Insomnabulistic Ittiac

Having been a long term insomniac, I've gone thru various stages of emotions, experiments and efforts to fall asleep. Relaxation techniques, breath control, soothing music, tiring exercises in the evening, reading books, boring conversations even some stolen red wine- I've tried them all.

Sleep would remain elusive for an hour or two sometimes more, eating away a chunk of my daily allowance of 8 hours, all that time spent on bed thinking, musing, wandering, planning, conspiring and day-dreaming during the night ! As I found that sleep wasnt a obediant servant to come at my clap of hands, I slowly gave hope and browsed or watched TV till late, making sleep deprivation a more acute problem.

One particular day, after all my room-mates had fallen asleep, I was so frustrated and wanted to talk to somebody. Called home, (2.5hrs behind me) and bored my family members for a while, and they gave another never-ending list of ideas all over again, many of which I had tried out before, but in vain. We even considered sleeping pills, but preferred to stick to natural remedies. Despite their best efforts, nothing convinced me to be a new idea, and made me grope in the dark (literally!). Slouched back to my bed, felling depressed and wondering "Why is it such a major challenge to fall asleep everyday??"

I was so agitated with this thing by now, and was reduced to changing the contents of my daily bed-time prayer, and just asked God one simple request - to give some sleep without having to try so hard.

I dont remember staying awake for more than 5 minutes from that moment on !

My point is not to ask for some divine sleepin pills everyday! It was the swiftness with which my prayer was answered that really astounded me. This may be a little trivial thing for most people reading this, but the desperateness of my prayer seemed to have generated a non-maskable interrupt in God's bus interface, and He too seemed to suddenly decide "ok, lemme give this poor fella an immediate response, as this is indeed the right time to grant the wish!"

Its 1.51am while Im typing this, and I have overshot my own 'gotobed' call, but this incident is worth remembering for a longer time, atleast for me.