One of the best times for thinking and perhaps doing some intentional reflection is nighttime. I mean, the midnight hours. Those periods when everywhere is cool, calm and quiet. The atmosphere is responding to the sounds of nature emanating; that cricket that seemed to have been disturbing is now something easily located. You could tell the little noise or movement easily.
There's also the midnight hours tend to bring; that's random thoughts popping into one's mind. It's like pictures or images of these things coming up in one's mind, and such thoughts could be so flowing and articulate, maybe due to the benefit of the quiet midnight hours. It's 03:33 AM here, and I can hear the sounds of the insects and a few other sounds as well, like the far sound of music. Seems some people are still having a blast.
To one of the random thoughts that popped into my mind in the quiet, deep hours like this. One of such was about the midnight hours. Like, why is nighttime meant for rest, for sleep? Was it conscripted in any way to be like this or is it just a natural inclination of our bodies to want to go to bed after a fruitful, long, tiring, hectic or fun-filled day? In any case, we tend to need to hit our beds to get a good rest in sleep. Well, except maybe you're a midnight owl. Haha.
There has been advice about how many hours to sleep at night. And I consider this was because, yes, we sleep at night, and so this eight or nine hours recommended sleep becomes a wholesome piece of advice to give. This leaves me wondering also why the owl is so alert at night and the bat becomes so active in sight, not the “blind” animal during the day.
I think I've heard someone speak and he said something related. He said, somehow, we feel the need and necessity to have our sleep as the night falls into the deep, midnight hours. That somehow, our bodies are in tune with this and we would naturally have ourselves, our bodies gravitating towards sleep at such times. Sometimes, against our wishes even. I guess that's where the work of beverages like Coffee and Nescafe come in.
Once again, was it a conscripted idea, a system we were born into or something that's just our biology? Funny thoughts, right? It gets more interesting because conventional working periods and lifestyles allow for this and accommodate it. Thats why we people come home in the evening, put aside house duties and have this rest to continue the next day. For some reason, I find myself using nighttime much for tasks and some other necessary things.
Nevertheless, what if nighttime could be for more? The serene nature of the hours; the calm and quiet give room for more productivity, to me at least. On the other hand, it calls for rest. As mentioned, life conventionally agrees to the need to rest and sleep at night as evident even in our approach as humans to nighttime. Whether these hours are conscripted for sleep or not, we see perhaps an instinctive need. One that even “midnight owls” tune in to.
Images are mine.
