I: Wrote This At 4am Sick With Covid [new]

At 3:45 AM, you were freezing. You piled on two hoodies, wool socks, and the weighted blanket. You were shivering so hard your teeth chattered a rhythm into the silence.

When you’re in the thick of it, time loses all meaning. The days bleed into nights, marked only by the interval between doses of Tylenol. At 2:00 PM, you’re convinced you’re turning the corner. By 4:00 AM, the "COVID brain" takes over, and you find yourself staring at a crack in the ceiling, contemplating the structural integrity of your life. i wrote this at 4am sick with covid

There is a clarity that comes with 4 AM exhaustion. The trivialities of the day—the emails, the deadlines, the social obligations—have evaporated. All that remains is the rhythm of my own pulse and the desperate, simple desire for a deep, clear breath. Covid doesn't just steal your sense of taste or your energy; it steals your sense of time. This hour could be an eternity, or it could be a blink. At 3:45 AM, you were freezing

Here is the dirty secret no wellness influencer will tell you: COVID brain, at 4 AM, offers a terrifying kind of clarity. When you’re in the thick of it, time loses all meaning