Comment by bell-cot

It's interesting to compares this approach - a long fight against insomnia, then falling back to philosophy and contemplation - to the approaches of most older women I've known. A sense of the latter -

If the prospects seem good, trying getting back to sleep for 10 minutes. If that doesn't work, there's always work to do - so get up, start a load of laundry, and catch up on some things while it runs. Consider making a hole in your schedule, so you could get a couple hours sleep after the laundry's done, or an afternoon nap - but it that wouldn't work - well, such is life.

(Yes, I'm an old geezer. And back in the day, there were quite a few farms in my family.)