I am awake. It is sudden, like a lightbulb being turned on in my head. I glance at my watch. It’s 1:00 a.m., the fourth day in a row that I’m waking up at this time after just ninety minutes of sleep. I groan wearily, and shut my eyes, but it is of no use. I know I wont be able to go back to sleep.

My mother suffered from insomnia, and I too have suffered from this horrible affliction for the last several years. The insomnia comes and goes, with no reason, and no cure. I’ve tried warm milk and honey and turmeric before going to bed (it gives me gas), warm showers (I sweat a lot), and other remedies. I also have tried sleeping pills, and it is the worst feeling to be awake with insomnia when the sleeping pills are trying to do their job. I try drinking myself to sleep, and that doesn’t work either.

I speak to many friends about this, and each one gives me a suggestion that doesn’t work. I finally talk to my father about it, when he asks me why I have dark circles under my eyes. “Have you tried baking bread?”, he asks me.

“Baking bread? That’s the craziest thing I’ve heard”, I tell him.

“Your mother used to bake bread, she said it helped her go back to sleep”.

So here I am, 2:00 am, mixing yeast with warm milk and sugar, and letting it rise. I sift flour and salt, add in a dash of sugar, add the milk to it, some water, and mix the dough. I sit there then, waiting for the dough to rise, the smell of yeast and milk in the air.

And then I fall asleep, at 3:30 am, in a blissful rest for 4 hours. I wake up, and the dough has risen, and I bake it. It turns out great, the smell of bread in the air.

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Attempt 2 Link to heading

Let me tell you how I got into baking. These smells of sourdough and …