Waking Up Is Hard to Do

I like sleeping. I'm talking ten, eleven hours a night if I can get it. Maybe it's a sad commentary on my social life, but usually when someone asks me to go out with them at night, I say, "Nope. Sorry – I've got a date with the insides of my eyelids." And like all fantastic dates you've ever been on, the hardest part is when it's over.
Experts say sleeping is good for you, and doesn't that work out nicely for me! They say it helps your body cleanse itself of the day's stress, revitalizing your blood-cells and re-oxygenating your brain. For me, it just feels good!

Years ago I had a job that I had to be at by 6 a.m. This meant I had to turn in at about 8 p.m. every night – not a good way to fill up your dance card. Getting up was torture, and much as I enjoyed the work, it wasn't too long before I was updating my resumé.
If you ask me, the alarm clock is one of the most devious inventions known to Man, a Pandora's Box of regimentation. Waking up before your body is naturally inclined to is just plain wrong. It sets you up for all kinds of other unhealthy practices like commuting and working 40+ hours a week. And arising before the break of dawn is just unnatural. God invented the perfect wake-up call: sunrise. Why go against His divine plan and jump the gun on daybreak? It's inhuman, and in Emily's perfect world, no one would have to do it.

I guess I could be going too far in the other direction though, because every morning with the help of ear-plugs and black-out curtains, I rest happily in the arms of Morpheus until a) my dreams gently awaken me, or b) the cat gingerly extends an outstretched paw onto my face – not always with claws retracted. She knows and respects my morning sleep-in time, but a cat's gotta do what a cat's gotta do. We've worked out a compromise: every night she stakes out a spot on the bed and curls up fairly motionless until I stir, and I agree not to roll over onto her.

I'm here to tell you those black-out curtains can be dangerous; I try to remember to leave them open a few inches, or the next thing I know, it's noon out in the real world and I'm still sawing logs in the inky blackness of my comfy cocoon. But that's unusual for me. Most of the time, I'm up and around at the crack of ten.
I know it doesn't put me on anyone's Most Exciting People list, but I say, "now that's living!" I'm not a party animal, staying up until the wee hours every night. I just happen to be in touch with my circadian rhythm.

Speaking of dreams, morning ones are the best, aren't they? The wacky ones that have you doing the tango in your old elementary school washroom with your ex-fiancé while life-sized animated cut-outs of your boss and Mick Jagger look on. I tell you, it's a better cranial work-out than any pharmaceutical could provide, and there's no co-pay.
Right after a good morning sleep-in is the best time for creative ideas, the ones that hit you like a lightning-strike and have you really thinking outside the box. Maybe because all your tiny synapses have had time to recharge and make new and different neural connections. The trick at that point is to write down those brilliant thoughts and move on to the perhaps banal but nevertheless vital task of getting up and in turn, God willing, making a living.
If I occasionally over-sleep, well, it's one of the few vices I have left, unless you count a weakness for Shoney's breakfast bar. Now that's a good reason to get out of bed!
Playlist:
1. Sleeping In – The Postal Service
2. I Like to Sleep Late in the Morning – David Bromberg Band
3. Dream Dream Dream – Everly Brothers
4. You Can Close Your Eyes – James Taylor
5. Golden Slumbers – The Beatles
6. Dream – The Pied Pipers
7. Hung Upon a Dream – The Zombies
8. I Like Dreamin' – Kenny Nolan
9. When It's Sleepy Time Down South – Louis Armstrong
10. Oh, What a Beautiful Morning – Ray Charles