I haven't been able to sleep between the hours of 3 a.m. to 5 a.m. for the last month. I fall asleep at 11 p.m., something wakes me around 3 a.m., and I start scrambling around for a position that will send me back to dreams or oblivion. Around dawn, merciful sleep comes.

Last night brought the same wakefulness, but there was a difference: ideas flooded into my head. I fought the idea of getting up to execute them, because I don't want to flip my clock. The ideas kept coming. Finally I struggled out of bed, found a legal pad and began recording them so as to remember them the next day. When I was done, I had written down ten. I went back to bed, got up again to note two more I had forgotten, and finally fell asleep as usual at dawn.

I don't believe in taking drugs to sleep, wake, perk up, even out, have fun or any other purpose related to altering the brain's function. Much as I longed for sleep last night, I wouldn't have taken a sleeping pill even had one been in the house. Maybe I should accept my new "hours" and report for work.