I have finally admitted that my body’s sleep clock is once again sproing. Since the beginning of April we have done much with the travel and I have done less with the rigorous bedtime and waketime schedule. Now I am paying the price.
I am in what I like to call the bargaining stage of recovery, which is the part where I spend a lot of time saying “Oh god it’s 8:00 p.m. I am so tired can I please go to bed?” The implied other end of the bargain is that if I am granted permission to go to bed at 8, or 7, or 4:30, then I will not die. But C-Man always says that I can if I am willing to live with the consequences, and then I have to make good decisions. Mostly. If I don’t want to feel this way forever.
So it’s bedtime at 9:30 p.m. (forget doing anything fun in the evening), get up with the alarm between 6:00 and 6:15 a.m. (forget leisurely weekends), and most of all No Naps (really). Contrary to what we were taught as children, naps are not always benign. They can Fuck Your Shit Up if you are me. Once every six months, if you are crying because the level of tired is causing you physical pain, you are allowed to nap. But then you will start waking up again almost hourly all night long and will curse the nap.
At least right now I sleep for 3-4 hours before I start waking up over and over. It’s just that last part that turns my brain into glue. Blogging will undoubtedly be somewhat trivial until morale improves.
Dear Princess,
Funny, SCB and I were just talking about this today on IM! She met someone that had their sleep analyzed and turned out they had sleep apnea. Scary! I think I am just a light sleeper, and so little things (ie dog snores or paw licking, or a stray knee hitting me) wake me up enough that I don’t get a good nights sleep. One of the best things that happened for my marriage was buying a King Size Bed. Awesome. Fewer stray knees or snoring in my ear!
Hug, hug, hug. No need to be scintlilating whilst brain is glue, honey. Hug.
I am a terrible sleeper. My bed looks like a hurricane has hit. Pillows scattered for yards around, blankets every which way.
I am a light sleeper and can’t be touched while sleeping – or I’m not sleeping. I wear earplugs starting about 4 a.m., when the roosters next door go off.
Melatonin pills help, but give me wild, vivid dreams. Getting a lot of exercise helps, but I am desk-bound so that doesn’t happen as often as it needs to. Alcohol doesn’t help because it disturbs my sleep pattern.
The key with naps is to keep them under 20 minutes.