Naps, “When Childhood Ends”

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “When Childhood Ends.”

Even though I am still very much a child, one thing that has changed about me over the last couple of years is naptime.

Between the ages of 4 and 14, I don’t ever recall “naptime” as being a thing that I did. Especially not almost 5 days a week!

When I was younger, I was a bundle of energy! I could do anything I wanted on a whim without thinking about engagements I had made at even later times. My sleep schedule was from midnight until 5 a.m. Then I was ready to take on the world again.

Nowadays…ugh, I had to take a nap before I could think enough to write a coherent post. Most of the time I walk around feeling like I’ve just awoken at two in the morning, only having gotten maybe an hour of sleep. I’ll sleep for up to ten hours sometimes and still have that feeling- I even have a name for it- Cotton Ball Headedness. When I mention that name to my mother, she knows exactly what I’m talking about because I’ve explained it to her so many times.

Having to take naps when I get home from school everyday and even on the weekends when I’m bored, is wasting so much of my time, my childhood. My childhood is ending because I’m so stressed out and I need an aspirin before I go to bed at night. My childhood is being cut short because I have about 3 hours after I get home from school at 6p.m. until I go to an exhausted, uncomfortably restless sleep at about 9p.m. My childhood hasn’t ended yet, but soon enough, I’ll be waking up at my own house, to exhausted to even pick up the phone to call out from work.