dream, but the most commonly-held theory is that dreaming is a Neurological method to process, encode and transfer the data from the short term memory to the long-term memory.

You may have heard that certain dreams mean certain specific things (e.g dreaming about losing your teeth means you’re worried about money) but the truth every dream means a different thing to each dreamer, that is if they mean anything at all. So stop analysing them and sit back and enjoy this free movie in your brain!

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Some months ago my computer became slow, which meant it was time to defragment the hard drive again.

Here is a quick theory aboutthe nature of my Dreams:

The process is accompanied by a beautiful on-screen

visualization: Little bits of information are situated all

over the hard drive. After I press optimise, the disk

spins and over the next couple of hours, those little

bits fall neatly in next to each other, forming an even

denser ring toward the centre, while freeing up

space on the outside perimeter.

This is not only satisfying to watch but, I think, also explains my dreams beautifully:

WHEN I SLEEP, MY BRAIN FOLDS

NEW INFORMATION IN WITH THE OLD,

MAKING ROOM FOR MORE INFORMATION

TO COME.

my dreams have NO MEANINGby Stefan Sagmeister

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WHEN I SLEEP, MY BRAIN FOLDS

NEW INFORMATION IN WITH THE OLD,

MAKING ROOM FOR MORE INFORMATION

TO COME.

(This is surely the reason I go nuts when I am deprived of sleep-- Too little empty space on the hard drive.)

I think in his quest for meaning, Freud got it all wrong:

My dreams mean absolutely nothing. It’s just my brain cleaning itself up.

my dreams have NO MEANINGby Stefan Sagmeister

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MAKE A SLEEP-ONLY ZONEGetting work done in bed can be great, it’s comfortable, warmer and you don’t have as much distractions. You don’t even have to leave as you can text or facebook some poor soul to bring you food. So you just sit on your bed with your laptop and books and stuff, work yourself exhausted, and then try to fall asleep. But you can’t! And why not? Because you’ve turned your bed into an office, bro. It’s like trying to sleep at your desk or at a counter or wherever you work. Possible, but not ideal. You gotta try to make sure you only associate your bed and bedroom with sleep (and one other thing I guess) instead of making it your general living area. So venture out into the wide world and greet that flatmate or family member who forgot you lived there as they never see you leave your room.If you can’t make the whole place exclusively a sleep zone, try to stay out of your bedroom from a certain time (like after dinner) until bedtime. Then, once you return, it’ll feel like you’re entering new and wonderful (yet familiar) Sleep Room you’ve built.

If later in the night you can’t sleep, get out of bed and leave your room for a bit, and go do something not too engaging and even a bit boring for twenty minutes or so. Read the phone book! Find out if you’re one of the five people who still has a phone book! After that return to your sleep-only zone give it another try.

Oh also, screens don’t help sleep much. Artificial light exposure between dusk and the time we go to bed at night suppresses re-lease of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, enhances alert-ness and shifts circadian rhythms to a later hour—making it more difficult to fall asleep. Some scientists have suggested that the screens trick your brain into thinking it’s still daylight, and throw off your whole body-clock. So keep the room as free of electronic devices as you can, and avoid watching tv or using your laptop in bed. Unless you need to set an alarm clock, keep your bedroom a time free environment (clock-watching can make sleep hard too).

“All I’m gonna use this bed for is sleeping, eating and maybe building a little fort.”-Homer Simpson, “The Last Temptation of Homer”

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SOUND AND VISIONMost people obviously find a quiet environment best for sleep, but the amount of quiet can differ. Some folks like absolute quiet (no street noise or anything), whereas others like a bit of familiar noise to get them comfortable. “White noise” like fans, air conditioners, fridges and tv static can also help you get to sleep. If you can’t sleep because you have a song stuck in your head, try listening to that song to sort of purge it, then a more soothing and less catchy song to replace it.

Light affects your circadian rhythm and exposure to bright light can postpone your sleep. Try to make everything as dark as possible with heavy curtains, light-blocking blinds or even one of those sleep masks. Don’t worry about looking like a dork wearing a sleep mask, because it’s dark and no-one can see you.

TEMPERATURESurprisingly, a cool environment is better to sleep in as it reflects the fall in body temperature during sleep. Even though warm temperatures make you feel all nice and drowsy, too much heat leads to disrupted REM sleep, and increases the light stages of NREM sleep. Scientists debate the perfect temperature (I would love to be a fly on the wall at one of these debates, but I digress), but agree that somewhere around 20-25 degrees celsius is perfect to sustain sleep.

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Cut the fabric to the anywhere between 1 and 1.5 metres wide, whatever feels wide enough to comfortably fit you. The ideal length is around 60cm longer than your height. Right now you’ve cut yourself a pretty good blanket, so reward yourself with a nap!

The next step is to sew a loop along both the top and bottom edges to put the supporting ropes through. Fold over the width of your rope long the edge, then sew along it (you could even keep the rope in to save time). Then repeat for the other end! This was probably the hardest step, so you’ve earned a nap.

And look! You’ve pretty much finished your hammock! Make sure you put more rope than you think you’ll need to increase your possible places to put that hammock. Try like 7 metre rope so you can sleep anywhere you please.

-A BIG THING OF DURABLE FABRIC

-SCISSORS

-A SEWING MACHINE

-AROUND 15 METRES OF STRONG, NON-

STRETCHY ROPE

WHY NOT TRY A HAMMOCK?Recent studies have suggested that hammocks are actually amazing for giving you a great sleep. The gentle rocking triggers brain waves that put you into a deep sleep quicker and for longer than a normal bed. Plus they’re easier and cheaper to make than a bed...

“Sir, I need to know where I can get some business hammocks.”

-Homer Simpson, “You Only Move Twice”

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Winston Churchill knew how to run a country in style. He would start his day at 8 am by eating breakfast, answering letters, and dictating to his secretaries, all of which was done without even leaving his bed. This bout of work was followed by a bath, a long lunch, some painting and cards with his wife. Then it was nap time. Churchill’s nap was a completely non-negotiable part of his daily routine. He would return to bed and take a solid one or two hour nap, waking at six-thirty in time for another bath, and a long dinner. At around eleven at night Churchill would finally get around to Prime-Ministering, and would work for several hours before going back to bed and repeating the whole cyle all over again.Churchill loved his naps (he felt they would help him get twice as much done in a day) and would even keep a bed in the Houses of Parliament.

When it comes to sleep schedules and when they feel most awake, people are can usually be split into “Night Owls” and Morning Larks”. The trick is to work out which one you are, and from that you can work out at which point of the day it would be best for you to get your best work done. Churchill was a total Night Owl, and he worked this out and made sure his day played to it. And I mean, the dude beat Hitler, so he must’ve been on to something, right?

Sleeping With Famous People is where we look at (and maybe try) the interesting sleep habits of historical figures, habits that may possibly have helped them achieve amazing things. Sorry if the title got your hopes up for something else.

“Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep

during the day. That’s a fool’s notion held by people who have

no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more.”

-Winston Churchill

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