The dog shakes his head and in that moment, the sound of his ears flapping combined with the slight jangle of his collar seems like the most distinct sound in the world. It’s 3:24 in the morning when he does this. Now, half-an-hour later, I’m still up. I don’t want to be up. I rolled over a few times hoping to fall back asleep. I couldn’t get comfortable – there was a general restlessness in my bones and muscles, like I needed to stretch or press my limbs further into the mattress. The dog came in to check on me – I pretended to be asleep. If I acknowledge him, he jumps into the bed, takes up all the room with his sack of potatoes body, and growls when I try to move him. He left and came back in a few minutes later. There must be a disturbance in the universe or something – perhaps we both have troubled minds.
I used to think of 3 AM as this kind of weird witching hour. I might have nights where I wake up a few different times, but the 3:00 or 3:30 wake up always feels the most disruptive. It’s when I check my phone and say “uggghhhh, it’s 3 o’clock.” I remember seeing an article, or several about why this happens and that the 3 AM wake up is common for many people. And since I’m still, up….
You know the scene. You wake up in the middle of the night and roll over to check your phone, but you don’t really need to. You already know it’s 3am.
That’s the beginning of a short article on a blog called considerable (whose tag line I found amusing): “A new media brand for people who are redefining what it means to grow older and are looking forward to what’s next.” I’d be curious to see their web stats for this article – a bunch of mid-forty somethings checking it out at 3:30 AM.
The article suggests that the wake up is a result of shifting sleep cycles and a carry over from when we broke our sleep up into two different sessions (this was pre-industrialization and before artificial light).
In this new Capitalist age, sleep became something one needed in order to do one’s job and was lumped together into a single interval of sleep, rather than the two we were used to.
Yet another way we’re a slave to the man…
There are lots of articles on this subject, but what I’m finding amusing (blame the lack of sleep for my odd interest) is the list of related searches.
Those are some rabbit holes I’m too tired to explore. I’ve lost interest and I’d like to go back to sleep….