Lessons in Insomnia

Sleep. Oh how I love it. It finds itself near the top of my list of favorite things to do. Along with snuggling, drinking coffee and badminton. Okay, badminton may be a bit of a stretch, but you get the point. I do enjoy sleep immensely. It is a 6 hour escape from reality, in which time my brain, body and emotions get a respite.

However, there is a glitch to this certain favorite thing of mine: I tend to not be able to do it. It is currently 1:21. AM. And considering that daylight savings time has blessed us with an extra hour, my body is telling me that it is actually 2:21. A in the freaking M. Sigh.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a concert in Filthadelphia this evening. I returned to my abode at 1 AM, sheerly worn out from a long day. I quickly changed into my jammies, grabbed my laptop, and hopped into bed. And.... boing!!! My eyes are wide open. I could hardly stay awake on the car ride home. And yet, now that I'm all cozy in my sweats and under my oh-so-soft-and-wonderful comforter... Sleep eludes me. How in God's wonderfully green earth does this make sense?? GOSH!

From what I understand, sleep and I have never gotten along especially well. I believe that I was probably one of those infants that woke up its poor exhausted mommy every few hours. My poor mommy. My sleep issues have gotten worse the older I get. The past 5 years or so have found me with on and off phases of insomnia. There are occasional weeks were I have no quandary with falling into that blessed relaxed state rather quickly. But, then the tide turns and its back to lying in bed for several hours before I finally doze off. And lately, that dozing is interrupted by work-induced panic attacks at ungodly hours of the night. So. Not. Fun.

May I also point out that I am not one of those people who does well on little sleep. Not really so much at all. I get whiny. And cranky. And sometimes semi-miserable. I want to throw things at people if they try to make me think. Or function. Then I drink too much caffeine to try to wake up, and I get all jittery. Which brings its own set of problems.

So, on the cursed nights such as tonight, I will find myself getting out of bed to have a cup of tea, wine, or herbal sleep supplements to knock myself out. If that doesn't work, then I may resort to smashing my forehead on the corner of my dresser.

Drastic times call for drastic measures.