The Reverse Nap

I’ve started a thing, and someday you’ll be able to say that you knew the guy who started the thing and remember when it started to become a thing. The thing is The Reverse Nap.

Here’s how it works:

I go to sleep at my regularly appointed hour, usually somewhere between 11:30 PM and midnight.

Then I wake up at some point in the middle of the night, usually around 2:00 AM. Originally it was the dog who was waking me up, and occasionally the baby, but now I just wake up around this time whether I want to or not.

I climb out of bed. go downstairs and work for about 90 minutes. I write, revise, empty the dishwasher, pay bills, read. Whatever is most pressing. Whatever I didn’t get to the day before.

It turns out that 2:00 AM is the ideal time to accomplish goals. No one in the house is awake. There are no children pleading with me to play hide-and-go-seek. There are no emails hitting my inbox. Even Twitter is relatively quiet. It’s just me and whatever task I have chosen for a solid hour or more.

Then around 3:30 AM I return to bed and experience all the joys of climbing into a warm bed and falling asleep for a second time that night.

The Reverse Nap, my friends.

I’m telling you, it’s going to become a thing. A big thing.