That’s all I ask. I don’t need forty - just twenty would do nicely. If Hypnos, the god of sleep, would see fit to send me some shut-eye, I’d be eternally grateful.
I occasionally suffer from insomnia, but this latest bout is no fun whatsoever. I’m a huge fan of melatonin, and I think whoever discovered it should be deified get free chocolate milkshakes for life, but alas, melatonin has deserted me and left me wanting.
I can’t think of many worse things than flopping around in bed, staring at (in order) the ceiling, the clock, the ceiling, the wife, the dog, the ceiling, and then seeing if you can do lightning-quick shadow puppets on your wife’s face every time some passing headlights happen to illuminate the room. I have read that if you can’t fall asleep in twenty minutes, stop trying. Get up, do something else, and eventually you’ll get tired and be ready to sleep. But my question is this: if you get up and stop trying to sleep so you can get to sleep, aren’t you still trying? Perhaps if you laid in bed and tried your damnedest to stay awake and think about kangaroos, you wouldn’t be trying anymore, but then somewhere in the back of your mind you’d know you were actually trying to sleep, so the whole exercise would be pointless.
I’m not sure if that last sentence made sense, but at this point I’m not sure if I care, either. I’m going to go try/not-try to fall asleep/stay awake/study the Kabbalah. See you in the morning.
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:46 am
I know what you mean. I’m always falling awake while I’m at work.
I hate that.
Hope you’re able to get some rest soon.
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:27 am
Thanks. Yeah, staying awake at work can be difficult sometimes. Maybe I should quit my job as aircraft controller until I get this sleep thing sorted out. Ya think?
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Hubby hates it when I stay up reading after he goes to bed, but I can’t fall asleep if I don’t read for at least a few minutes. Luckily, there’s a very bright streetlight just outside of our apartment- so I go into the little bathroom off the bedroom and close the door and open the blinds. It lets in just enough light that I can read by it, but not enough to keep me feeling wide awake.
Unless I’m at a very good part (or any part of the Harry Potter series) it only takes 5-10 minutes to relax me enough to sleep.
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:33 pm
When I’m not suffering from insomnia, I have no problem falling asleep, even if my wife wants to read for a while. She did use the hell out of the itty bitty book light I bought her. With me, though, when the insomnia kicks in, reading won’t make me fall asleep, even if it’s a treatise on Economic Relations in South American countries.
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I hate that, but don’t have it often. The last time was about a year after the attack on the twin towers. I found then that if I closed my eyes and visualized the forehead of Bin Laden through the sights of my favorite pistol I would soon drift off to sleep, as if that would make everything right in the world and OK to rest again.
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Good to know that we all have our favorite little daydreams, isn’t it? If only it were always that easy…