As
most of you might be aware that US has various time zones and there is a
'ritual' called daylight savings - twice a year we need to reset our clocks -
one hour ahead in Spring and one hours back in fall ("Spring Forward and
Fall Back"). And this resetting the clock has been standardized to happen
at 2 am on Saturdays just so that it will cause minimum inconvenience to the
public. So, in March (which is Spring in US), when the clock strikes 2 am, we
adjust it to 3 am and likewise in November, when it hits 2 am we change it back
to 1 am. So depending on if its Spring or Fall, you get one hour less sleep and
one hour extra sleep respectively. And since it’s on a Saturday night, no one
really whines or rejoices about the amount of sleep they got.
Also,
the smartphones and laptops automatically adjust the time on that specific date
thus making the transition smooth by the time you wake up in the morning.
Except for the momentary shock of seeing your wall clock show a different time
than you cellphone, life would go on normally as if the adjusted time is the
normal time.
Early
this year, I had gotten into this habit of drinking water before going to bed
and have been getting up in the middle of sleep to relieve myself on many
days. Though it could be viewed as something which disrupts the sleep, the way
I saw it was, I was getting a chance to
wake up and go back to sleep again (the best feeling ever!).
It so happened that
the day of the daylight saving as well, I got up in the middle of the sleep to
pee. And like a habit, I checked my cellphone to check the time having no
orientation about what day it was. It was close to 2 am. I kept my phone down
and went to the rest room to do the needful. As I got back, I
checked my phone again to catch up on the emails and Whatsapp messages which my
friends and family from the other side of the world have been sending which
have been chiming throughout the night. It was like a sudden bolt when I
noticed the time was 3 am!!. I knew for sure that went to pee it was about 2 am
as my estimation of how long more I will get to sleep is based on the time I
woke up.
I was completely
alert by then and my mind was trying to process what was going on and whether I
really had an one hour long urination and if so why don’t I remember that and
more importantly, what’s wrong with me. It took only a few seconds for me to
figure out what date it was and what had happened, but a scared mind is a fast
processing mind which considers many possibilities and scenarios.
In short, I laid awake
for the next ½ hr laughing all by myself at the absurdity of the all incident
as I had never expected to lose sleep over (pun intended!) the daylight saving.
Not only did I lose 1 hr of my sleep, but also the next ½ hour on what could be
technically the longest pee of my life.
Disclaimer: It’s an expanded version of a Facebook status I posted a while back. Just goes to show how much of circumlocutory path I often take to explain simple things.
AVS
