“... there is a time for many words and there is a time for sleep."
– the Odyssey

When temperatures dip into the teens, air in the house gets dry. Over the years we've tried to combat this by replacing the whole house humidifier, adding another in the bedroom, various gels, lotions, and, of course, drinking more water. As I get older it's the latter causing the most disruption to my sleep schedule. Gulping down gallons of water before bedtime guarantees I will have to make a trip to the bathroom at least once in the dark of night.
I've developed some strategies to keep these midnight runs from being too disruptive to my sleep. For one, I check the path to the bathroom before my head hits the pillow. It's a trick I learned when the kids were young, because nothing wakes you more fully than stepping on an errant Lego left in the hall. The days of Legos are behind me, but the habit remains.
Another strategy is the single eye. Going from the pitch black into a well lit bath is like shooting spikes into your head. Worse than that, however, is leaving the bathroom to stumble back to bed. It's like entering a darkened movie theater. Disorienting and dangerous, waking every sense in my body. By keeping a single eye closed in the bathroom, then switching open eyes on the trip back, I hold on to that sleepy feeling.
Of course, none of this matters if you step on the cat. That gets the blood flowing. Fast. May as well just stay up at that point.
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