CHAPTER 23

Original (Published in "Lun's World"): 2004-11-01

Rewritten: 2025-07-15

That night I realized that for more than ten years, Lun had to try so hard to sleep every night.  

On a night in late October, around 11 o'clock, I passed by Lun's room which was very quiet. I looked in and found that Lun had already fallen asleep. It was very rare for Lun to go to bed and sleep peacefully at around 10 o'clock. What surprised me even more was his sleeping posture. That night, he slept peacefully on his side. I quickly told my wife and let her see it with her own eyes. After seeing it, she also felt very surprised.

Lun's quilt only covered his body, not his head. Since he was a child, Lun always covered his head and feet with a quilt when he slept, like a cooked shrimp, curled up, as if trying to escape from something.

Maybe he is afraid of the dark, or ghosts. Whenever Halloween is approaching, he cannot sleep peacefully. On weekdays, he has to keep the lights on when he goes to bed. If there is a major power outage, he cannot last more than a few minutes and starts to get restless and then yell. Even with a big flashlight for lighting, he cannot calm down.

That night, I suddenly realized that for many years, Lun had to try very hard to fall asleep. In early October, we began to gradually reduce the dosage of a sleeping aid for Lun according to the doctor's prescription, because the drug will gradually become ineffective, and if it is stopped suddenly, the patient may have cramps.

For more than two years, Lun has relied on this drug to fall asleep, otherwise he would yell all night. In late October, the doctor changed the prescription and began to use a drug that does not require a doctor's prescription. It is a kind of endocrine in the human body, called melatonin, which helps people fall asleep in a light-deficient environment and is very safe.

After taking it for a few days, Lun had the same condition as that night. I guess his physique is different from that of ordinary people. He cannot secrete certain substances as usual, so he has not had enough sleep for many years. That night we realized the suffering he had gone through since he was born. He had to be extremely tired every night before he could fall asleep. He tossed and turned, so that when he was hungry, he had to get up to find something to eat. Finally, he could not really rest until 2 or 3 in the morning. He had to get up again at 7 in the morning to prepare for class. If he did this for many years, his body would certainly not be strong and his mood would become more unstable. One week after taking melatonin, Lun could fall asleep before midnight and no longer needed to escape from anything.

In addition to the help of the medicine, Lun did not show any stress around Halloween. That day when I sent him to school, he saw his classmates dressed in strange costumes in the corridor of the school and laughed happily. Although Lun matures slowly, he will still grow up.