Drifting off to sleep is a good time to review days lived. One theory of dreams is that our sleeping minds are reordering our memories and storing what is to be remembered.
The days stretch back through time. Since I began this process of remembering every day, they are a continuous chain of images on my mental calendar.
It is not only days that link the now to the past, but nights.
Sleep provides punctuation, but time flows without a break, washing over every bed where I have lain.
I have a curious sensation when I recollect my beds: I can remember the direction they pointed.
I think of lying in a bed and know whether it was in the same line, at 90 degrees, or whatever, to where I am now.
How accurate this is, I am not sure. If I try to place the bed on a mental map, it seems to be correct. Maybe I will investigate more rigorously one day. Possibly my subconscious has recorded the position of the rising sun. Maybe, like a pigeon, we can sense magnetic fields.
We spend a third of our lives in beds, often the same bed year after year.
I find them strong markers of a time and a place - and the direction in which I slept.
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