Hey everyone! Jack, I just went back and re-read your message about the sleepless night, where you had the imagery of the flowers and the 1s peeling off, as if one petal at a time - such a beautiful gift from the Angels. Well it struck me how you said you weren't really tired the next day. It's like you were spiritually energized! But yet you hadn't had enough (physical) sleep, which is like a nutrient.
I don't know if they offer this service in the UK, but I used to visit a place in Chicago called Spacetime Tanks - it is a sensory deprivation chamber. Usually it consists of a large vat, in which 800 lbs. of epsom salts are dissolved into only a few feet of water (which is all one needs; the 800 lbs. creates surprisingly strong buoyancy). UV lights flash-sterilize the water between uses, so as not to waste undue portions of water and salt. One enters the chamber, and, whenever one is ready, closes the little door. The water is heated to normal human body temperature. This way, once the door is closed - one experiences utter sensory deprivation. No sights, no sounds, no physical sensations upon the skin, nothing, and one enters the purest form of rest possible - much purer than what one experiences in trying to fall asleep at night (however good one's mattress!).
The first few times I went there and tried this, it took me a long time to fully relax into it; you can't get used to the idea that you don't have to use your muscles at all, to stay afloat. If you experiment for a while you realize that if you drop to total dead weight, you are still floating, and even your face stays above the water line.
From this point forward, you have an hour and a half to float. It is an incredible experience. For meditation, there is no greater medium upon which to begin (to refer to Zach's stillness post). The little group that ran the Sensory Deprivation place I used to go to, touted it as being a cure-all, for conditions like insomnia, migraine headaches, chronic pain, depression, fatigue, anything you can think of. The epsom salts also soothe and heal achy joints and muscles. It is similar to the Dead Sea with its healing properties.
Anyway, one of the qualities so touted by the group was that for students burning the midnight oil before exams, up all night, having gotten no sleep, and yet needing to be fully prepared to undertake exams without 'sleep fuel' - an hour and a half in the tank, they claimed, was equivalent, if not superior to, a full night's sleep. This is whether or not you actually 'fall asleep' while in the tank. For me, I usually entered Theta (the brain wave state in between being awake and being asleep; it puts you 'between worlds,' like that otherworldly feeling you get drifting off, coming to, or entering the Akashic Construct). For me, I felt as though I was drifting in the center of the universe. Once you're truly acclimated, lying there, you can't tell how big the space is, in which you are lying -- it could be billions of miles wide and deep -- you cease to have any orientation to your environment. In the meantime, the tank is only a bit bigger than your own body, but even if you stretch out to your fullest size, you can't touch the walls of the interior of the tank.
It's a wild experience, I wish I had easy access to that place today. It is relatively inexpensive too, slightly less expensive than an hour-long massage.
All this occurs to me, 'for no reason,' to share with you, and wondering whether you have such a place available to you, over there in the UK. It might 'jump start you' toward better sleep at night, or better chance at stillness. Though, as you said in your "Stillness" post on Zach's page, you are more silly than you are still, and maybe you can keep that!!!! We need silliness.
Peace!
Michele
p.s. I couldn't help it -- I looked it up!
Here's a link to the centers available in the UK - the website is from the Float Tank Association. Seems they have locations across the UK! Who knows - maybe one is in your backyard!
http://www.floatationtankassociation.net/centres