Few things can be both as satisfying and infuriating as sleep.
When you’re really tired, nothing is better than sinking into bed, closing your eyes and letting the world drift away until your alarm goes off.
Sometimes, however, it’s not so easy; sometimes sleep decides to elude us.
When I have trouble falling asleep, I engage in a vicious cycle of frustration. I try a variety of methods to help myself doze off — rolling onto my other side, taking deep breaths, counting backwards — but nothing seems to work.
Despite my efforts to avoid looking at the clock, I can’t help myself, and I keep a running tally of how many hours of sleep I would get if I fell asleep right at that moment, in 15 minutes, in a half hour and so on. The more I think about how much or little rest I’m going to get, the harder it is for me to relax, and the longer I stay awake.
Since I have to be in the newsroom well before the sun to put out the paper every day, missing my usual bedtime is especially detrimental to me. It’s kind of interesting to see how many other people are awake at the same unusual hour as I am, but most of the windows I drive past on my way to work are still dark, reminding me of how nice it would be if I were still in bed.
Luckily for me, I’m a morning person who can function on relatively few hours of sleep, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it. I rely pretty heavily on caffeine to get me through the day.
During the week, I get about five or six hours of sleep a night, but on the weekends I try to get nine or 10. Unfortunately, I recently read a CNN article that said it’s unhealthy to get less than five hours or more than eight. My theory was that I could make up for the sleep debt I accumulated throughout the week by sleeping late on the weekends, but I guess I’m just making things worse.
I know I’m not the only person in the world who doesn’t get enough sleep. In fact, it seems like most people I know are overworked and under-rested.
Life would be a lot easier if we never had to sleep.
