In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
--Robert Louis Stevenson
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer, quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
--Robert Louis Stevenson
As a child, I used to protest having to go to bed before it was dark. I would stand in my crib, look out my window, and say, "Why do I have to go to bed? It's not dark yet!"
I didn't get it. I knew that sometimes, my parents would let me stay up until it was dark, but other times I had to go to bed while it was still light. I was too young to understand winter and summer, and the days being longer or shorter depending on the season.
Now that I am grown, I do understand the seasons. The days are getting longer. It won't be but a few more weeks until the sun is up later than I am. And though I'm an adult now, I will still look out my window and say,
"But it's not dark yet!"
6 comments:
I am a night owl, it is always dark when I go to bed. Unless I am sick or VERY tired.
So am I pretty safe in assuming that you don't have to get up at 5 AM?
I stay up late in the summer, in winter I may turn in at 8. LOL. It's usually dark before we eat supper in the summer, so much to do.
It's harder to want to go to bed early in summer. It's still daylight out. There's still work to do. But getting up at 5 AM kind of makes it a necessity.
I am a lucky one, I can do with as little as 6 hrs sleep most often and thats a good thing cause bedtime at midnight in the summer is the norm for our house, but 6:00 am is my internal alarm! Sleeping in is 7:30, every once in a while when Hubby is out of town.
Try sleeping in the summer in AK! No sunsets all summer, we always put tinfoil on the windows in the kids rooms!
Dawn, I wish I could get by on that little sleep. I need 7-8 hours or I'm no good. Getting up at 5 requires I be in bed no later than 9, which doesn't always happen.
If left to my own internal clock, I would sleep from midnight to 8 AM.
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