I just can't sleep. I envy people who close their eyes and they're out like a light and sleep like a log. I may get a couple of hours or minutes of shut eye and then I am awake. It is a luxury that escapes me. My father would insist that I should just go to bed early and close my eyes. Nope. Doesn't work like that for me. All the things they tell me about body clocks and adjusting it is like a monumental task that eludes accomplishment.
I remembered a story my uncle told me. When he attended a doctors' convention a senior surgeon in his 60's invited him to go attend an 'after party' as one may call it, as it was the last day of the convention. My uncle politely turned down the offer, with a flight to catch and all, and he added that he would like to get some sleep before the plane ride going home. The senior laughed and answered, "hey buddy, I'm in my 60's. I've got plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead." My uncle still didn't attend the party, and got his eight hours of shut eye. And when he came home he still took a nap. Up to now he tells me to take a nap or sleep when opportunity to do so comes. "When you get to my age, you'll tell yourself, 'damn, why didn't I sleep as much when I was younger?'" He would always end that sermon of his with that last statement.
Regular or normal nighttime sleep repairs the body. It is also the time when a certain hormone essential for metabolic processes secreted are maximized and efficiently does what it's meant to do. You dream, remember less than a fourth of your dreams; or not remember any at all. You get nightmares and wake up thankful that it is all a dream. Sleep is a luxury that this present day and age is taking for granted. I should know. Come the start of this academic year I'll be back in that cesspool of a city that doesn't sleep, and it is not even New York.
The next time, I am definitely knocking myself out with a pill.
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