I Wrote This At 4am Sick With Covid ((free)) Jun 2026

This is the danger zone. You are too tired to sleep, too sick to get up. You start thinking about your own mortality. You wonder if your life insurance is paid up. You wonder why you never learned to play the piano. You wonder if COVID has permanently ruined your sense of smell, or if the garbage can in the corner of your bedroom actually smells like burnt toast.

If you are reading this, I have successfully survived the night. But right now, in this moment, I am a prisoner of the early morning hours, held captive by a virus that seems to have a personal vendetta against my throat and a deep interest in my internal thermostat. i wrote this at 4am sick with covid

"I'm not sure what's more impressive - the fact that I managed to write this at 4am or the fact that I'm doing so while fighting off a nasty case of COVID. Either way, I'm not letting a little thing like a global pandemic (or a lack of sleep) stop me from expressing myself. This is the danger zone

This article will not cure your cough. It will not lower your fever. It will not bring back your sense of taste (though if you’re reading this, I hereby grant you permission to be furious about the loss of taste—it is genuinely insulting). You wonder if your life insurance is paid up

You go to bed early. You took your Tylenol. You drank your electrolyte water. You think, "I am an adult. I will sleep this off." You put on a podcast about medieval history at a low volume, convinced you will be asleep in ten minutes. You are wrong.

I don’t mean from left side to right side. I mean move to the floor. Move to the bathtub (empty, obviously). Move to the couch with your feet up on the armrest. Your body is screaming for novelty. Give it a weird, uncomfortable new environment. It resets the panic.