Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

I remember back when I was in college and I worked in the main office of an auto parts company, my boss told me he rarely slept past 3:30 in the morning. I’ve always been a big fan of sleep, so this sort of stuck with me. Both he and his brother, who owned the place, were known for getting into the office before 6 a.m. almost every day, when most everyone else strolled in around 9. I remember he said that when you “get old” you don’t sleep much at night.

Well, I like to sleep and I’m quite fond of afternoon naps on the weekends. I think it aggravates Bryan to no end that I always want to “lay down” while Ben is napping after lunch on Saturdays and Sundays. He’s made comments before that if I wouldn’t stay up so late, I wouldn’t need a nap. I, of course, always argue with him: the two are unrelated. Regardless of whether I’m able to go to sleep at 10 p.m. or at 2 a.m., if given the chance, I’ll nap the next afternoon. However, I have developed another sleep-related theory, that does appear to be directly linked to when I go to sleep.

If I finish everything I need to do and am able to turn off the computer and lights by 11 p.m., I’ll be awake again at about 2 or 2:30 a.m. At which point, I will feel wide awake and unable to go back to sleep for about an hour or so. Quite frustrating. However, if I “call it a night” roughly anytime after 11, I’ll sleep straight through (barring some exceptional circumstances) until the alarm goes off at 6. This happens, pun intended, like clockwork. Either way I’m tired when the alarm goes off and either way I’m pining for an afternoon nap if at all possible.

So does this mean I’m “getting old”? Or, rather, has my body simply adjusted to shorter but more frequent stretchs of sleep? Or, further, is it just all in my head? Who knows, really. But here I lay, at 3:07 a.m. rambling pathetic justifications about why I’ll need a nap after lunch.