Why I need the word desvelarse

I woke up during the night. Or rather, me desvelé. There is no word in the English language - which I know of - to encapsulate this harrowing experience. “Have/suffer insomnia” will not do: the phrase is too technical, and it’s not a verb. I was in the dark. Were my eyes open? How long did I lie awake, invaded by a whirlwind of thoughts, images and mental turmoil? It might have been minutes, or self-fabricated hours. As if that mattered. When desvelados, as we say in Spanish, we lose our ability to measure time; such is our suffering for not being able to control this or other worldly abilities we possess during the day.

It is said that some people, including scientists, are able to solve problems occupying their minds during sleep. I cannot tell. What I know is that when the mind takes over our body in the middle of the night, we’d better take it easy. The more we try to reconcile the two -if such dualism ever existed- , the fiercer the mind will act like a vicious tyrant, unwilling to yield power, preventing us from enjoying the most mysterious and healthiest kind of human disconnection.

In a world with so much trouble, I hope not to desvelarme again by such an inconsequential issue as the need for a word.