sigh.....contentment.....

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

To sleep or not to sleep.....

So I have come to the conclusion that I almost dread going to bed at night.....and not for any other reason except I have sleepless nights more than I have sleepful nights....(is that a word....??)

There is nothing worse than lying in bed on your back with your eyes wide open totally unable to drift off. I would much rather wake up early in the morning because then I can at least DO something without causing too much disturbance (like watering the garden or just sitting on the patio...we're talkin' summer here). However, at night, you're pretty much limited to reading until you're so uncomfortable you can't do that anymore, working at the computer, which revs up the brain even more....or just lying on the couch or whatever, hoping that sleep claims you eventually. I stay up as late as I dare, hoping to be tired enough to drop off....but that doesn't always work.  I read in bed before I turn out the light to kind of slow me down a bit....but if it's a good book, you always lie there wondering what was going to happen next after you turn out the light.....at least I do...then my mind starts working and devising possible scenarios.... at which point I get up to find out what really happened!!

I know it's an FM (fibromyalgia) thing but it's intensely annoying and frustrating. I try to empty my mind from all things stressful before I hit the sack, but somehow they all start sneaking back once the light's out....and THEN...if you're awake when the peripheral noise starts (read snoring from both DH and dog!) then it's game over.....time to vacate the bedroom and find something else to wear out your mind before you sleep. I have been known to stay awake for entire nights and the following day and then literally fall into bed and sleep the night through. Funny thing tho'...when I have a sleepless night before a symphony concert, I tend to play better because I'm forced to concentrate to the max. I hurt like the dickens afterward but hey.... it was great concert!!!

Doctors will tell you that you should regulate your sleep patterns.....I will tell you....let them try it. Sleep medications are not on for me....I go for a cheese snack or vanilla almond milk or yogurt or Rooibis tea, chamomile tea, catnip tea, and even Horlicks. Sometimes they work, but I think when push comes to shove, it's the time element that essentially works. The longer I stay awake, the easier I'll eventually get to sleep.....
Goodness...just writing about this makes me yawn!!

Sigh.....such is life!!
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      >     0..zzzzzzzzzz
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Slainte!!

2 comments:

Daphne said...

Such a plague! Thankfully, I can usually nod off without too much difficulty. Sometimes I write stories in my head. Only once did I write it out later, it was quite ridiculous when seen in the light of day. But then again - maybe there was something I could use...?

Coramie said...

For some reason I think that we tend to expand our minds in the night time hours so that projects and ideas that we consider at that time always look less the next day than they did when we first thought of them.....but you may be right.....jotting them down keeps them for future use...do you think???? How 'bout a special "nighttime hours journal"??