I know its a little dorky to be this happy
about finding ones sleep pattern
but I feel like I've found a vital key
in my quest for personal well-being.
I now sleep at 3 o'clock
both AM and PM, for about 4 hours each
allowing for two complete sleep cycles
per 24 hour period.

I've always been a bit of a insomniac
and this predates any problems I had during college,
so, one of the interesting things that has developed
in this current lovely stage of radical self-acceptance
is that I now embrace this odd sleep schedule I keep.

I have frequently done night jobs
including waiter, bouncer/security, nightclub stuff.
This has kept me open-eyed during the wee-hours
and one thing I will say
is that things do get very odd
during the odd hours.
I have seen all sorts of insanity
on the swing shift of life.
I can write plenty about that
but it also happens to be
my preferred hours to write.
The wee-hours are quiet,
fewer distractions, minimal obligations.
I love it.

But something happens
when you live entirely at night.
Most of the world lives, works and plays
during the daylight hours.
I can remember what a struggle it was
just to make an appointment
or meeting during business hours.
It would frequently leave me out of sorts.
I felt like a zombie, an automated somnombulist
out of synch with the world.

Well, now I have sort of accidentally slipped
into yet another form of paradise.

I have been a long-time advocate
for siestas. I think its natural to catch some sleep
sometime in the afternoon.
This isn't just opinion,
but the fact that Arab, Hispanic, Native American
and Pacific Island cultures have always felt the same
makes me realize that I'm on point.
The problem is that in the hyper-productivity
of the AngloAmerican protestant overwork ethic
we loose the afternoon nap.
In one of my many efforts
to decolonize my mind and outlook
I took to napping with a stern militancy.
When I was a teacher I couldn't do this
but I knew that whatever I did after that
It would require an afternoon hiatus.
I ended up resuming my massage practice
after I quit teaching.
Naps were easy!

I found that with naps
I could stay up later
and pick up jobs or write
and get a bit more out of life.

Now, I stay up late
but I have found that
at about 3am my mind
starts to unravel. I don't know what this is about
but in the years of my life
I have found that most of the insane acts
I've committed have happend at the hour
of 3am. Something about that time
is given to obsession and insanity.
Now, this is fine if I am involved
in working on a first draft of a poem
or creative fiction, but it doesn't work
if I'm around other people or doing
some sort of mundane work
like security, maintenance or janitorial.
My mind starts to twist up and my emotions
start to distort.

Now that I like to do my office work
in the early AM, I am now having to deal with
this very odd ordeal.
The solution came to me
one night during this bout of lycanthropic madness...
I can take a morning nap!
That would keep me rested at the hour of strangeness.

So,
now I base my sleep pattern
on "Zzz's on Three's"
that is: I rest at 3pm and 3am.

So,
this means I can be both
night owl AND early bird!
And
I also get TWO dream sessions
to reflect on.

It also feels like I live fully
in two worlds: the light and the dark.
I've always been shamanic in that way.

I love being a
"Daywalker"
-that is, a creature
of both day and night...