I don’t know about you, but I do appreciate my little nap in the afternoon. This has little to do with my age, although you could be forgiven for thinking it must have. In fact, as time has gone by I have appreciated the fact that my natural rhythm doesn’t fit the expected pattern of working by day and sleeping by night. I was reflecting on this in the middle of last night when, as happens very often, I found myself getting up at about 2.30 am. in order to note down some ideas ready for today’s art activities.
Thinking about it, this pattern goes back a very long way. Of course, at school one is compelled to fit into the institutional routine. I can remember very clearly, however, that while I was in Ottawa studying for my MA it was not at all unusual for me to get up in the middle of the night in order to write. It is easier to adopt this kind of routine when living alone, and when I had an extended period of solitary living during the ‘eighties it reasserted itself. Back then I had an idea for a novel, and I am sure that the greater part of this was written in the middle of the night.*
At first my wife was rather anxious about this kind of behaviour, and thought that it betrayed some kind of trouble in my life. These days, however, I believe that she has just about come to be reconciled to it, although it does puzzle her.
Recently I discovered that in earlier ages the idea that one only slept once in twenty-four hours was regarded as rather strange. The notion of the “first-” and the”second sleep” was widespread. In fact, the old monastic pattern of rising in the middle of the night for a religious service was based upon it. Rather than being some kind of fiendish and unnatural “mortification of the flesh” it was an accommodation to a daily rhythm that was recognised as more or less normal. Indeed, in earlier farming communities the agricultural regime often demanded that one rose very early, and made up for itv with an afternoon sleep. (The idea of the siesta that the British often associate with Latin idleness is in this tradition.)
Last night’s little session was very fruitful, during which I made some notes that have guided my drawing during the day, and look as if they will lay the foundation for my art work at least during the coming week. I want to celebrate my natural biological rhythm rather than treat is as some kind of deviation or misfortune. It would be really interesting to know whether other people share my experience.
*I got as far as showing the typescript to an agent, who was very encouraging. The primary importance of the experience, however, was that it convinced me that if I were to leave the academic profession it would be in order to paint rather than to write.