Insomniac

I am one and I'll bet some of you are too.

Because I'm special, my insomnia defies description. One night I have trouble falling asleep. The next I'll drop off right away, then wake up way too early and my night's done. Another I'll wake up every hour or two and an get back to sleep, but it doesn't feel like a good night's rest. I've never seen this crazy quilt pattern addressed in any of the books and articles I've read, looking for help.

It's not sleep apnea either. My husband suffers from insomnia too, although it's not as pervasive as mine We figure one of us would notice if the other stopped breathing over and over.

Often I'll wake up after a few hours of sleep and be awake for two hours before I can fall asleep again, no matter what I do. So I found it find it fascinating when I read that ages ago, before there was artificial light, people went to bed when it got dark. This made for extremely long nights in the winter. Apparently people just naturally woke in the middle of the night for a couple of hours and then went back to sleep. They called it the first sleep and the second sleep. Was I suffering from some remnant of that?

I know someone who said she started writing as something to do while she was up half the night with her baby. Good heavens! During a night like that I could barely write a grocery list, never mind sentences and paragraphs.

In my younger days, when I had kids to take care of no matter how I felt, I somehow powered through. I find it much harder to do these days. And despite the fact that all the sleep experts say that a thirty-minute nap after lunch will not spoil a good night's sleep, it does for me.

So on mornings when I'm sure I'm in danger of becoming seriously cranky, I nap before lunch.

Way before lunch.

I snuggle into  my recliner right after breakfast. People find this amusing, but it's the only thing that works for me.

Fair warning: if you get the urge to tease me about this, you better wait until after my nap.