Sleep

It's one of the few things absolutely necessary for survival.  Workers dream about it all day as they tap pencils, quiet children, answer phones, push papers.  Commuters try and catch it on the train.  Babies don't mess around and just do it all day long.  There are no tutorials.  No instruction manuals.  No group sessions for sleeping, you're just expected to know how to do it.  Which, often makes me feel like the one tourist that's always 30 feet behind everyone else on the group tour of the same section of the same city for the 5th day in a row.  I should know my way around by now- and also to wear more adequate walking shoes- but I just, sigh, don't.

I've found that this life-long tango with insomnia is like a hot poker for advice-givers.  I've listened politely to instructions on warm milk, hot baths, lavender scented oils, exercise in the morning, exercise in the afternoon, and the list goes on.  I assure you, I have tried them all- sometimes all at once-to no avail.  I am still awake typing a blog post at 5:45 in the morning, when most people should be waking up from a full night's sleep.

I am not nervous, restless, pre-occupied, caffeinated, or consumed.  Just, sleepless  and left wondering if there is even a remote chance of this condition rectifying itself.  Have you ever tried to run after applying lavender oils, warm milk in hand? There must be a better way.