Late Night on the Africa Mercy.

Time has a different concept in a cabin with no windows. Hours of sleep can pass by with no reference to as to the time outside. A dark cabin is wonderful to sleep in, but it can be a miracle just to wake up in the morning.

Last week was a perfect example. Converting back to a day schedule after working night shifts, I went to bed around 11:00pm. Considering I had been going to bed at seven in the morning, this was impressive. I went to sleep as usual, climbing into my bunk, and shutting off the light.

I’m not sure why, but I woke up at 12:40am. Glancing at my clock, I thought I had slept in till the next day. Knowing I was working evening shift, I knew I had only twenty minutes left till they stopped serving lunch. I climbed out of bed and started putting on my clothes.

When I turned on the light, I saw my bunkmate still sleeping. Instead of looking at my clock again, wondering why he would still be sleeping, I woke him. Being the great roommate I am, I said (in a somewhat crazed, just-woke-up type voice), “Geoff! Geoff! Wake up! It’s 12:40pm. You slept in SIX HOURS!”

Instead of asking if I had lost it, my roommate jumped out of bed. Eyes still red from sleep; he exclaimed over and over again that he had no idea how this could happen. That’s interesting to note because it would be impossible to sleep in six hours here. They have called me before when I was five minutes late. Six hours would be on an entirely different level of neglect. As he dressed, he looked at his clock (which also said 12:40) and continued to berate himself for sleeping in. Waking up in the middle of a deep sleep is never conducive to logical thinking. The contagious alarm of my voice added to the confusion.

All of this happened in the matter of a few minutes. I got my scrubs on and went out in the hallway. I looked at my watch. It read 0:40 (Military time for 12:40am). Staring at it like I had learned to tell time yesterday, I still was not convinced it was night time. I probably also should have noticed the lack of people in the hallway. Usually there are a few people during the day. There was no one. Walking towards the stairs, I turned the corner and ran into one of the other nurses.

“Is it day time or night time?”
She gave me an odd look and replied, “Night time.”
“Ohhh…”

Walking back to my cabin, all the clues I had missed slowly entered my mind. I returned to the cabin to find Geoff half dressed, still perplexed as to how he managed to sleep in six hours.

“Geoff.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s night time…Sorry bout that.”
“It is?”
“My bad.”
“I was wondering how I could be so tired after sleeping that long.”

We laughed as we went back to our bunks. That is something that can only happen in a windowless cabin setting. All of us have gotten up in the middle of the night, not realizing the time. It was just different for me because I convinced someone of my own confusion. As I laid there, I remember thinking how strange it was to wake up like that. Geoff was probably thinking the same. He also must have been questioning the intelligence of his roommate, which was understandable considering the last few minutes. I went to sleep content that I had hours to sleep still, unlike Geoff, which was waking up four hours later.

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