It starts with waking up in the middle of the night. Followed by attempts not to stress about this. I’ll fall asleep soon. If this does not happen: unrest. But that is not allowed, because then I will certainly not fall asleep again. Then: resignation. Okay. Then I won’t sleep. Next: boredom. How long do I have before morning? Sometimes I still fall asleep. In other cases I just get up. Like this morning. Still a nice run around Vondelpark before the city woke up. Not unhappy, actually.
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A version of this article also appeared in the August 21, 2023 newspaper.