Thursday, January 25, 2007

Sleepless-in-sanity

You Sometimes Don't Get Enough Sleep
You're often more tired than you'd like, and you're probably not getting enough quality sleep. Sleeping a little more could make you a lot more energetic and happy. Try having a bedtime, keep your bedroom cool, and only eat fruit before bed.

Wait a minute. For those who know me, this has got nothing to do with the fact that I recently got married. No kidding! This problem has been around since quite a few years now. As a result of this, I am
(a) in quite a bad mood when I wake up, not because I don't feel rested, but because I remember that I've always been an early riser and I don't remember when I lost that habit (!) and
(b) wide awake when it's time to doze off, because that's when my brain starts listing the tasks that need to be done the next day, the next week, and at worst times, the next year!!
Now-a-days I just can't drag myself out of the bed in the mornings. My husband thinks I have acquired the habit from him, but that can't be. He is a sleeping disease (like this friend of mine who was called the laughing disease instead of the smiling face for obvious reasons). He can sleep for 30 hours at a stretch. According to him, you just need sleep in order to sleep. According to him, I let almost everything under the sun to come in the way of my sleep. According to him I need to concentrate on sleep.
My problem is not about not sleeping long enough. It's getting there that's the problem. There have been times when I yawn throughout the day. If I'm watching a late night movie I yawn in front of the TV till I get tears in my eyes, but the moment I hit the bed, I lay wide awake. I have tried to concentrate, to meditate, to get myself exhausted, everything, just to fall asleep at the right time. On most of the few lucky days when I get there, I will have dreams--dreams which have no relevance whatsoever to either my past, present, or future lives, my work, my family, or anything that matters to me. Well, sometimes the dreams are a direct reflection of my current feelings / thoughts / problems, etc. In any case, what I do not get is sound sleep! I must have had a total of 171.35 nights of dreamless, peaceful sleep in the past 5 years (the method I applied to calculate this is strictly confidential). That includes the half hour I fell unconscious after an accident and the three hours during which I underwent a surgery (note that these two events were totally unrelated).
Oh, according to my husband, I switch on when I wake up... I go straight to the kitchen, switch on the water heater, attend a conference call, or basically do anything that is required. According to him, he isn't a switch that can be flicked on; he needs at least an hour to actually wake up (cold booting, anyone?) after he has woken up. According to him, if I switch on so easily, why can't I switch off just as easily? According to me, it's time hit the "shrink" button. And I'm talking about the noun, not the verb.