— def · sleeptide

sleeptide

/ˈsliːp.taɪd/

noun · etym: anglo-noemic compound · sleep + -tide (time, season) · cf. even-tide

the pull of an unmade bed.

sleeptide is the gravity an unmade bed exerts in the early afternoon. one passes the bedroom door on the way to something else; one feels it. one can resist for many years. the bed is patient; it remains idolic in its corner, holding the shape of the night before, and that shape contains the present hour.

sleeptide is the opposite tide of the antemerid: one carries you out of bed, the other reels you back. between the two, the day exists. the practice of making the bed early is, in some quarters, a small attempt to break the sleeptide; it does not always succeed. compare also gloamtide, with which sleeptide is sometimes confused at dusk.

in a sentence:   "i lost the saturday to sleeptide; the bed had not been made since thursday."

see also · antemerid gloamtide dimwait dream sleeper

atlas · return