Call it a snooze, a doze, a cat-nap, a long winter's rest...doesn't matter. Sleep is good.
The only thing I can think of in that vein that's better than a good long overnight sleep is a nice long afternoon nap. There's something just so decadent and almost sinful about taking to your bed in the middle of the day for a bit of shut-eye. Usually it's only the very young and the very old who are allowed to nap untroubled by the tut-tuts of those who think that daylight hours must be used productively.
But I ask, what's not productive about a good nap? It restores your body and your mind. It gives you what is often a much-needed bit of self-pampering. It helps you catch up on the chronic sleep shortage that most people in our society suffer from, usually without even realizing it. Getting up early and going to bed late eventually start to take their toll. A nice nap in the middle of the afternoon is the best remedy for sleep deprivation.
There's just something so incredibly wonderful about stretching out on the bed and pulling the duvet over you, tucking it under your chin. Curling your toes rhythmically over the soft, cool sheet, like a cat kneading its owner's comfy belly before settling down for a snooze. Rolling around a bit until you find that just-perfect position. Taking a nice deep breath and letting it out with all your stresses, and then gently lowering yourself into a sweet, soft sleep. Ahhhh.
Like something else most of us are thankful for, you may not really appreciate sleep until you find yourself not getting enough of it. My best friend T is a chronic insomniac. I always ask her how she's been sleeping lately when we get together. Usually, the answer is "same-old, same-old." It amazes me that she can function at all with the terrible sleep patterns that she has to deal with pretty much every night.
I've been a really good, albeit light, sleeper most of my life. The first time I remember having trouble with my sleep was when my marriage was breaking down. My ex and I got into this strange pattern that we, well I, didn't shake until we finally separated. I have no idea how well he recovered after. I'd go to bed relatively early and he'd always stay up really, really late. When he'd finally come to bed, I'd wake up and could rarely get back to sleep. I'd often just get up and watch TV for an hour or two before going back to bed for a bit more sleep before the alarm went. I think there was something going on there about not wanting to be in bed awake together.
Once I was back in a bed by myself, my usual excellent sleep habits returned and stuck with me. Well, until the past year or two. Menopause does really weird things to your system. I once read this enormously long list of possible symptoms of menopause. It really was quite disheartening, especially as I could check off about two thirds of the symptoms myself. But the worst one, for me at least, is poor sleep.
Nowadays, I sometimes find myself wakeful at odd hours. For no reason I can name, I'll wake up around three or four in the morning, my brain racing, and there's just no way I can go to sleep when my brain is doing that. Usually I'm obsessing about something at work. More rarely, I glom onto an idea for something I want to do or write. Around and around and around my mind goes, like a ferris wheel occasionally stopping to pick up new passengers to increase the mental load.
There's nothing for it when that happens but to get up and wait till it passes. Sometimes it's half an hour, sometimes it's three hours. If I'm obsessing about work stuff, I'll usually go watch TV to get my mind off of it. But I have been known to stumble into my office in the middle of the night and actually do some work. Several times I've succumbed to my busy brain by getting up and writing something in the night. A chapter, a poem, a novel idea. Whatever it takes to get that brain worm out so I can go back to bed.
So, like most, I've grappled with insomnia from time to time. And because of that, I think I can safely say that sleep is definitely something to be thankful for!
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