By: Blonde Two
I have been thinking a lot about dawn recently, mainly because, since my redundancy, I haven’t been able to sleep past it and the unhappy thoughts it seems to bring with it. I found a couple of interesting theories that have helped my ponderings …
a) The Blonde body (and presumably every other body) secretes several different hormones at dawn. These are there to give you the energy to get up and moving but are also the hormones involved in the “fight or flight” response. It stands to reason then, that if you are feeling a bit bothered about something, that botheration will mither you most at dawn.
b) Camping exposes you to a very natural light/dark cycle (especially if you forget your torch). It has been suggested that people who struggle with getting to sleep and feel sluggish in the morning can be helped by a week’s camping. Those who made this suggestion have probably not factored in foxes, thunder, lumpy ground or body rolling slopes but they may well be right. During my week’s camping on the Isle of Man, I only woke up at dawn once.
I didn’t realise that about dawn hormones though my own experiences seem to confirm it.
A decision to start rising early (when I write at what I’m self-deluded enough to call my best) has led to a dreadful treadmill. No difficulty about getting out of bed since for years I’d found it difficult to continue sleeping after about 6 AM. But then comes the aftermath. A post-lunch drowsiness which provedsimpossible to resist, followed by an afternoon in which my creative abilities are continually at their lowest ebb. And I’m not just talking about writing original material; my editing and rewriting skills are way below par too.
As you well know I do nothing other than write and this must now be squeezed into a completely lop-sided working day. I’m rather glad to discover that camping out is a specific for those with the reverse of my problem. Also my botherations tend to occur post midnight up to 3 AM, a period on the 24-hour clock when mind and body are prone to look most enthusiastically at solutions which can be achieved with a bare bodkin.
But the desire to quote WS never rests. If you don’t know who said “When he himself might his quietus make. With a bare bodkin?” any Austrian barman will identify the line