I got started late today because of a spotty sleeping night. And I’m accompanying Tatyana to the dreaded Cole Avenue DMV (God, I hate that place) at 1:30 pm so she can take her written driving test. I have an hour left before we leave so my usual quota of stories (five or six) will be on the short side, I’m afraid, although I’ll probably jump into things later this afternoon.

I awoke at 5:15 am (I so love that feeling of pre-dawn solace and serenity) but crashed again at 7:30 am. I could have started workthat getting required sleep is more important than doing the work, so it’s partly her fault.

From “Will Dormer vs. Fitful Sleep,” posted on 1.3.18: “For decades my sleep pattern was to get about six hours, midnight or 1 am to 6 or 7 am. Over the last couple of years I’ve taken a one-hour nap around 2 or 3 pm on the couch. But every now and then (i.e., usually when I’m really stressed about something) I’ll become a fitful sleeper, and that means a 3 or 3:30 or 4 am wake-up, which always results in (a) moving to the living room couch for a 90-to-120-minute Twitter session. (b) finally returning to sleep around 6 or 6:30 am, and (c) waking again at 9 or even 9:30 or 10 am.

In short, I go through periods in which I am almost Al Pacino in Insomnia. But not quite. Tatyana and Arianna Huffington say it’s better to get at least seven if not eight hours straight. While I recognize the soundness of that advice, I have this nonsensical, deep-down notion that overnight slumber is a little slice of death, and that if I sleep too much I’ll miss stuff, and that too much sleep is for losers — the horizontal equivalent of taking extra-long showers.