The Problem with Sleep

There’s this girl.

She has a problem with falling asleep. Not in the usual way that people might think. When we say she has problem with falling asleep, I mean that she doesn’t want to fall asleep. The main reason behind which is that she doesn’t want to wake up.

Let’s take the case of last Tuesday night. Tuesday was a holiday. Monday was terrible, and she fell asleep the moment she lay on the bed after dutifully brushing her teeth and brushing her hair. She had looked forward to falling asleep the whole Monday long. And then she woke up on Tuesday morning.

“No,” she groaned.

“No, I don’t want to wake up, it’s so horrible to be awake,” she thought.

She spent her Tuesday holiday slowly, taking her time. She didn’t bother to change out of her pyjamas until she felt she really needed to shower, around noontime. She made herself a nicely heavy late lunch which she thought was enough for three people to eat. She spent the rest of the afternoon eating all of it; some while watching TV, some while aimlessly surfing the internet, and some while dutifully working on the preparations for work the next day. She alternately brewed tea and coffee and sipped them while watching rented videos – all romantic comedies. When the last of the videos’ credits were rolling, she looked up at the clock and saw that it was 1:30 a.m. and she felt a bit sleepy.

And that’s the problem. She didn’t want to sleep.

“No,” she moaned, “I don’t want to wake up again.”

But she turned off the TV and got off the couch anyway and dutifully did the dishes, brushed her teeth and her hair, put on her pyjamas, switched off the lights, and went to bed.

And cried, silently. And fell asleep.