Benefits of sleeping outside Since I started listening to my body I've made quite a lot of new discoveries. Life started to feel fun once again. Last august life just showed me one of the best soups I ever eaten: a mix between boiled and fresh ingredients, served hot :) It became a favourite of mine and mother still mentions it to this day. Last December my body showed me sleeping on the floor, and such a new universe opened up for me.. dream and health wise. Now my body showed me sleeping outside, and truly I am amazed of how I feel. I have almost 2 weeks of sleeping out in the open air now. Zero tent or anything. Just a pillow and a fluffy wool blanket, on an improvised wooden deck and that's it. And I feel much different. In my sleep and in my day. My mind feels different. I could say a new sense of calmness but also a new sense of trust and stability. My body feels alive, happy and rejuvenated. It might be for many reasons. 1. First the air outside is highly oxygenated, packed with negative ions from all the surrounding nature. During night time the air is cleaner and slightly breezier so the brain gets oxygenated properly. And I feel there is more to this. A sort of electro magnetic recharge that happens by breathing in this fresh air while sleeping. 2. Then it might be because of the natural sounds that I hear while sleeping. Crickets, trees and leafs moving above, dogs barking sometimes.. and birds chirping in the morning. Two days ago I was waken up by a bee fussing over my nose. Today I woke up by the wind gently caressing my face. 3. It might be the natural smells that act as a sort of therapy for the brain. Especially at night the smells get intensified: the flowers from the garden, the sweetness of the grape vines near where I sleep, the smell of leafs, resins and soil. All of these smells are lacking when sleeping indoors, and I feel they bring a sort of calmness and caress to the mind while sleeping. 4. It might be due to the natural light spectrum emitted from the atmosphere around. Even if our eyes are closed the light spectrum reaching them has a high impact on the brain while sleeping. There were several days when the moon was full and it was shining exactly on my pillow, so I slept with my head under its glow, and I love how that impacts my sleep. In the morning I am wakened up by the natural light outside, which again gives my brain a natural kick of active hormones helping me wake up naturally. In general I feel there is an electro magnetic connection going on.. between my body, the body of the trees around, the plants, the earth, the atmosphere. I feel a sort of connection as if sleeping outside makes my body part of this network, where my body becomes an integrated piece of the environment around. And somehow I even feel the trees and elements around are taking care of me, feeling my body nurtured and protected. I feel they are so happy to be able to do this and to see a human sleeping with them. Truly I feel such an intimate indescribable connection. 5. It might be due to the lack of concentrated electro magnetic fields that exists around a house, due to cables and devices. Even since I can remember I always had this thing where I would need to shut off all the lights in the room so i can feel I can go to sleep. I usually unplug the wifi devices, and other devices before sleeping. These factors, and maybe more that I am not aware of, somehow changed my mood. I wake up refreshed, and the dominant feeling I feel is peace. I feel at peace with my self, my mind. The dreams also feel more integrated. I get eager when thinking I need to go to sleep again. And even now as I write this, I am outside in "bed", and the crickets are chirping all over and they make me wanna fall asleep :) --- Denissa Nastase / Sept, 14, 2020