Sleepless in San Diego
Have you ever had one of those nights where every hour on the hour you find yourself looking at the bedside clock and you think to yourself, “Why in the world am I still awake? I’m exhausted. I should be sleeping. My body is tired. I should be sleeping!”
Well, I had one of those nights last night. Today I have bags under my eyes! UGH! But anyway, I just could not for the life of me sleep. I was tired—now really tired. I did my usual—got ready for bed, hunkered down with a good book, my eyes grew sleepy, turned off my light, said my prayers and then waited for my deep slumber. It never came. I tossed and turned, thoughts raced through my mind, strange images and the ever repetitive thought, “Why can’t I sleep?”
Finally at 1:30, I got up, came upstairs and sat on the couch with a glass of water. I thought about turning on the TV, but figured it might wake me even more. So, I sat there, then I laid down, then I sat up and dammit, no matter how tired I felt, nothing helped. I finally got up and started in on my day. But everything feels like a blur today. I can barely think and I feel like I’m running on auto-pilot. I know the musts of the day—cook meals, drive kids, work on book, take little one to gymnastics, make dinner, but I just feel hazy and worse—lazy, which I know that I’m not.
I’ve heard so many contradictory things about sleep. I’ve heard we need eight hours, ten, six, only five! Which is it? I’ve heard as Americans we are sleep deprived, that we sleep too much that we’re overtired, overworked and totally stressed out. I can relate to that.
There are these sleep aids out too—Tylenol PM, Exxcedrin PM, etc, plus all the prescription sleep aids. I think insomnia is an epidemic. It’s strange, but if I can get a nap in, I actually sleep better during that nap than I do at night. But in my house with my loud family, a nap is rare and oh so precious.
Well, my blog has probably made you tired, because it isn’t all that exciting to read about another soul who can’t get her rest, but it’s all I can think about right now—my pillow and some shut-eye!
Anyone have any great (non-drug) suggestion to rock an insomniac to sleep?
