I am so tired at night.

I usually turn in between 10 and midnight and quickly fall into a deep sleep.

I wake up feeling replenished yet groggy and assume that it is 6am and time to feed Madison, our Golden Lab.

It is 45 minutes after I have gone to sleep.

What the hell is that about?

To add insult to injury I now have haul ass out of bed for a time check because my doctor told me no artificial lights or cell nearby.

Now what do I do? Grab a good book, edit my daily post, read the NY Times online.

Is this another perk from menopause? I refuse to take sleeping medication because I awake in a stupor and the meds have left with with a migraine.

I did start a great book yesterday and that was some comfort. I haven’t read anything this engrossing in quite a while. I should have additional sleepless nights as Shantaram is 1,000 pages, but very gripping and highly absorbing.

The author, Gregory David Roberts, is from Melbourne, Australia and was sentenced to nineteen years in prison for armed robberies which he committed to support his heroin addiction. He escaped and spent many of his fugitive years in Bombay, India where the book takes place.

He established a free medical clinic in the slums of Bombay, worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner and street soldier for the Bombay mafia. The book, published in 2003, is loosely based on his life.

Roberts was eventually recaptured and severed out his sentence. During his incarceration he wrote Shantaram.

Subsequently, he established a successful multimedia company. He is now a full-time writer living in Bombay.

I’m sure Roberts sleeps at night, but after a full day that usually commences at 6am and includes rigorous exercise, working, walking a dog, cooking dinner and dealing with life, why the hell can’t I sleep for more than 45 minutes to an hour at a stretch?!

A least I have a diversion now. Shantaram and I shall have many middle of the night trysts.