I am driving myself even crazier than usual this week by waking up from 3 to 4am just about every morning. While I do sometimes manage to drift back off a for a short while, it is not for long. There's been precious little of that drifting back to sleep this week, I can tell you.
Waking so early in this season is not exactly a reason for joy. In summer, I can get out and catch a sunrise, but it remains dark for almost three more hours at this time of year. Then , even when the sun finally rises, it is so cold that I am not exactly eager to inhale that fresh air. As I write this on Wednesday morning, it is still only 7C/45F outside. Brrr.
While staying up later than my usual 10:30 - 11:00, say until midnight, seems like it would be a partial solution to my morning predicament by possibly letting me sleep later, I am so tired by then that I simply can't.
On the one hand, I am following my sleep app's advice to go to bed around 10:45, but I fail badly on the other half of her instructions by rising hours before the recommended 6:45. I can't help that part though. Wish I could, but there you have it.
Meanwhile, my Beloved continues to suffer from the opposite problem. With the sun coming up later, she sometimes sleeps even longer than her normal 10 hours. She is closing in on 11 hours as I compose this. If she were to sleep much longer, she will have slept the clock around.
Sue wishes she could give me some of her hours, for she feels as though she is wasting her life, and I wish I could take them. But it doesn't work that way.
Time was when we both slept more normal hours and kept on similar schedules, but aging taken us in opposite directions.
Even my afternoon naps, on the days when I manage to have one, which is most certainly not always, typically only last for mere minutes.
It is what it is, and there is nothing either of us can do about our respective sleep difficulties.
But I do not have to by jiggy with joy over the situation.
PS: Predictably, when Sue eventually did arise, she was quite peeved to have wasted so much of the day.
I have been sleeping more since I put my weighted blanket back on the bed. I get around 8.5 to 9 hours, but I've never slept 10! :-)
ReplyDeleteI am like Sue, I can sleep. I love my sleep. Sunday afternoon nap is my guilty pleasure. My hubby can't sleep like me. He wakes up early. He has my iPad and earphones. so when I am awakened in the morning, I see him watching youtube on the bed.
ReplyDeleteYou sound like my husband - he also is sleep deprived in much the same pattern. And while I do not match Sue's pattern, it is close. Weird, eh.
ReplyDeleteSleep deprivation is not a good thing as you are well aware by now. Have you talked to your doctor about it? I find myself sleeping longer like Sue. Dan usually rises before me but not always.
ReplyDeleteHope you get a nap each day.
I do tend to wake up in the middle of the night, but usually fall back asleep. I tend to get seven or eight hours.
ReplyDeleteI set my alarm sometimes so I can get up by 7:30 or so. I make myself get up by 8 but sometimes haven't had enough sleep. I don't nap so I'm just tired and cranky for the rest of the day. That's rough that you have opposite sleeping patterns. I can understand Sue's frustration but am probably more like her.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you may need to try some Melatonin to get you back on a regular schedule. I get a good four hours with intermittent one hour spells on either side because of my cough. Hubby is like your honey. He sleeps at least 10 hours.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could establish a routine sleep, but so far no good.
ReplyDeleteThis makes life interesting for partners. I roll around all night and sometimes get up 4 or 5 times a night.
ReplyDeleteWhen occasionally I wake in the night for no apparent reason and lie there bored, I listen to a podcast or a favourite program on the CBC Listen app. Even if it doesn't put me to sleep, at least I don't lie there bored (which is what my dad does). - Kate
ReplyDeleteI go to bed at 9 because I get up at 5. Truth be told, I take half a dose of an over the counter sleep aid. I don't need it when I'm not working, but when I am working, I cannot function while sleep deprived. One of the great joys of my life is sleeping until I wake up naturally, which seems to occur any time between 7:30 and 8.
ReplyDeleteOn those times when I find myself awake in the middle of the night, I usually get up for an hour and then go back to bed. There is a book called Wintering, by (I think) Katherine May. It describes sleep patterns and the norms for other parts of the world.
I have to tell you, I like padding around a dark house in the morning. I rarely turn on the lights. (The above stove light is on). It's a nice knowledge, that I know a place so well that the lights are not necessary.
Art and I both monitor our sleep. He can usually get 8+ hours of sleep, but not much deep sleep. I usually get twice as much deep sleep, but between 6-7 hours of sleep. I WISH I could sleep longer... but I keep getting up. I'm envious of Sue.
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