It's 3:25 am as I write this. I just woke up. No alarm, no weird noises, nothing like that. I am fully awake. Some would call this insomnia, but Breadman recently told me about something called "Second Sleep." Oh yes. This bit about getting up at 3am and doing things like baking brownies or reading or jamming out to Pandora? Our ancestors did this! Well, maybe not to the extreme that I am taking it, but they did! Really! And they never called it insomnia!
Roger Ekirich, a professor at Virginia Tech, discovered that those in the past had two sleep sections at night. This great online article, Your Ancestors Didn't Sleep Like You, details the second sleep, or segmented sleep, very well. In between the two sleeps people would do things like read, pray, talk to one another, even go visiting! And oh yes, let's not forget sex. Prime time for loving.
So my time in-between second sleep? I'm currently listening to Florence and the Machine's "Kiss With A Fist. I'm on cup of coffee number two. Second sleep pretty much rocks.
I woke up to three fifteen year olds who believe in a late first sleep, much to my chagrin. Sleep over night, and I found pizza roll remains in the kitchen (what is in those?!), wrappers strewn among the living room, and an empty Arnold Palmer jug in the dining room. They are now in bed, obviously, because having a mom around kills the fun. Either that, or they've run out of movies or rap songs.
I used to think this time in-between sleeps was insomnia for me, but feel so much better thinking of it as two sleeps. I enjoy having this little time in the night, where I can write and listen to some music. But I know for me this is a luxury, as I'm on vacation this week and can sleep in after my time up until 8am. During the week my second sleep periods are hard to manage, as I get up at 4am. So, usually my second sleep doesn't happen; I fight it. I try to go back to sleep. I miss it.
It's hard not to eat breakfast now, though. I'm craving toast with butter and jam. But I can't have two breakfasts, or I'll end up looking like Jabba the Hut. So I'll have cup of coffee number 3.
It's too bad that second sleep had to be faded out of our history. But we live in such a rushed culture, and can't go to bed at 7pm anymore. Ha! Can you imagine, going to bed at 7pm every night in the winter? Um, yes I certainly can! That would be heaven! I'm such an early bird, that I would love to go to bed at that hour. It would be so relaxing. Then have the little time between first and second sleep, ah, sleep! Maybe that's why Americans are so darn stressed out. We don't have second sleep! If we did, maybe we'd be better off. I'm happier on days that I have my second sleep. Yes, I know, because I sleep until eight or nine o'clock. But still, there's something to be said for having that quiet time at night where you can contemplate, write, or do whatever (i.e. have sex). The quiet of the evening does have a peacefulness that can't be duplicated during the day.
I could do the dishes. I could clean up the mess from the teens. But instead I will write for just a little bit more before retiring to bed. Goodnight, all!
