Technically, speaking: rumination vs. planning & action.

I suppose two examples come to mind for that, TLW. Whenever I hear the phrase, "like a deer in headlights" I figure it is someone stunned into inaction. The wheels are spinning, but perhaps too much so. Such that they remain frozen, unable to choose which course of action to take.

Meanwhile, there is the other example that comes to mind. The well-known, "doing the same thing over and over. Each time, possibly expecting different results" sort of fits, I suppose.

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I'm going to try and make what amounts to a simplified analogy that I hope illustrates the current problem.

Since things like Sleep Apnea are fairly well understood by a number of people today, I'm going to wind the clock back to a time where possibly Sleep Apnea wasn't completely understood by most.


Let's just say it's 1670.

Hopefully we're in agreement that during 1670 the average person really had little appreciation for what Sleep Apnea actually is.

As we know today, Sleep Apnea is the condition where, once truly deep asleep, the tissues of the throat and possibly even rearward nasal passages become so relaxed and supple that they all just sort of collapse down together. This restricts air movement such that the sufferer needs to snort and snore with considerable force to get any air, often resulting in an alarming number of times where no breathing happens at all. This can wake a person.

Since the person is fully asleep initially, it is usually unlikely they have any idea what is happening, other than that they wake up frequently each night. A highly infuriating experience if the condition is extreme enough. Otherwise, it might be written off as the mere "snoring" of an aging adult, remedied by the traditional afternoon nap.

Once with family, concerned loved ones might infer from the observation of obvious daytime drowsiness that the person has difficulty sleeping; which is true. There may even be discussions about the situation. I imagine the individual in question probably mentions that they seem to wake up all too frequently. What the family does with this information is where the problem begins.

To make this "1670" analogy even more informative, let's have two different families, each having a person struggling with Sleep Apnea.

The first bunch is the Hooke family (Yes. Robert Hooke was chiefly alone... let's just assume he had a number of concerned family nearby). Robert Hooke is a kind of scientist. He thinks about things, but in an organized manner, mostly. He often TESTS such thought via experimentation. He also has a horrible time sleeping.

The second bunch is the Anyone family. Here too Mr. Anyone also suffers from poor sleep, but he isn't a scientist at all and may even lean toward superstition from time to time.

Robert Hooke realizes he has difficulty sleeping (staying asleep) so tries different things after mulling it over. Unfortunately, since he cannot see himself sleeping, he fails to realize his airway becomes occluded. So, figuring he must need a sleep aid of some sort, he tries several things. The first of which is mead or ale.

Meanwhile, Mr. Anyone goes through a similar series of steps, also accepting that perhaps a good round at the pub will set himself straight.

Both men have worse times of it, however. Each awake in sweat, heart racing and a certain amount of panic peeks through a groggy, drunken stupor. Reporting the issue to family starts raising alarm bells. The family steps in, offering to observe. For whatever reason each man turns down the offer to be closely monitored. At least for now.

Robert Hooke mulls it over and decides some other agent might do a better job of keeping him down. He sets out to select some items that he might try taking.

Meanwhile, Mr. Anybody just sits and stews over the situation.

The family in each case comes to the conclusion that needless worry is likely the true culprit. "You could get to sleep easier if you just didn't worry about it so", chimes in one family member in each group.

At first, Robert Hooke mentions that he believes "falling asleep" isn't really the issue. Its staying asleep that is apparently the difficulty. But, not knowing with any degree of absolute certainty, Robert Hooke considered this new point of view and tries a period of time just relaxing and putting things out of his mind each night before bed. He gives it an honest try... But, it doesn't work. He reports this to a wary family.

Meanwhile, Mr. Anybody objects to the notion that he's "just a worry wort" and insists, "This ISN'T it! After all it was only very recently when I became worried over it. Before that, I wasn't worried. It makes NO difference!" This doesn't impress his family. In fact, both families are concerned neither man really takes to heart the importance of clearing one's mind and utterly relaxing before bed.

Mr. Anybody becomes highly agitated at not being "believed". This only puts the family more on edge about his "ruminating state of mind".

Mr. Hooke's family has some doubt that Robert sincerely tried the state of mind angle. This too causes some friction between everyone involved.

Robert Hooke continues trying to come up with something he can do for himself. His constant working the problem, trying different bedding materials, sleeping positions, sleeping locations, improved insulated bedroom walls, different diets, excercise and searching out new and unique sleep aids only alarms the family further as his being into "over thinking it".

In each case, both families argue points between just dropping it to seeking the help of priests or preachers.

I think this long-winded analogy can be stopped about here. I think you should be able to see where one man, Robert Hooke, has described his problem as being unable to STAY asleep. Rather than sitting and stewing over it, he continues to try and find something new that he can DO about it; hopeless as that might be. But, since his family sees only that the problem remains unsolved, his busyness only ends up alarming his family. They assume he is merely trying the same sorts of things over and over and is, in some sense, needlessly ruminating over it, when plainly it isn't pointless ruminating at all. Or, at least is not solely.

Onlookers have tended to misinterpret the situation as being generally "unable to sleep", mainly focusing on GETTING to sleep, which to them is not a big difference from what either man has said. The families continue to believe that a better frame of mind and relaxing and forgetting about it is all that's in order. When this is either rejected or fails to work, FORCING this position with the help of learned clergy is interjected....

Now, their is some potential where everybody here is at least a little bit correct. The family has some degree of accuracy when it insists needless worry will cause a certain amount of harm. The humor starts when no one is able to concede the other's point of view in the least.

It's something like this basically.