Sleep

4/10/2014

When I was a younger adult, I could fall asleep almost anywhere and anytime.  Put me in a car and within minutes I was completely gone.  Now, not so much.  

Lately, I have been in a near constant battle to get to sleep and stay asleep.  I take pills to put me to sleep, and they do.  Trouble is, I don't stay asleep.  Sometime in the early mornings, I wake up.  Unfortunately, the minute I'm awake, so is my brain!  I suffer from the "what if", "why not" as well as "coulda" and "shouda"!  What a curse an active brain can be.

If I get up in the middle of the night, the dogs feel that they also need to be up.  They hop off the bed which wakes up Jeff.  Of course, as soon as I'm downstairs they think it's time for breakfast.  When no food is forthcoming, and if I haven't shut the bedroom door, they will go back to the bedroom and hop on the bed, which also wakes Jeff up.

When I wake up after only 5 or 6 hours of sleep, I don't feel tired, nor am I sleepy, until the early afternoon. Or, if I'm listening to one of my books on tape - that will put me to sleep almost immediately.  I have yet to actually finish a book on tape, but I'm sure getting some good snoozing in!

I believe I have managed to get myself in a never ending circle of not wanting to go to sleep, because I have convinced myself that I'm not going to be able to stay asleep.  And more nights than not, my fear of waking up comes true, probably because I am expecting to do so.

Maybe as we get older, we need less sleep and so my shortened sleep time might be normal for my age!  I keep hoping that not sleeping is just a fluke and won't stick around too long.

P