Night fell. I lay there as my house drifted into silence. Brothers and parents in bed. Soon my neighbours began switching their lights off and their neighbours in turn did the same. It’s only half past 10, but many want an early night. I think as others fall asleep, darkness should come for me soon.
Eleven. I’m still awake. Still lying there in bed. My fan whirrs away, keeping my room cool enough to sleep in, though I am tucked deep beneath my flower patterned duvet. I’m trying to get comfortable, but my efforts are in vain.
I watch as my alarm clock changes to three noughts. Midnight, my favourite time in the 24 hour day. It’s the most peaceful hour I know of, but also the loneliest. I hear no sound, not even a car drives past at this time of night, and the birds are all asleep.
The first hour of tomorrow just came, though I suppose it is today. A mosquito flies around my room, lit up by the light of my alarm clock. I follow it with my eyes, daring it to come near. One o’clock in the morning and the sandman still has not been.
2 am. I plug my I-pod in. Hopefully some music will lull me to sleep. At first it begins to work, but all tiredness vanishes as I stop the music and take out the ear plugs. Sighing, I roll over and place the music player on the table next to me.
Now I’m getting restless. It is three in the morning and I haven’t drifted off once. I grab a book on my bedside table; maybe reading should take my mind off things. It does for the time being, and I give sleep another go.
I decide to go downstairs and get a drink and snack; I’m beginning to feel hungry. The clock on the wall in the kitchen says three thirty, but I know it’s slow. As I enter the room the dog wakes up, asks for a stroke, and then falls straight back to sleep. Some guard dog, but how I wish I was him right now.
It’s 4 o’clock. I’ve read some more of my book and now I am writing this in a fruitless attempt to pass the time. My eyes are beginning to hurt, though I am not sure whether tiredness or the dim light is the cause. Maybe I will listen to my I-pod again. It almost worked last time after all, or maybe I will go downstairs for a second time. There is a possibility someone else has woken up too and the night won’t seem as lonely. It has been known to happen.
5 am. No luck. Everybody is still sound asleep. My brother is even snoring. Outside, I don’t see any of the early risers getting up for work – it is the weekend after all. I decided to do some ballet exercises, a strange thing to do in the early hours of the morning, I know. However it is oddly relaxing and it will tire me out, possibly. I am also stuck for things to do.
It is 6 o’clock. Roughly the time people begin waking up, but if they did I would not be able to hear them. I am listening to music again having given up on everything else. Maybe I will fall asleep during the day, maybe I will have to wait until tomorrow night or in actual fact tonight, since it is already today. This has happened before, this week in fact, that I have stayed up all night, attempting to get to sleep, but failing miserably.
I managed to drift off. It is only seven and it was only for a few minutes, but I managed. After that I decided to lie there, the songs I had listened to reverberating around my head. For once I managed to get cosy, though sleep did not come.
At eight o’clock I made my way downstairs, there I was greeted once again by my dog. Sitting down for my breakfast, I contemplated the night before and hope that tonight will be different, much, much different.