to sleep or not to sleep...isn't the question

I saw the sunrise again today for the 6th straight day. Early start? No indeed! What may the problem be? Insomnia as ever. I'll be turning 30 in two months and I still have more energy that most teenagers.

The plague of insomnia...in Gabriel Garcia Marquez' "One Hundred Years of Solitude", it was a cause of great fear, and all the servants fled. Highly contagious, it soon infected the entire town. At first it was the most wonderful thing, all the things that everyone could accomplish! Before long they understood how terrible a thing it really was...or they would have if they could remember anything.

In Amelié, a young Amelié thought that her comatose neighbor was actually getting her whole life's sleep in one go. After that she could stay awake day and night!

What is keeping me awake these nights? Nothing in particular except a lack of sleep. I'm high strung. If anything excites or upsets me the first thing out the window is sleep...and there has been a lot to do both this week.

My daydreams about my upcoming trip to India fill my mind with such beautiful pictures that I find it hard to let go. Once asleep, dreams come as they will, not as I will them (I'm working on this: Carlos Casteneda, "The Art of Dreaming").

I have an interesting relationship with sleep. It's one of my favorite past times because I have such vivid and wonderful dreams, and yet for whole sections of my life I've rarely taken much of it because there are so many wonderful things to do both day and night!

The adult in me realises that sleep is a very good idea and has devised all sorts of methods of knocking myself out this week...but my body has often as not proved stronger. A glass or two of wine usually sends me straight to my slumbers, but last night? Not even 5 could stop me from seeing the sunrise. A double cognac in warm ginger tea is another favorite...unfortunately I tried two after my habitual large glass of wine one night. I did nod off finally at dawn, but 4 hours later was awake and fantastically thankful for my new darker sunglasses. I shan't try that one again (at least not more than one).

Today's success story? After creeping into the gym for the first time in the two years I've been here, yesterday I worked out for an hour...which of course gave me a super energy blast for the remainder of the day and night. Today I tried a two hour workout followed by dinner and meditation and now I'm very relaxed and happy to go to sleep...unfortunately I have several hours of classes still ahead of me.

sigh