The Awful Moment When You Can’t Fall Back Asleep

Countdown to wake up.

Ryan Redmond
2 min readSep 5, 2024
Photo by Krista Mangulsone on Unsplash

My eyes open.

I yawn and stretch.

It feels like the middle of the night.

It looks like the middle of the night.

Dark. Quiet. Peaceful.

No birds chirping yet.

It’s definitely early. Too early to wake up.

I think I have plenty of time to get more sleep, which I certainly need.

I check the clock on my phone, and I’ve got another hour or so till the alarm is set to blast me from my slumber.

I set my phone back down and close my eyes.

“You have plenty of time to fall back asleep,” I tell myself, in hopes to forget about the time.

“One hour left…”

I can’t help it.

My mind has started a countdown.

That’s the moment.

The Awful Moment.

This is the title I’ve given it.

The moment when there’s just no hope of falling back to sleep.

The moment when your body has assumed it’s time to start the day.

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Ryan Redmond

Writing stories in between cups of coffee and glasses of wine.