In the middle of learning – by Donald F. Gately

Occasionally, I find myself awake in the middle of the night, unable to fall back asleep. (I wonder if there was ever a time in human history when this wasn’t a common refrain. How about Lucy, the three million-year-old cavewoman; what was her sleep hygiene like? She looks well rested.) 

A book on this subject advised me to avoid “screens” in these instances, such as screens like iPhones, tablets, laptops, etc. Al.  The light from screens reduces the production of melatonin, which helps you sleep. One should also know that persistence doesn’t pay off when it comes to sleep. If you’re having trouble sleeping, just lying in bed and waiting for sleep will not help. Apparently, this makes your bed seem like the enemy, not the friendly place that hosts rejuvenating slumber. 

So, when I can’t sleep, I leave bed and go downstairs to read a book, usually on my Kindle. I refuse to refer back to the aforementioned article about sleep because I don’t want to discover that the Kindle qualifies as a “screen.” 

It’s an effective strategy. I’ll curl up on the couch with whatever book I’m reading, and soon enough, I feel drowsy and return to bed.

However, the problem is that when I go downstairs to retrieve it, about one out of every four times, my Kindle battery is dead. This is so disheartening. 

Should I pick up a book that’s written on paper to read? 

Some thoughts. 

When trying to get back to sleep, the books I select tend towards what I would define as “leisure” reads. These would encompass any book I’m reading purely for enjoyment, not for work, not to become a better person, not to understand something about the universe, but rather, just for fun.  As an English major and a former language arts teacher, I know this is too narrow of a definition, but for our present purposes, it will suffice. I’m reading my way through all the books by Adrian McGinty. He’s a writer of detective fiction from Ulster, Northern Ireland.  The title I’m reading now, The Detective Up Late,  is the 10th book I’ve read by him. His syntax, voice, and plot devices have fallen into a predictable and soothing rhythm, which is better for inducing drowsiness and returning to sleep. 

I choose leisure reads partially and specifically because these are the books I have on my Kindle. Physical, paper-based books are generally what I would term “professional” reads. These are books I read to develop in my field (education), to better understand myself and the world, to gain perspectives, to manage my time, and to learn new skills; it’s a broad category, but in a word, professional books, I read to learn. I avoid these when battling these bouts of insomnia, either because I don’t have the mental energy at 3:27 a.m. to tackle them or because the level of attention they require is more likely to keep me awake than lull me to sleep. Moreover, to read one of these books, I need a pen and a highlighter, index cards, post-it notes, and maybe some of those super-cool colored tabs you buy in Staples. And because my primary purpose is to get back to sleep, I prefer to recline while reading rather than sit hunched at the counter like Bartleby the Scrivener, diligently highlighting portions of the text to use in a newsletter or on a slide in a workshop. 

So, despite several sitting on the “to-be-read” pile, I don’t feel up to the seriousness of a professional read in the dead of night. 

Continued…