SLEEPLESS IN COLUMBUS

 

By Linda Lee Greene, Author & Artist

 

The white glow of my clock’s face shows 3 AM again as it was upon waking the night before, and the night before that, and back for as many nights as I can remember. Prior to Covid-19, I rather liked opening my eyes to total darkness—it felt as if I was wakened deliberately to commune with secret, benevolent forces that then lifted me in gentle and invisible arms and guided me to my feet. My morning toilette accomplished, and a hot cup of coffee on the table next to my chair, I charged up my laptop and set to writing, governed in well-being. It was a charmed time, my favorite time of the 24-hour cycle, in fact—quiet, private, the perfect setting for this lonely writer’s soul. The words flowed like a young river in spring. As the clock stitched the forward hours, I found the meaning of me in the mounting word count, the early morning birdsong, and the rising sun. But the pandemic has rearranged the cells of my brain. It sets me perpetually on alert mode. Alarm is my new default setting. “This sleeplessness must be caused by stress directly related to my anxiety over the virus. If Covid-19 doesn’t kill me, this stress will,” I have convinced myself, and because I need accomplices in my angst, I log onto Facebook in search of the usual suspects—cohorts in my unsleeping fear.   

 

Fellow Columbus citizen, Patty Scott is up and online. Patty’s lament is tied less to the virus and more to upstairs neighbors thumping loudly over her head. But no matter—Patty’s grievances will do. A second C-bus insomniac, Jamie Beatty chimes in. “I have a theory about sleep patterns as we get older. In tribal times, it would have been good to have an elder awake, feed the fire, comfort the crybaby, knit, weave, braid or sharpen, so that younger adults could rest and be ready for the strains of the day,” he writes. Jamie’s theory resurfaces my latent curiosity regarding the real reason my internal clock wakes me at 3 AM. I take a deep dive into the Internet and find a strange and fascinating fare that could be a sneak peek inside Stephen King’s skull.     

The noticeably matter-of-fact voice of a nurse on a chat line I find has much to say on the subject. “It’s all in our body’s responses,” she insists, poo-pooing the chat line’s occult aficionado’s assurance that the 3 AM hour is the “dead zone of the witching hour.” Alarmed, I urge him on. He takes the bait and says, “How do you explain the fact that it is the time ghost hunters record the greatest activity?” I cannot resist and interject, “Do you mean the pseudoscience that pursues ghosts in alleged haunted places, and which has never passed muster of scientific inquiry?”   

“Say what you will, but I myself have experienced the phenomenon,” our occultist insists. “The veil between the astral and physical planes is thinnest at 3 AM. It is then that the body, which is still in a discarnate state, makes its journey from the astral dream plane back to the physical plane. In order to enter the body again, it takes the breath of the sleeper as its own, which jolts the sleeper awake. It surely is a kind of ‘night terror’.” Our nurse pipes in and says, “That sounds like sleep apnea to me. You might want to undergo a sleep study.”    

 

Our friendly nurse is similarly scornful of the chat line’s Bible scholar’s assertion that 3 AM is the exact moment that “God speaks to us.” Better than the occultist’s scary claims, I say, “That’s comforting. Tell me more, please?” He gladly complies and adds, “It has to do with the uniqueness of the number three. The proof lies in the employment of the number so frequently in the Good Book. One case in point is the Trinity, in which the number three is assigned to the Holy Spirit. And remember, Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days; Peter forsook Jesus three times; Jesus was in the tomb for three days before resurrection; the Bible names only three angels: Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. And there are plenty more examples.”

 

“That is pure superstition,” our irreverent nurse cuts in and proceeds to conduct an impressive lesson on the workings of the human body—all of which is quite plausible but too dull for this literary soul, too banal to rise as an agreeable explanation, and even less engaging fodder for a life’s itinerary. Call me contrary, but it’s difficult for me to feel titillated over a plunging immune-system that issues a 3 AM code red to the brain to send in the troops and get the organism up and moving before it’s too late. My mind’s ear perks up though when she informs us that more people die between the hours of 3 AM and 5 AM than at any other time on the clock, mainly because the immune system is most vulnerable then. She explains that the liver gets busy with its daily house cleaning at that hour, too. What could be more jarring to sleep than ones liver purging its bile and regurgitating it down ones vibrating bile duct? Of course, low-grade depression and anxiety, especially as tied to the horrors of Covid-19, might be the most convincing explanation for our sleeplessness, our nurse proposes.

 

A person identifying as “Spirit Pilgrim” joins the discussion and says, “There is the Body/Soul/Spirit union, which constitutes the conscious and unconscious worlds. The body is unaware of the unconscious realm, other than in recalled dreams. However, the soul resides in both worlds and connects with the spirit when the body is sleeping. 3 AM is midway between the conscious and unconscious, and is the appointed time the soul falls back into the body.” I picture a body blow in a wrestling match and carry on my search.

 

I am relieved when particular ghosts of the night with whom I am familiar chime in. Otherwise known as “authors” they are in large part trolls of the 3 AM hour as well. I am delighted to learn that two of them regularly sign onto the chat line. They propose that the hour’s sovereign ruler and arbiter is none other than “Muse,” that energy charged with generating and perpetuating the human being’s creative juices. Our chat line authors attest that the 3 AM hour comes packed with great story ideas, as in my experience.

 

I am less body-centered than our nurse friend, because I do believe in a spiritual basis of all life. However, among all the possibilities I uncovered, I like my friend Jamie Beatty’s theory the best because it assigns a noble purpose to our sleeplessness, an evolutionary imperative that speaks to me as valid, as necessary. The idea of it makes me happy, and provides cause to embrace the out-of-normal circadian rhythm that nature has set for me. I find rest in it and acceptance of a role this elder can fulfill. I can’t weave or sharpen, but I can write during the wee hours of these cruel times, and in so doing, presume that I am useful. Maybe I will stumble onto something important or helpful to pass along to my fellow travelers.©

 

#Coronavirus; #Covid-19; #sleeplessness; #insomnia; #ColumbusOhio; #StephenKing; #occult; #Bible; #sleepapnea; #LindaLeeGreene; #CradleoftheSerpent

 

Image: WATCHING, acrylic painting by Linda Lee Greene

 

Multi-award winning author, Linda Lee Greene’s CRADLE OF THE SERPENT, a time-slip novel, carries the reader to tribal times in the person of White Star, a maiden of the American Indian builders of Ohio’s Great Serpent Mound. A story summoned to current time by archaeologist Lily Light, she and White Star’s saga ranges from Ohio to Arizona in a searing storyline of history, marital love and betrayal, murder, and redemption. The book was a finalist in the cross-genre category of the AMERICAN FICTION AWARDS of 2018.

 

Purchase Link to the book: goo.gl/i3UkAV 

 

I would enjoy connecting with readers and friends at:

 

www.gallery-llgreene.com - Online Art Gallery

 

http://Ingoodcompanyohio.blogspot.com - Blog URL

 

https://twitter.com/LLGreeneAuthor - Twitter URL

 

https://www.amazon.com/author/lindaleegreene - Amazon Author’s Page

 

https://www.facebook.com/#!/LindaLeeGreeneAuthor - Facebook Timeline Page

 

https://www.facebook.com/LindaLeeGreeneAuthor/  - Facebook Fan/Author Page

 

llgreene13@yahoo.com - Primary Email Address