Jim had the hardest time falling asleep. And, he'd tried everything he could think of to help his situation. He'd seen doctors, tried medicines, listened to music, watched videos and TV, counted sheep... EVERYTHING!!! But nothing seemed to help. He still tossed and turned for hours before he could fall asleep.
He ran a ranch, so an exhausted body wasn't the problem. He did say that some of the medications that the doctors gave him helped a little... but it was usually about breakfast when they seemed to kick in. So, that was out.
He bought a hot tub to soak in, thinking that would relax him. It seemed to work some... but not enough to put him to sleep before his normal 2 hour toss-and-turn routine was up.
He told me that he'd drag his tired body into bed at 10 PM every night and that he'd be up at 5 AM the next morning. The problem was that even though he was in bed at 10 AM... it would still be midnight before he could finally fall asleep. But, if he were to wake up to use the restroom or go on a late night run to the refrigerator... he was back into staring into the black ceiling again for at least an hour to an hour and a half. He was exhausted. And, since he ran a ranch... it wasn't like he could just lock his office door and take a catnap during the day. The poor guy was at wits end.
That's when he called me. Not so much as another "remedy" to try to get him to sleep, but more as something to look at while he was waiting to drift off. Before I went out to California to paint the mural for him... he told me how much he loved the night sky and how he loved to lie down on his deck during the summer evenings, way back in the hills where the ranch was located, and just stare, in awe, into those incredible night skies that they have out there.
So, we worked out the details and before long I was on a flight out to California to give the poor guy something to look at during the night, instead of just a dark void above his head at night.
Since I usually paint during the day, I blackened out his windows and got to work while he was out riding the fence line... or rustling cattle. You know I never did really get what it was he said he did.
Well, I finished up at around 4 PM and it wasn't long after that that he walked in to see how things were going. It was perfect timing since I had just finished putting away my paints and brushes. I told him to sit on his bed in the dark, while I took my equipment back out to the car, so that his eyes could adapt to the dark. Remember that he'd just come in from outside and there's no way that he'd be able to see what I'd just painted right away. It's kind of like when you go to a movie in the middle of the day (OK, who does that?) and you walk into the theater after the movie's already started. You know what I'm talking about... like when you have to stand there for a few minutes, while your eyes adapt to the dark, so that you can actually sit in an empty seat instead of someone's lap?
OK, so that was the situation. He sat there on his bed while I finished cleaning up. Then, once I thought his eyes were good and ready, I had him close his eyes and I turned on the black light for a few minutes so the paint could charge up a little. Then, I turned out the lights and had him open his eyes. Silence! Deafening! I thought.. "Oh crap, I just flew out here to paint a mural for this guy and he doesn't like it." That's what I was thinking because for at least 30 seconds he didn't say a thing. Finally, he broke the dreadful silence. He finally said, "This is the most incredible thing that I have ever seen! How did you do this? This looks just like the night sky that I lay on my deck during the summer evenings to look at. HOW? How did you do this?"
Now, this was a tough cowboy saying this to me and I thought that he was about to cry. So, I bit my lip so I wouldn't start cracking up in his face if it got too emotional in there... but luckily for me, it didn't (Just a quick note... I have had people cry when I've shown then their mural for the first time... and to me it is one of the best testimonials that I can get... so don't get me wrong. It's just that this was a manly man... and I wasn't expecting that from him). Well, as I was cleaning the blood from my now bleeding lip (from biting it so hard) I answered his questions and pointed out the constellations that were in the sky. He told me how the Milky Way added an extra degree of 3D to the mural... and then finished with him telling me that he wanted another room painted when it was remodeled.
It was about 4:30 by now and I headed over to the little cabin that was on the property, which is where I got to stay while there. I changed clothes and headed down to the beach for a couple of hours, watched the sunset, ate some fish and chips (nothing like 'em when they're fresh) and then headed back to crash. I was dead tired.
I was sitting on the deck in the front of the cabin the next morning at about 8 AM when one of the ranch hands came by and asked if I had seen Jim? I told him that the last time I'd seen him was at about 5 PM the night before and I was headed to the beach. Then he told me that they hadn't seen him since about 6 PM the previous night and that he hadn't met them that morning as usual... and that they had looked everywhere. His car was still parked in it's usual place and his horse was still in it's stall, so they were concerned. It wasn't like Jim to not be the first guy up and ready to work in the mornings. By this time there were 4 or 5 others who had been out looking for him and we were all standing around wondering what to do. They were actually about to call the police when out wanders Jim at about 8:30.
These ranch hands just stood there staring at their boss with nothing to say. Jim saw everyone at the little cabin and walked over to us. Then, one of the guys asked him where he'd been? He just looked at me and said, "Blame him!" Now, I'm thinking, "What? I've been sound asleep all night, don't look at me!" But, he quickly finished the rest of the story. He said, "It was that mural. After you left last night, I finished up a few things that I had to do and then at about 6 PM, I went back into my room to look at the mural again. I laid down on the bed and as I let my eyes adjust to the dark... the stars started to pop out a few at a time, until the entire ceiling was covered. Then the Milky Way came into view. I just lay there looking at that scene... and before I knew it I was out cold. It wasn't until about midnight that I woke up, fully dressed, to use the restroom. Then I grabbed a bite to eat and went back and got into bed again. I stared into the stars again for maybe 15 minutes and I was out again. It was amazing! And, I just woke up about 15 minutes ago!"
He then said that he hadn't slept like that in years and he couldn't believe what he'd done. Well, neither could the other guys who were standing there because they knew how hard it was for him to sleep. Now, I had left the black plastic up on the windows the night before because he'd told me that he might want to go back in and look at it again for a minute... so that may explain why he slept through his normal time to wake up at 5 AM when the sun started to lighten the eastern sky. But still... that was about 14 hours that he'd slept and nobody could believe it. He did write a few weeks later, after he'd been able to get used to it... and he told me that he was able to go to sleep in about 30 minutes now... and if he'd wake up during the night, he no longer worried about falling quickly back to sleep. He was very grateful for the unexpected result that the mural had on him... but he still joked about falling asleep at 6 PM that first night, in his clothes, without eating dinner and without any trouble.
I guess he had a lot of years of sleep to catch up on.
One last little note. Now I'm no expert, but I wonder if many people have trouble falling to sleep because their minds are racing with thoughts of the day that just finished, of bills, of kids, of things they need to do the following day... or whatever? And maybe, because they have nothing else to focus on, but a black void above their heads... there is nothing to take their minds off of all of those things. Who knows? But this I do know... there is a former insomniac, on a ranch, in a small town in California... who now has a problem staying awake at night and then waking back up again in the morning. He now looks forward to going to bed when the day is done... where he used to dread it.
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