I'm writing this blog at 11:46 pm. And it's all Farley Mowatt's fault.
One of my favourite books as a child was "Never Cry Wolf" by Farley Mowatt. It's the story of a naturalist living among a pack of Arctic wolves. It's a haunting and beautifully written semi-autobiographical novel. If you've never read it, please do!
And it had an unusual and lasting effect on my young brain.
Did it give me a lifelong passion for wolves? Not really.
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| Photo by Thomas Bonometti on Unsplash |
Did it teach me that I can use urine to mark my campsite boundaries in the backcountry? Maybe.😝 (I have never tried, but it seemed like a trick that might be useful one day.)
What this book did do was inspire me to try and sleep like a wolf.
In the book, the author describes himself adopting the sleeping patterns of the wolves he is studying by sleeping in short naps around the clock. I think I was struggling with insomnia at the time, and somehow, to my young brain, this sleeping pattern made perfect sense.
And thus started sleeping patterns that I still can't shake. I stay up late, wake up early and nap a lot. Wherever and whenever. My naps can be ten minutes, they can be two hours. Regardless of the circumstance, this pattern has remained consistent since highschool.
I've slept on golf courses, beaches, park benches, private meadows, and in the tub. In the car, on couches, and on hard plastic chairs. I sleep on coffee breaks, lunch breaks, study periods and in the Costco parking lot before a big shop.
Basically, I sleep like a wolf: awake and asleep for short periods of time around the clock. I've tried to change this many times, but as my husband pointed out, I still get eight hours of sleep! And get everything done, so why fight it? Maybe it's mental, maybe it's a sleeping disorder, maybe it's biology. Personally, I blame Farley.
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| Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash |
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