Hot Showering For Sleeping

 

Six or eight restless nights a month I’d lie,
Wide open eyes while minutes wandered by.
No stress to blame, no screens or late-night bite,
Yet still I wrestled with the dark of night.

 

A simple shift, a minute in the shower,
Hot water made wakefulness lose its power.
No need for more, no lengthy, grand routine,
That’s all it took to soon be in my dreams.

 

The heat flowed down and soaked into my skin,
And whispered softly, “Let the sleep begin.”
My core heat dipped and blood flowed to the shell,
So soon I found that into sleep I fell.

 

Back under blanket’s weight, beneath that press,
In darkness deep, my senses acquiesced.
From shower’s hot flow into bed I’d glide,
And find that slumber beckoned me inside.

 

If midnight stirred and pulled me from the deep,
A minute’s heat restored that path to sleep.
From shower to sheets in minutes three,
Then I surrendered back into the sea.

 

Studies agree that passive warming’s art
Can shave off minutes, then the dreams would start.
The heat gives way to night’s descending sweep,
And falling temperature invites us to sleep.

 

So steam becomes the cue my brain obeys,
A gentle gate that closes out my days.
In simplest acts, with profound relief we keep—
A flash of warmth and then the gift of sleep.