It happened one night

Something I contemplate a lot: Why do we have to spend so much of our time asleep? It seems like a huge flaw in our design that we must spend 1/3 of our life recharging  - usually in a dark room. Because most of us do sleep at night and our medical professionals all say we should aim for eight straight hours.

I remember reading something a few years ago, that postulated that humans used to sleep in segments: four hours asleep, up for a couple of hours, then back to sleep. It was an interesting theory. Interesting to me because that describes my sleep pattern to a tee. I haven’t slept straight through the night since I was in my 20s.  

When I had my knees replaced a couple of years ago, I spent a lot of time awake during the night. I was exhausted -  but my legs told me I had to move. So, I hauled myself out of bed, marched around the house, and did a lot of peering outside into the night. I dubbed myself the “neighborhood watch” during those months. I also learned that a lot goes on at night - if you’re looking.

Yesterday when I was shoveling the front walk, I noticed quite a few animal tracks on the front porch that weren’t there the day before. Then, I remembered my new motion activated camera. I relearned how to look at the tapes and rewound to where there was some action.

This is what I found: 

How stinking cute are these two? Clearly, these two sweethearts are not sleeping for eight hours. I thought of that sleep article and wondered if this time was their 2 hours of activity between sleep segments. Maybe these two were guards for the rest of the bunny crew – after all, they are potential prey.

Then… I fast-forwarded to the next movement on the tape and saw this ominous fellow. It's not really clear in this photo - but I could tell by it's movements that it was either a wild dog or a coyote. Maybe this was his/her 2 hours of activity.

We miss so much of what’s going on in the world while we are under those blankets. If you’re like me and you spend some of your nighttime awake, why not consider actually getting up out of bed.  Don’t brood about the hours you are not asleep. Instead, get up out of bed like your ancestors. Take a stroll around your house, look outside... you might learn something new.