Sleep Snare

 Dear Reader,

Sleeping is a large part of our lives and an essential function that enables our bodies and minds to recharge.  While this universal human experience may seem like a biological constant research shows that our sleeping patterns haven't always been the same.

An average night sleep in 17th century England is thought to have started with people going to bed between 9pm and 11pm.  A few hours later they would wake from their first slumber for between one or two hours before going back to their second sleep which would last until morning.

During night time waking hours evidence shows that people engaged in a variety of pastimes, whether that meant staying in bed to read or going out and visiting a neighbour.  When Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb in 1879 it saw wide spread adoption that changed the way we sleep forever.  This is because it allowed people to stay up, work or socialize through the night in a way that wasn't possible under the dim glow of moonlight or with the use of oil lamps.

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I have always been a very poor sleeper.  Every night at about 3am I go downstairs and make a cup of tea. I take it up back to bed and read for a while until I feel sleepy.  I have a sleep in the afternoons, and at this time I sleep deeply and well.  

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From Dorothy Wordsworth   October 12th  1800 in Westmorland

'We pulled apples after dinner, a large basket full.  We walked before tea by Bainriggs to observe the many-coloured foliage. The oaks dark green with some yellow leaves, the birches generally still green, some near the water yellowish, the sycamore crimson and crimson-tufted, the mountain ash a deep orange, the common ash lemon colour, bu many ashes still fresh in their summer green.'

From Gilbert White  October 13th  1787 in Hampshire

'We saw several redwings among the bushes on the north side of the common.   There were swallows about the village at the same time:  so that summer and winter birds of passage were seen on the same day.'

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Sleep snare

 

 

 

 

I lie awake and hear

the clock strike three,

and wonder how to

snare elusive sleep,

how to capture it,

how to find

its hiding place

and coax it back to bed.

I might entice  it

with crimson berries,

or butter croissants

then pounce on it,

and let it loose

inside my head.

But sharp is cunning sleep

it knows the tricks,

is bored of counting sheep.

 

 

 

I must fly northwards

to the moon

and let sleep take me

 

 

soon

 

          soon

 

soon ......... 

 

 

 

 

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With very best wishes, Patricia