What the night brings

The New York Times has been running a blog, All-Nighters, about insomnia and insomniacs. The posts cover a range of topics, such as how elderly people make productive use of the night-time hours, There’s More Than Enough Hours in Every Day, night-time with and without An Insomniac’s Best Friend, and how an artist tries to make sense of insomnia, despair, and depression, Counting the ‘Blessings’ of Insomnia.
After an afternoon of serious yard work in this luscious burst of spring weather, you'd think that a full night of sleep would follow. Nope. I was asleep by 10 and awake by 11:30. That's fairly common. Some nights, I might be asleep at 10;30 and wake at 1:00. The details stopped being interesting about a year ago. It is what it is.
Do I wish that it was otherwise. Yup. Have I researched and tried the various sleep remedies, pharmaceutical and other? Yup. Do I get angry at not being able to sleep through the night? Not usually. Do I wish that it was otherwise? Yup.
And how I do I spend this time. Reading, online and off, occasionally writing, sometimes some web development or system administration chores. On Sundays, the papers arrive around 3:00. (Weekdays I only read the online news, but the Sunday Globe and Times are still special.)
I'm continuing to make my way through my mother's papers. She had a similar sleep pattern and wrote letters and notes during the night. She'd often recollect her thoughts from previous events and then, later in the day, make a photocopy of her notes.

There's plenty of stuff to think about when you're awake at night. And some of it is even worth thinking.