Dear Je,
One of the greatest problems affecting modern people today is the inability to sleep peacefully. We often attribute sleeplessness to stress, workload, or technology, but I feel that the deeper reason lies in the way we imagine our lives. We tend to see life as one continuous, unbroken flow in which yesterday, today, and tomorrow are all tightly connected. Because of this, we carry the burdens of one day into the next without interruption.
Every night, before going to sleep, our minds begin to rehearse the next day. We imagine tomorrow’s responsibilities, conversations, successes, failures, and uncertainties. Even before the new day arrives, we have already filled it with expectations and anxieties. As a result, the mind never truly rests. It continues working even while the body longs for sleep.
But reality is very different. Every day is a separate event. Each morning is a fresh beginning with its own possibilities, opportunities, and unexpected turns. Yesterday has already completed its course. Its victories and defeats, its mistakes and achievements, belong to the past. They do not need to be carried into tomorrow. Likewise, tomorrow has not yet come into existence. It deserves to be encountered only when it actually arrives.
Perhaps the most important mental discipline for peaceful sleep is to consciously end the day before going to bed. We should be able to tell ourselves, “This day is over. Nothing more can be done today. Tomorrow is another day, and I will meet it when it comes.” Such an attitude frees the mind from unnecessary continuity. It allows us to put down the weight we have been carrying throughout the day.
Sleep is not merely a biological necessity; it is also a psychological act of surrender. We surrender the completed day to time and trust that the next day will unfold in its own way. Every dawn brings new possibilities that cannot be fully imagined the previous night. Life is richer and more creative than our predictions.
I feel that cultivating this understanding—that each day is complete in itself and that tomorrow need not be lived in advance—is one of the simplest and most profound ways to regain deep, restorative sleep. Perhaps this is also a spiritual practice: learning to die to each day before the next one is born.
Warm regards,
