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...Is almost over, in fact. It only really lasts for that brief midnight hour, the dark of the night, the time we often consider to be the `dead` of night...
Insomnia sucks, like a vampire that we can`t see...it steals your energy, your enthusiasm, and sometimes your heart. It stretches time so that an hour can seem like a whole night. It colours what you see so that the night looks darker, somehow...
It also revs your mind up when what you really, truly, need, is an "Off" switch...and you know, I can hear men up and down the country going, "Oh yes, women need an Off switch, alright..."
*giggles at the thought*
Being honest, there have been sleepless nights when despair grips you round the throat and you wonder if the night will ever end.
That`s how rough insomnia can get. It isn`t, you see, just the occasional sleepless night. It`s whole time periods of only sleeping enough to stop yourself going absolutely crazy with it, of hours spent trying to fill them with things to distract yourself from the fact that the whole world seems to sleep, leaving you alone with the dark and the howling wind outside the house, clutching at the doors, sneakily thudding at the windows...
So old friends of books are made aquaintances again.
Old movies reintroduced to your weary eyes.

Or sometimes you just take a midnight walk, off down the curve of the track, watching the pond shine like silver in the soft glow of the moon, crunching the thin layer of thick frost and scant snow underfoot.
And sometimes you`re glad you took that walk, wrapped up for an Arctic expedition, muffled against the chill the lack of sunshine gifts the night, an antidote for wakefulness, supposedly....tsk...
And you walk the track to the beach, listening to lonely curlews wing their way across the fields, hearing an owl beat her wings, on the hunt, watching the flash of white as the tails of rabbits clear out of your path, because the crunch of your feet alerts them in plenty time to shift....
And sometimes, you stand there, shivering in the cold in spite of your bundling up, and just watch the sea under the moon, rolling eternally to kiss the shore, and you see the black heads of seals, eyes glinting at you like merfolks, and watch gulls swoop across the low undulating waves as if they ride air just above them.
And you look across the Peedie Sea and see the small lights of other islands, little orange specks that sometimes foul the landscape with light pollution or sometimes bring a bit of comfort into a lonely night, because they show that other folks are `there`, just over `there`, and no, you`re not alone out here after all.....
because you hear a soft whuff and find your dog has followed you down the track, across the road, onto the shore. And she has her ears up and is watching you, no doubt thinking, silly twofoot, what the hell`s she doing out here this time of night?
But her bright eyes and friendly look bring you back from the bite of loneliness that is sleep deprivation.
So you pat her head and wave your hand in the direction of home, and oh aye, she kens fine where to go, and sprints ahead of you up the track.
So you follow her, and watch the bunnies scatter, white tails bouncing away into grassy verges under moonlight, and hear the flurry of watery wings put up into air as Lassie frightens gliding ducks and dozing moorhens by her running, padding paws.

And then you open the door into a warm and lamplit room, the stove ticking away nicely, the quiet of a household asleep.
And sitting by the window, you think that sometimes, a sleepless night isn`t so bad, after all.
Only sometimes though....