365 Ficlets - Day #269 ~ "Insomnia"

Three o’clock and I was still awake. The previous two and a half hours had crawled by as I changed sides and enjoyed the view of either wall and of course the ceiling. I had tried music, and even turning the light back on to read. When I had tried to read my eyes had almost immediately rebelled against the task, leading me to hope that at last I could sleep, but the moment the book was closed and the light was once again out this sleepiness was banished by the dark.

Two and a half hours is not a very long time, when one has some kind of diversion; many films are as long and seem to pass in the blink of an eye. When I cannot sleep every second lasts for a minute as I grasp at repose.

You may ask why I was so stricken with this bout of vicious insomnia, and I would love to be able to offer some kind of useful or interesting explanation, but the mundane and disappointing truth is that neither was this night unusual nor provoked by any one thing that I could point to and say “and this is why I could not sleep”.