Sleep

My sleeping habits changed in the last few years. My formerly rigorous 8-hours-sleep is not valid anymore. It is 7 hours or less.

It is not very uncommon now that every now and then I wake up at a certain hour in the middle of my sleep, like 2 or 3 A.M.,  and stay awake for one or two hours before I can get back to sleep. These sudden awakenings last for few days or even a week. And it is not related to being worried, stressed or any other sort of anxiety.

Before, I used to sleep only on my right or left side and I rarely tossed or turned. Now I keep tossing and turning for no reason, and I wake up and find myself lying on my back, with my two hands' fingers interlocked, which is funny because I usually do not interlock my hands.

Dreams are not either as frequent as they used to be.

Some of these changes like sleeping fewer hours might be common as we get older. Others could be genetic. My mother always suffered from waking up in the middle of her sleep for no reason and staying awake for no short time.

No explanation for some of these changes  as there is no easy explanation for the meaning of this beautiful stanza of Emily Dickinson:

Sleep is the station grand

Down which on either hand

The hosts of witness stand.