Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Ode to wakefulness

It's starting to work for me, this minimal-hours-of-sleep thing.

Who'd have thunk? I'm loving this. I have to get up for physical therapy in 4 hours, after which I actually have to do 2 hours of physical therapy. Then the coffee. And then I have to go to work. And a run. And rehearsal.

But I'm loving this.

It is so still tonight, from the patio perch. You never think the city can make itself still, but then poof, it does. Perhaps that's why I can live here, and stay living here ... its self-calming ability.

(Thank God for chilly Monday nights.)

The pots of salmon & white impatiens yet survive, so it's not cold enough yet, but cold enough for a blanket, which I don't have, and am OK. A medium chill? The cats have stayed inside, smartly and typically for them, on the couch. The Oreos in my cupboard beckon, but the peace outside is helping to calm restlessness, I think, so that maybe I can make myself sleep soon.

I'm not stressed about not wanting to sleep. Part of me knows that if I got under the covers and imagined my feet plastered to the mattress, turned on the BBC, uncreased my creased forehead and demanded that my breathing slow, I'd go there. The cats would wander in from the living room and jump up to flank me, Velvet on the left armpit, Tusker on the right hip, curling in, purring heavily enough so I can feel it.

Sometimes, though, it is more restful to just hear the breeze as it picks up, then dies, then comes back and drowns out the distant hum of freeway traffic. There's plenty of time to sleep ... some other time.

2 comments:

R said...

Second that. As a policy, I refuse to let lack of sleep annoy me. If I'm not able to fall asleep when I 'should', I just relax and don't try to force myself to sleep (which can actually be quite stressful). Then the next day, I try not to fret over last night's lack of sleep.......since my theory is that the body grabs whatever sleep it needs one way or the other (naps, couch-snoozes etc.) - so no point in trying to aim for the perfect number of sleep hours. Hope you have a relaxing day overall!

Karin said...

@R -- many thx for the wishes. As a matter of fact, I had one of the more coherent days I've had in the last week. Sometimes we know ourselves better than we think we do....