Some people (aka my mother and that entire generation) say no good can come from anything that happens at 4am. Once upon a time I believed that too. It was the exact time when exhausted me was disturbed by a certain someone’s self-induced insomnia coming to a crashing end. Nightly.

I’m starting to believe that 4am has become my witching hour. By definition a witching hour is a time deep into the evening, usually midnight, when anything might happen. A period of relative calm, during which a person or people undergo a significant mood change. The witching hour is NOT a time of violence, it is the calm that precedes a storm. Is writing a storm?

I’ve had a full writing schedule for the last few weeks and some of my best inspiration is coming at 4am. So what to do? Go with it, I’ve created a 4am survival kit and I get to work because I know damn well that if I don’t write it down it will be gone in the morning. I’m listening to my mind instead of trying to shut it off, making notes and researching and playing with new concepts and surprising myself by letting my mile-a-minute mind run wild.

4 O’clock in the morning has become an interesting phenomenon for one man whose cockamamie TED talk, before TED talks were popular, created a crowd sourced sensation that is at once crazy and touching. You’ll love the Museum of 4 in the Morning. Want to take a stab at when I discovered this….yep doing research at 4 o’clock in the morning.

The problem becomes what to do when all this inspiration is duly noted and my mind is quiet. How to get back to sleep? For those of you with active minds and trouble getting back to sleep try these steps that I’ve found helpful:

Do a body scan, are you too hot, too cold, do you have to pee, are you thirsty, does something hurt? If any of these pesky things are effecting you take care of them! Put a sweater on, take something off, just get up and go to the bathroom for crying out loud, you know you’re not comfortable. Have a glass of water, take an aspirin…

Back in bed find a comfortable position and tell yourself not to worry about going back to sleep, just rest your body. Let each part of your body relax and try box breathing. Inhale for 5, hold for 5, exhale for 5, hold for 5…repeat. Once you give yourself permission to just rest the pressure is off and you’ll be asleep in no time.

Toti Nonna has no idea what’s been going on, she’s slept through the entire thing lights on and all. Thankfully she’s the only one I have to worry about disturbing. One caveat, make sure your alarm is set before you do fall back asleep…I know like I know you’ll blow right by your normal wake time if you don’t.   Sweet dreams.