I have a hard time getting to sleep at night. I don’t know what it is, but the act of laying my body down in the bed activates a signal in my brain to make me very aware of every last ache and pain in my body, and I seem to have quite a few of them lately.
Russ, on the other hand, is asleep approximately 20 seconds before his head hits the pillow. Lucky guy.
So I lay there, waiting for my brain to calm down and my muscles to relax and pray for sleep to overtake me. And, quite regularly, I blog.
Not on the computer, of course. Sitting up in bed typing on a computer would be counter productive to the whole exercise of trying to get to sleep. Instead I just write blog posts in my head. Posts about the day just past, about whatever I’ve been thinking, about how cute my kids are.
When I blog at night I am so eloquent. From time to time I have the thought that I should really jot down a note or two to make sure I remember all of these profound thoughts and beautiful words, but again, that would defeat my ultimate purpose of trying to relax enough to get to sleep, and so I never do.
And in the morning? Nada. Zip. My brain is completely empty. I write during the day but never can seem to achieve the same elegance of phrase.
I have to wonder. Do all of those nighttime thoughts accumulate somewhere, in some metaphysical blog-in-the-sky? If seen by the cool and rational light of morning would they be as wonderful as they seemed in the quiet dark?
How do you entertain yourself while you’re falling asleep?
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I so inherited the can't-fall-asleep gene. Ugh! Mahon is just like Dad. For awhile earlier this year I could get myself to sleep really effectively if I counted slowly backwards from 100, but that trick has apparently lost its efficacy for some reason! I am with you on the eloquent pre-bed thoughts. I do suspect, though, that they might not be as eloquent as I think - in the same way that I sometimes wake up from a really awesome dream that would make the world's best novel, jot down some notes, and when I look at the notes later I'm going - "Huh? What a weird dream! I thought THAT would make a story?"
ReplyDeleteYes I am blessed to fall asleep quickly. However, I also have this nasty habit of the brain switching on way to early in the morning and not being able to sleep any more when it happens.
ReplyDeleteSo you get frustrated at night, I get frustrated in the morning. But I must also admit, with seminary going, my opportunities to wake up and have the brain switch on are fewer now.
You win! (and you are wonderful)
Me, too. But, if I don't jot some of these thoughts, or whatever they are, down...I really can't sleep. I've tried every trick in the book...and luckily, at this point in my life...it doesn't freak me out like it used to...because I knew how tired I was going to be...and I don't do well tired! :) Now...I can sleep in if I need to after another "5 o'clocker" night! Funny that most guys can fall asleep quickly. Remind me sometime to tell you what Laurin's "theory" is about that!
ReplyDeleteI think it's a man thing, falling to sleep so fast. I, too, count backwards from 100 to 1. If I'm trying to concentrate, I usually fall right to sleep.
ReplyDeleteOr if I try to stay awake.
ReplyDeleteSame exact story in our house! I have a very hard time letting my brain calm down enough to fall asleep. One thing that always worked like a charm for me when I was pregnant with Marley, was listening to a hypnobabies CD. They must make them for non-pregnant people too, and I keep meaning to track one down. Another trick I use is reading, but that's really tricky because it can't be too interesting of a book. I thought I had a winner with the one I'm reading now, but then I started to get too into it and for the past two nights ended up reading for almost an hour!
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