2am

i want to know what it is about 2am that has me wide awake and ready to write, or sometimes with a desire to read. there must be something biological, or chemical, or biochemical, that is unique to the hours of 2am to 4am which make my body awaken from sleep and decide to have a spurt of creative genius.
once my mother told me, even as a baby, i used to wake up at this hour and her reasoning was because this was often the time my father came home. i was never entirely convinced by this reasoning, but lacking any other explanation it seemed to fit and gave me an answer to my question. when i moved into my father's house it did appear that he and i shared this trait, but he was no longer coming home at 2am, so my mother's logic was tossed aside. since, at the time, my mother and i were barely speaking to each other i was all too ready to find fault in her words.
as time went on i began to cherish these moments of wakefulness. the house was so quiet and still enough that you could hear the rise and fall of everyone's breath as they slept, as well as the peepers singing within the pond across the street, and i knew there wouldn't be a chance that someone would knock on my door. this time became my solace, this time was my own, except on those occasions when my dad would see my light on and tell me to go to sleep. i always thought this was a bit ironic since he would then go downstairs, turn on a light and sit in the living room to read for an hour or two himself, but i never asked about it since my life was so strange at that pint anyway, one more oddity was just accepted.
when i was in college i'd frequently stay awake until 2am and then crash for a few hours before going to an 8am class. at one point i had this notion of being on the crew team, but my nights of wakefulness were not conducive to 6am practices. it was only after graduating from college that i began to realize how inhibiting this quirk of dna could be, especially when i had to get up and go to work the next morning. a stop at dunkin' donuts became a necessity and once we moved to amherst my caffeine addiction really took hold and i began to frequent the only cafe that was willing to make an iced cafe vanilla without using the sickly sweet vanilla syrup, give me the powder! when my employment opportunities turned into dire straits my addiction to cafe vanillas was intense. no longer were these relugated to my morning routines, but one could find me with a steaming cup of vanilla caffeinated goodness at almost any hour of the day or night.
it wasn't until i began working at bread & circus that the possibility of a condition was realized. there were so many possibilities! hormonal imbalance, adrenal fatigue, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, stress, anxiety ... one by one these notions were eliminated and eventually i went back to enjoying these times of quiet solitude.
when my children were young these nightly sojourns were few and far between since most days and evenings were spent in two hour bits of sleep, moments of early morning energy became a thought of the past. as soon as these moments returned i knew my children were growing up, as well as realizing how much i missed this time. truly there is no other moment in time that is like 2am!