Blessed Sleep

27 May 2020

The weather in the Midwest has been unusually warm for May.  We have hit and exceeded ninety degrees already. A high above ninety is way not the norm in the Great Lakes Region in May. As a result of this anomalous heat, I have had my air condition on.  My house was built in 1939 and is of wood frame construction. As nature dictates the upstairs, the sleeping quarters, get really unbearable after a ninety-degree day.  Thus, the air conditioning is running constantly so very early in the season.

With the air conditioning on I cannot hear the birdsong that has been waking most morning for weeks now. One would think that sleep would come easier and last longer. Well, yes and no.  Since I have retired my mind is not as busy.  In the old days when I went to bed a million things would run through my thoughts and I would lay awake late, late into the night.  Now, I don’t have those agonizing thoughts.  With the cool air in the room I fall asleep easier. Most nights I drift off when my head hits the pillow.

Despite the quick sleep start, with or without an alarm I am finding myself up at 5:45 to 5:55 a.m. each day.  I try and go back to sleep but that does not happen.  In the end I toss about for a few minutes and then I slip on my jeans as quietly as I can and I leave the bedroom. By 6:15 a.m. I am often done with my breakfast and I am reading the Washington Post online, along with Facebook and the Apple News app feed.

I remember seeing a headline recently about the pandemic somehow causing changes to peoples’ sleep patterns.  I don’t know if the pandemic, or my retirement, or something altogether else is impacting my sleep patterns. I just know that they have changed.

When I was working, I would get up at about 6:15. Back then I had to be at my desk by 8 a.m.  This meant I had to be up, showered, dressed, fed and out the door by 7:25 a.m. It took 35 minutes to walk in on a clear dry day.  Why my waking time now would shift 20 to 30 minutes earlier is something I can’t explain. 

Saw a stat this morning saying that a quarter to a third of all Americans are showing signs of clinical depression or anxiety since the pandemic began.  Depression can change sleep patterns. Given I was already changing gears by virtue of my retirement the shift in life’s patterns caused by the pandemic has really not flummoxed me. To my mind I am not overtly stressed, anxious or depressed.  Irked maybe, I was supposed to be heading off to another country to enjoy this golden year. I don’t think it is some mental health thing that is changing my sleep rhythm. 

Maybe it is my shift to a more southernly lifestyle.  I do find midday naps out of the sun to be a wonderful thing. I usually set aside 15 or 30 minutes at about 2 p.m. to watch the back of my eyelids.

Oh well, I guess I will just adapt.  There are some good things about being up this early.  First, there is the light, I love the golden light but I have said that before.  Second, there is the space to think and breath without being impacted by others.  Third, there is a real calm that can be sensed before the world commits to it patterns of movement and transaction.