Perchance to dream
I seem to need sleep a lot more than usual lately. While I believe this is just a natural reaction to my increased levels of physical activity, I sometimes worry about how dependent I am on the whimsy of my circadian rythyms.
Time was - time, being maybe six months ago - I could stay up late, wake up early, and a cup of coffee later be fresh as a daisy. Granted, I wasn't excercising like I have been lately, and I was in the worst part of a bad depression I've just recently risen from. You'd think that given those circumstances, I'd actually be sleeping *more*, but I wasn't. I'm not sure what I felt compelled to stay awake for, but it was easy enough to do, so...I did it.
Now six months later, depression abated and excercise back on my plate, I am sleeping a lot more. And I mean a LOT. I think yesterday I was asleep longer than I was awake. Now, granted, I stayed up until 5 am on Friday night and "woke up" at 8 am, but from about 3 pm until 8:30 this morning I was asleep. I left work early Friday because I could barely keep my eyes open, the sight of which prompted my manager to tell me to head home. This had been a very demanding week at work, but I was going to be around 8 pm nearly every night and getting my required 7 to 8 hours, so I wasn't sure why I just needed sleep so badly this weekend.
Maybe its the quality of my sleep. I woke up between 3 and 4 am every night this week, when the sprinklers go off in the yard. This has never woken me up before, but for some reason this week, it was like an alarm clock. Falling back to sleep at 4 am, only to wake up an hour later, results in a restless 60 minutes of half-conscious flailing. It doesn't help that I have crazy dreams between those hours, ones where I wake up honestly not sure if they happened or not. Not all are pleasant. So perhaps even though I am sleeping more hours, the quality of my sleep is compromised, though I am not sure by what.
I should be sleeping well. I am eating very healthy, working out every single day, and most importantly I'm "myself" again if you know what I mean. I'm not worried, not very stressed, and mostly happy with the direction my life is going. I made the decision to pursue graduate school, having chosen the program I want to apply to, and I'm working on that right now (wish me luck...we'll see how this goes.) So things are overall good. Why then is it so hard to get out of bed, and so easy to get back in?
Time was - time, being maybe six months ago - I could stay up late, wake up early, and a cup of coffee later be fresh as a daisy. Granted, I wasn't excercising like I have been lately, and I was in the worst part of a bad depression I've just recently risen from. You'd think that given those circumstances, I'd actually be sleeping *more*, but I wasn't. I'm not sure what I felt compelled to stay awake for, but it was easy enough to do, so...I did it.
Now six months later, depression abated and excercise back on my plate, I am sleeping a lot more. And I mean a LOT. I think yesterday I was asleep longer than I was awake. Now, granted, I stayed up until 5 am on Friday night and "woke up" at 8 am, but from about 3 pm until 8:30 this morning I was asleep. I left work early Friday because I could barely keep my eyes open, the sight of which prompted my manager to tell me to head home. This had been a very demanding week at work, but I was going to be around 8 pm nearly every night and getting my required 7 to 8 hours, so I wasn't sure why I just needed sleep so badly this weekend.
Maybe its the quality of my sleep. I woke up between 3 and 4 am every night this week, when the sprinklers go off in the yard. This has never woken me up before, but for some reason this week, it was like an alarm clock. Falling back to sleep at 4 am, only to wake up an hour later, results in a restless 60 minutes of half-conscious flailing. It doesn't help that I have crazy dreams between those hours, ones where I wake up honestly not sure if they happened or not. Not all are pleasant. So perhaps even though I am sleeping more hours, the quality of my sleep is compromised, though I am not sure by what.
I should be sleeping well. I am eating very healthy, working out every single day, and most importantly I'm "myself" again if you know what I mean. I'm not worried, not very stressed, and mostly happy with the direction my life is going. I made the decision to pursue graduate school, having chosen the program I want to apply to, and I'm working on that right now (wish me luck...we'll see how this goes.) So things are overall good. Why then is it so hard to get out of bed, and so easy to get back in?
posted by The Semi-Pro Chef at Sunday, May 07, 2006
3 Comments:
When I was a teenager, for a few years, I was an insomniac. So getting four hours of sleep a night was de rigour.
About 13 years later, I can sleep through a bomb blast. I guess that's just what happens when you approach your thirties, but it sucks having to set two alarm clocks just to get up in the morning.
This grad school thing has a way of inducing sleep psychosis!
Trust me on this!
Art School Confidential?
Hey Bird Girl Thang, where you been at? We miss your dailies.
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