dys·som·ni·a
n.
A disturbance in the normal rhythm or pattern of sleep.
"Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep."
- Fran Lebowitz
I think pretty much everyone has heard me bitch at one time or another about having to work nights and weekends. But hey, now that I'm in nursing school, I've got those times free!
So how did I take advantage of this opportunity? See a movie or play? Go hit the bars?
Well, Friday night I stayed in my room and read all night. And tonight? As you can see, I'm home alone in front of my computer -- blogging.
Mainly I've been getting caught up on sleep. Getting up in the morning at a time when just weeks ago I was going to bed has wreaked havoc on me the first two weeks of school. What's made things worse is my rediscovery of the beauty of an afternoon nap.
I've rediscovered a few things as I've readjusted my sleep schedule:
- the importance of not just coffee, but some good coffee in the morning (And yes, kc, the Merc's is great).
- how much I like listening to NPR News' "Morning Edition." I should listen to NPR more, but usually the only time I've listened is during morning commutes; since I have one again, I've tuned in.
- the dangers of the snooze button. When you don't have to be at work until 5 p.m., you don't really even need an alarm clock. I'd forgotten how easy it is to tell yourself: "just 10 more minutes."
I admit that what I loved most about living on campus was heading over to my dorm room between classes and taking a power nap. A quick half-hour to recharge the batteries for my afternoon classes.
And in our lab rooms there are hospital beds set up that make me want to knock the anatomically correct patient dummy occupying it to the floor and snooze.
So late last week I decided to take a nap before doing my reading for the next day's lecture. I woke up three hours later.
And that meant I had less time to do everything I needed to get done for tomorrow. And as much of a problem these naps have been, I haven't been able to stop. The naps have been getting shorter, but it still takes away from my free time. A few weeks ago kc asked me how it was going to be without working on deadline anymore; turns out I still have one: it's called bedtime -- get all my crap done before I have to hit the hay, or risk having to stay up late.
That's bad because I know that while I've worked for two weeks to fix my sleep cycle, it'll take one night of staying up to watch "Futurama" reruns to throw it all to hell.
But hey, after this week I'll only have 186 days in the program to go -- 186 days of waking up at 6 a.m.
12 comments:
I've had similar issues, but not nearly to that degree. Good luck with your sleep!
The weirdest part for me is that I have always been a morning person, and now it feels like that has somehow changed in the past year.
In other words, I don't have it bad, I just have never had this problem at all before!
I'm getting up at 6 a.m. every day. But I really should be walking the dogs every morning, so I think I'll change it to 5:30 a.m. pretty soon. But I'd like to get comfortable with 6:00 first!
Good luck, George.
God, why'd you have to mention Merc coffee? I'd love some right now. It's 1:33 a.m. Hehe
Morning coffee, I have to say, is my single greatest pleasure in life.
You know what, G? I am a morning person AND a night owl. Most nights I don't go to sleep until 2 a.m. But then I'm teaching at 8 a.m. this semester, and I LOVE walking to school early in the morning, so I get up at 6 so I can walk. The common denominator is being awake when most of the world is asleep.
Thanks, Ben. I've also thought about getting up a little earlier to start off with a quick walk. I need to do something to get my metabolism going a bit earlier. Don't know if it's going to happen, though.
KC, the coffee doesn't just wake me up with caffeine -- just the prospect of having some helps, like a reward for getting my lazy ass out of bed.
And I have noticed that your both a morning person and a night owl. I really don't know how you do it. I've been in situations where I had early classes and worked late at night, and my grades always suffered.
G, I know! It's the anticipation of the coffee that's marvelous, too.
I may have told you this, but one time when I was married I woke up all depressed and Steve was trying to get me out of bed to go do some stuff, and I sort of yelled at him, "Give me one good reason to get up!" And he said, "Coffee." And he had a cup for me, as he always did. And it was like a revelation. Good coffee is worth living for! And I was never depressed again ... at least not in the morning.
Hehehe ... you hadn't told me that story before, but it's a good one. I think to keep me from crashing when I get home I need to start fixing myself cups in the afternoons, too.
As a morning person who crashes every day after lunch, I'm very familiar with the afternoon coffee.
When I worked in the U.S. Attorney's office in Wichita (11th and 12th floor of the Epic Center), they had a coffee shop down on the 1st floor with the dirtiest-tasting mocha ever (dirty in a good way). It tasted like somebody stirred a pound of espresso grounds and cocoa powder into a triple-strength cappuccino. That's some crazy-good shit.
So at 1:00 p.m. every day, I got what they called a grasshopper -- mocha with a shot of Creme de Menthe syrup. I never could taste any mint, but the syrup sure took just a bit of the paint-strippingly-dirty edge off that mocha.
I’ve found that I can adjust to getting up early in the summer. If the sun is up (or nearly so) then it is not too bad to get up while it is still cool outside. But I absolutely hate having to get up hours before it gets light. I think winter is for sleeping. In fact, I’m going to go to bear school.
And coffee. I just read an article about a study that showed the most effective use of napping is to drink a cup of coffee and then nap for twenty or thirty minutes until the caffeine kicks in.
George, I wouldn't worry too much about sleeping all the time. You know that saying, "The mind doesn't know the difference between a vivid imagination and reality." I dream that I can fly and that I am the kid in flight of the navigator. It's my other life. As in the one I enjoy more.
DW, I know. I'm already getting up before the sun comes up, but when it gets cold it'll really be tough. Thought today wasn't bad at all.
Billy, Flight of the Navigator was my fantasy, too. I thought he was nuts for going back in the end, though.
G, it is a hard switch to make. Until July 4th of last year, I went to bed at 3 and got up ... whenever. Then, I was supposed to be at work at 9. Impossible. I still land here around 9:30, and it's been more than a year since I switched to days.
Nights and days both have their perks. And I don't know how you could have made the transition without a few naps while your body figures out what the hell is going on.
I have posted about this, but if I'm alone on Saturday nights, I have KPR on for Keillor, the Retro Cocktail Hour, Night on the Town and film scores. Good company if nobody's around.
Hey George,
Have a kid (or three) and then see how fucked up your sleeping schedule gets.
:)
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