Rip Van Winkle didn't just fall asleep.

Rip Van Winkle putted about his garden one midnight.

He gardened when he couldn't sleep. Which, unfortunately, was often.

As he sifted dirt and pruned roses, he heard through the window the light, airy breathing of his sleeping daughter.

"Lucky," Rip thought as a rose bud fell to the ground.

After half an hour in the garden, Rip went back into his cottage and again tried to sleep.

He tossed. He turned. He drank warm milk.

Nothing. Not a Z was to be found.

So Rip lay in his bed not sleeping until the rooster crowed.

***

Come morning (come most mornings, actually) Rip was so exhausted from his insomnia, that he couldn't function. The town folk perceived him as lazy. His daughter thought him irritable, cranky and, old.

Rip would've cared about this bad reputation, but he was too tired to really understand it.

Then one day, as he funneled coffee into his gullet, Rip came across an article in the local paper.

"Moon Too Bright? Stars Twinkling Too Loudly? Sleep Hiding From You?" the headline shouted in bold type.

Rip continued reading.

"Then quiet the cosmos and find sleep with Lunerestra!"

Rip longingly looked at the picture of the crescent moon in its nightcap, fast asleep in a puffy bed of clouds.

"Lunerestra, eh?" he muttered. "Could it help me?"

Then Rip saw the burst in the top corner of the ad. "Ask your doctor TODAY!!!"

And that was all the convincing he needed. Rip Van Winkle felt a jolt of energy that lasted until he knocked on his local apothecary's door. There, he fell into a crumpled heap.

The apothecary opened his door and noticed the shaggy lump at his feet. "May I help you? CAN I help you?"

"I can't sleep," Rip weeped. "I want to try Lunerestra."

"Well," the apothecary said while tugging on his beard, "that's new medicine. But you seem very fatigued, so I'll get you a bottle to try."

And so Rip Van Winkle left with a brand new bottle of the latest sleep aid. He decided to try it out for an afternoon nap.

He found a cozy tree to lean up against. He got himself all situated and read the instructions on the bottle: Make sure you have 8 hours to devote to sleep before taking Lunerestra. Only take one pill per 24 hour period."

Rip took one pill but then reasoned that he'd missed so much sleep, perhaps he should take a few more pills.

A few turned into ten. Which turned into twenty. Which turned into the whole bottle.

Rip slumped against the tree and began to snore.

And there he snored until the grass grew over him. And the dust settled on his legs so thickly that flowers grew.

And his beard extended below his shoulders and got entwined with twigs and creepy crawly things.

Rip Van Winkle caught up on his Zs, alright. He caught up on 20 years worth of Zs.