Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Is This A Pattern

Years ago I read a book about a man who had insomnia. It had started with him losing an hour or two of sleep a night and eventually turned in to him not sleeping for days on end. Strange things started to happen and he eventually couldn't separate reality from dreams. I thinking of trying to locate the book again because I can't remember how it ended. I more so want to find it to see how I'm going to end up.
There seems to be a pattern developing with my sleep. In the past I've worked some crazy hours and was able to function on little sleep for a few days and then have a day or so where I'd sleep well past 8 hours. Not a healthy way of life and I paid for it. A few years ago when I went to a straight day shift (if you count a 4:30 am start a day shift). My sleep was good and I could fall asleep shortly after hitting the pillow. Then I started to wake up after about 3 hours of sleep. It is very hard for me to fall asleep afterwards. It's almost like I took a nap and am now refreshed and ready to go. Problem is that three hours usually means I'm up at midnight. We purchased a new mattress and that seemed to have solved that issue or so I thought.
In the past I had issues initially falling asleep. I made sure that I had eaten well before going to bed. If I worked out it was at least 2 hours before going to bed and I refrained from any caffeine drinks at least 2 hours prior to sleeping. Reading would usually get me pretty relaxed and prepared for a good nights sleep. I also don't nap. Napping just throws me off.
The past few Sunday nights I have gone to bed around 9 only to wake up an hour or two later and lay awake. The sheep counting is for the birds. TV off or on doesn't matter and reading just seemed to wake me up more. Warm shower also showed negative results. Soothing music does nothing but make me move my feet. I'm not a sleep aid person and drinking myself into sleepiness isn't the answer. Up until last week this problem was only on Sunday nights. Now it has begun to creep into the weeknights. Makes for a long workday. Last night I was tired and in bed by 8:30. The phone rang at 9:30. I then tossed and turned until around 12:30. Alarm went off at 3am. My magic sleep number appears to be 3 1/2 hours.
I'm wondering if my body and mind are telling me that they're ready for camping season. I never have an issue while camping. Maybe I could have my husband set up the pop-up and just sleep in the driveway.

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