My Experiences with Sleeping

When I was a kid, I had the hardest time going to bed.

It wasn't just that I had a hard time falling asleep (although that was also a problem), it was also that I had a hard time WANTING to sleep. I felt like I was wasting so much time when I was asleep. I wanted to be awake and doing things (like reading), and sleep just wasted my time. It helped that I could function on very few hours, and so for a long time I did.

Part of the issue was that if I did try to go to bed early, I would just lay there for hours trying to fall asleep. Sometimes, I even remember coming upstairs crying in frustration because I couldn't pass into unconsciousness. Those were very tiring nights for me, and the more stressed I got about being unable to sleep, the worse it became.

When I got to college, it actually became even more severe m,,,,,,,,,,. At the time, I was experiencing some tremors in my hands and muscles, and they thought that maybe my inability to sleep was the cause. They put me on some medication that was supposed to help me fall asleep. Instead, it helped me gain 20 lbs and since I only took it right before I went to bed, I would take it at 4:00 in the morning and be unable to wake up for class.

That was pretty tough. I quickly got off that medication and just decided to chance it on my own.

I've never been able to shake the weight I gained then. That has been kind of frustrating.

My lack of sleeping continued. Many nights I got two or less hours of sleep. I didn't think it was affecting me, but I'm sure it was. I started to have a hard time waking up and I would fall asleep during class, which I had never done before.

This continued until I left for my mission. On the mission, they have a very strict schedule that they ask you to keep, and for the first time I was trying to go to bed by 10:30 at night. However, even though I was exhausted, I would still sometimes lay in my bed for hours trying to go to sleep.

When I returned to college, I still averaged probably 4-6 hours of sleep a night. I did really well on that, and if I got more than six hours, I often felt more tired.

Motherhood has changed everything. Kevin is waking up about every two hours, and with our early morning schedule, I am learning to go to bed earlier all the time. Sometimes I still can't fall asleep, but usually I am able to.

Kevin and Grig don't have a hard time sleeping. Lucky boys.

I like sleeping now. It doesn't feel like a waste of time. Instead, it feels like a wonderful break. I usually have interesting dreams too, and that often makes it difficult to wake up.

Kevin makes a great alarm clock though. If only all alarm clocks would kick you and pull your hair.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise...Actually Isn't So Bad

Me, as a night-owl.

 Anyone who has ever lived with me can tell you, I'm not really a morning person.

When I was a kid, my siblings never wanted to be the one to come wake me up.  If someone disturbed my sleep (unless it was Dad or Mom) I was wrath unleashed!  I come up swinging, something I'm not very proud of.  Really, no one should have had to wake me up.  I should have been able to do it on my own.  The problem is that when I do sleep, I'm a very deep sleeper.

I've never really needed that much sleep.  When I was a baby, my parents would tell me stories about how I would only take one nap a day, and a very short, trying nap at that.  My mom likes to tell me about how she would walk around for over an hour trying to get me to fall asleep.  Finally, I would drift off.  She would try to lay me down, and I would wake up re-energized!  My short nap was sufficient.  At least I slept well at night.

As I grew older, it was literally impossible for me to over-sleep.  I remember coming upstairs crying on numerous occasions because I had been laying in bed for hours and I just couldn't fall alseep.  That, along with several other factors, convinced me that it was better to just stay up reading.  I began to get less sleep, and then falling asleep became much easier.  I also became more of a night-owl.  It only got worse in college.

In my first two years of college, I averaged four hours of sleep a night.  Crazy, huh?  That means sometimes I got around two and sometimes around six.  I actually did quite well on that, except for the occasional class that I slept through.

During my mission, I got on a better schedule.  As a missionary, you are required to go to bed at 10:30 p.m. and wake up at 6:30 a.m.  I would go to bed, but I couldn't always fall asleep.  Sometimes I'd lay there for a few hours before I'd drift off.  Even exhausted from working all day, sleep sometimes is a challenge.

When I finished my mission, I got right back to my old sleep schedule.  In college for a while, I was the last one to sleep and the first one awake.  My attempts to help myself go to sleep earlier included always having a 7:45 a.m. class.  That way, I would usually go to bed at least by 2:00 a.m.

With my first year of marriage, things were slightly better.  Unfortunately, Grig is also a night-owl, and often we would stay up late together.  Sometimes, on a really bad night, we would fall asleep around 4:00 a.m.  However, we tried to set goals to go bed by midnight.

After we had Kevin, we did begin to go to bed around midnight.  Kevin however, also seems to require a little less sleep than most babies (but not as little as me, thank goodness).  He's always been a good night sleeper, but he would stay up until midnight with us,and then wake up around 8:30.  It worked for a while.

Then, Grig got a new job.  His job begins at either 4 or 5:00 in the morning.  That means I have to wake up at 3 or 4 a.m. in order to make him breakfast.  (This is an entirely voluntary thing.  Grig has told me on numerous occasions that I don't actually have to do that, but I like being able to see him in the morning, and it helps him get to work on time if I help make breakfast and lunch.) 

We are now going to bed anytime from 8-9:30.  That's the earliest I've ever gone to bed in my life.  We consistently go to bed early and wake up early.  Strangely, I'm beginning to realize that I like it.

All my life, I thought people were crazy for getting up this early.  Right now, it's 4:27 a.m. and I'm blogging.  Kevin is asleep and I'm all alone.  It's quiet outside and even the crickets are sleeping.  I have time to think and relax before the day begins.

Occasionally, I go back to bed after Grig leaves, but usually I try to stay up and I'm finding that I enjoy waking up early more each morning.  Sometimes on weekends, when Grig doesn't have work, he and I revert to our old habits.

However, we are both finding that Early to Bed and Early to Rise really isn't such a bad thing after all.

Go figure.