The Daily Write
Alaska Problems: Finding Sleep When It’s Light All Night
A small request to the sun
Dear Sun,
I know I should feel gratitude for your ever-presence this time of year.
You are up ALL the time. You even struck a deal with the clouds, and they’ve gone on hiatus.
Yesterday I did yard work all day and forgot to make dinner. The neighbor texted me and suggested we get takeout because our kids were somewhere in the stand of trees between our two houses, and she had forgotten about dinner too.
After all, 7:00 pm feels like it’s the middle of the afternoon.
But the kids have also forgotten about bedtime. Do you remember my efforts to block you from entering their rooms years past? Still, your sneaky rays crept through, and my toddlers were unconvinced and thought I was trying to cheat them out of playtime.
Now my tween stays up until nearly midnight, folding origami and making bracelets and promising she will go to sleep.
She’s not. None of us are.
When you finally dip around midnight, you come back three hours later, ready to herald the day.
And I take the bait! I start the coffee, sit on the couch, and then look at the clock. It’s 3:30 am, but it looks like what other latitudes would consider 6:00 am.
We have three weeks more of your shenanigans until you begin the long retreat to winter. In the meantime, maybe you could invite the clouds to come back…say between 6:00 pm-6:00 am? It would be nice to have an external indicator to trick our bodies into unwinding.
It’s all or nothing with you. Back in November, I was crying because you felt like a careless lover who would never come back. Then you refused to speak to anyone until 10:00 am, and the kids had to go to recess with headlamps!
Have you heard of something called moderation? You might consider looking it up in the dictionary.
I should probably move to a different latitude if that’s what I’m looking for.
Sigh. I think you do this so that we will throw you a big party on Summer Solstice, June 21.
I’d throw you a party anyway if you would just dim the lights.
Yours truly,
Mercedes
Key message: Going to sleep in the summer is hard, but the long days are also really fun, and they go by quickly.
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