She went to sleep at 10:05 pm. She was careful to jot down her bedtime. She was jolted awake. She looked at her cell phone. It was 12:11 mn. She noted down this time in her diary. She got up from bed and walked to her bathroom. She fell asleep again. She awoke at 3:25 am, seemingly out of the blue. Her eyes had to open. She took her pen and diary lying on the floor and scribbled the time. She wanted to return to sleep undisturbed by any bladder call, so she got up to go to the bathroom. She dropped back down to bed and dozed off. She next opened her eyes at 5:25 am. She jotted down the time. “Still early,” she thought so she closed her eyes. When she next opened her eyes, light seeped through the curtain fabric. She checked the time; 7:30 am. She wrote this down in her diary. It was time to arise and start her kitchen duties. She has been awakened four times that night. She managed to clock around 9 hours of sleep during the disturbed sleep marathon. She felt all right as she had sufficient sleep throughout her strange night of nocturnal awakenings.
When she had time to think during the day, she pondered over her sleep pattern. It was most unusual. She suspected this was a man-made occurrence. Could there be a Dracula or insomnia keeping her awake?
The other distinct pattern of disturbance was being kept awake until at least 12 mn. After falling asleep for the first time, she would be awakened at 3:13 am. She returned to sleep, only to be pulled awake at 4:30 am. She again fell asleep, to be pulled awake at 7 am. In this sleep pattern, she would be pulled awake three times.
When she experienced sleep disturbance around one year ago, she was upset. Later, after somebody talked to her, she felt much better. She overcame her fear of having disturbed sleep. “No big deal,” her friend counseled her. “You can drink more coffee to stay awake to deal with your day.” You can sleep during the day when you get a break. You just need a short nap during the day. You’ll be able to manage.”
Those good words seeped into her conscious and unconscious selfs. She changed from being over-wrought about her sleep disturbances, to being calm.
Over the year, she had time to learn patience, endurance, calm and she eventually managed to cope with her sleep disturbances. She brought calm into herself by repeating her friend’s advice. “No big deal. Nap during the day.”
Her enemies were slow to catch on. They continued to try to rattle her chain, by disturbing her sleep at night.
“The previous woman who stayed there could not take it when her sleep was disturbed. We could manipulate her to do our wishes by bending her knee to bow to our demands.”
She heard her neighbors next door talking those words.
Related:
This story was written for Rojie’s prompt “Tell a scary story“. There are monthly prompts for creative journaling too.
*
*
