Moorings

Page 37

night sleep, telling my body it has hours to go before it can rest. With enough effort, however, I am able to trudge through the sand, and I can refill my empty canteen, attaining those precious hours of sleep to make up for those I have lost. After my brief rest, my body continues on, the insomnia pushing its agenda the whole week through.

eyelids are too heavy. The insomniac keeps hitting when the punching bag won’t budge. The insomniac persists in his quiet quest under the shield of the stars, no matter the discomforts he may feel the next day.

Over time, I have grown accustomed to the night. I like to think that the human body can adapt to whatever challenges it might face. While this idea is hardly true, my own body often surprises me. The headaches become increasingly easier to endure, and the weight of fatigue becomes less stressful to bear. I can get through each The single mother who day with less hours of sleep backing me up. finds her eyes always The relentless insomniac drooping but never inside me grows stronger closing, forever watchful by the day.

for the faintest stir of her youngest child . . .

When it comes to insomnia, though, I am certainly not alone. The word insomnia is frequently heard being tossed around by lastminute workers, busy students, and ordinary people without enough hours in the day. The lawyer who finds himself draining mug after mug of coffee, typing away as the night sky turns and finally fades to a brisk morning, might call himself an insomniac. The single mother who finds her eyes always drooping but never closing, forever watchful for the faintest stir of her youngest child, might call herself an insomniac. And the biologist who slaves away in his lab from one day to the next might call himself an insomniac. But what do all of these insomniacs have in common?

Every instinct tells their eyes to close shut, their heads to lay back, and their bodies to shut down. But for whatever their cause, no matter how urgent or how trivial, they push on. The insomniac keeps looking when his

33


Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.