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... my spirit ponders greatly in my breast, how being alone I can place my hands on the unholy suitors. For they are always inside, in a crowd.

Odysseus praying

Well, for sure, I won't sleep either in this situation. But Odysseus is a professional fighter, he dealed with this situations many times before. One thing however is an even bigger problem.

This really is a problem, there is nowhere to go. He is not in the position to kill the best young men of all Kefallineans. Fleeing is his biggest problem and he can not solve it. So, what should a fighter do now? 'His Athena' says to him:

But let sleep take you now. There is trouble in staying awake all night long. You will now come forth from all your troubles.

He's a professional allright. Odysseus sleeps, but Penelope weeps after a dream she had this night and after Odysseus awakes:

O Artemis, revered goddess, daughter of Zeus, I wish you would strike me in the breast with one of your arrows and take my life right away.

Penelope prays for a heart attack. She is understanding her situation perfectly. There is no future for Odysseus. He dies either in the act of killing the suitors, or he will be killed afterward in revange. Only a few hours after his homecoming all hope for recontinuing her marrige has gone. The killing of the suitors keeps Odysseus awake also, until Athena appears, meaning he is coming to his senses, he 'says' to her:

Penelope is praying to Artemis, goddess of the moon, but also goddess of the (night)hunt, to strike her.

Fleeing

Also, I wonder about this even more -if I kill them by the will of Zeus, and yourself, where will I flee?

... promptly Dawn came on her golden throne. As Penelope wept, the good Odysseus heard her voice, and he mused.

So, it is early in the morning, it must have been around 07:00 hours december 20th, as dawn is coming. Twelf women already are milling wheat and barley for making bread. One of them, the weakest is still milling when the others has gone back to sleep.