First of all, let me say that, because I have friends with small children, I always feel like a jerk talking about sleep problems. Oh, only got five hours’ sleep last night? Sounds like heaven to some people! But I shall deal with my feelings of jerkiness and complain anyway.
Since Friday, I’ve been having trouble falling asleep at what I consider to be an appropriate time. I’ve always been more of an early-riser than a night owl, but I’d sort of settled into a roughly 11:00pm-7:00am sleep schedule, which has migrated more towards 12:00am-7:00am over the past few months. The last five nights, I’ve been lucky to conk out at 12:30 — it’s been more like 1:30 or 2:00. I still wake up sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning, but I just don’t get tired at night. My eyes get drier and drier, but I don’t feel drawn to sleep.
Not that I have anything else to do, of course. I want to sleep, but I can’t. If I try, I wind up psyching myself out, and my brain finds a way to resist even the effects of Advil PM. Well, last night I managed to drift off just after 12:30, and I slept past 9:30 this morning. Whoa! I got ALL the sleep. It was strange to wake up so late, especially since I didn’t actually stumble out of bed until it was nearly 10:00 (thanks, iPod+wifi!). It meant that breakfast was much later than usual, and by the time I was ready for lunch, I only wanted something small (the scrambled eggs + cheese on toast above). It’s bizarre to have my routine thrown so out of whack.
Anyway, I got to thinking about the whole sleep cycle thing, the way I used to go to bed around 10:00, which slowly became 11:00, then midnight, and so on. And I realized I must have finally achieved some sort of work-at-home state of perfection and am now operating on a natural twenty-five-hour day. It’s like when a chord is played just so, and you can hear additional tones ringing out from nowhere. I imagine my aura is glowing rather brightly. Songs will be written about the freelancer who lived the dream and was no longer tied down by such pesky things as The Man and the Earth’s rotation.
But what will I do when I get to the part where I sleep through all the sunshine? I might have to rethink this…
Hi there. It’s quite interesting to know what other people’s sleep pattern is like. Over the years I’ve learned the importance of sleep the hard way (developing panic attacks due to major lack of sleep and other stress), but I still somehow manage to stay up later than I should. but 2:00 to 7:00 is pushing it a little too hard, isn’t it? Anyway, as long as you wake up at a certain time, like 7, and stick to it, I think you will be okay, that you won’t become a lazy butt.
By the way, does it ever get lonely when you are working from home too long? I did that for a year once, and as much as I loved the freedom, I felt so detached from the society sometimes. It also requires a lot of self-discipline, but I guess you have that under control no problem.
Back when I had roommates (circa 2005), they used to tease me about my sleeping patterns. I would regularly sleep for 10 or 11 hours at a stretch … but I never felt “lazy.” I’d always wake up refreshed, with seemingly boundless energy, and get tons of stuff accomplished.
These days, I’m lucky to get 6 hours of sleep. But I blame Wifi. And streaming videos.
Seriously, though, sleep deprivation has such a profound impact on my general sense of well-being. I’m thinking about instituting a “no Internet after 10 pm” rule in my household. Yeah. Like that’ll happen.
Not sure what your gym/home workout schedule is at the moment, but maybe some late afternoon exercise? And maybe no electronic entertainment after 9:30. And the one that never fails for me: sincerely trying to read a textbook in bed (for instance, you could brush up on your sentence treeing/syntax). But no one ever does that third one. They’d rather be sleepless I think. Anyway, sweet dreams.