Musings on sleep.
Now, I know that between work and home stress (see last post), I have been losing out on sleep. That's not a terribly bad thing, because I know I make up for it on my day off, which came today.
When I finished work on Saturday and came home, I wanted to collapse right away into bed. But then I thought, not a good idea lady. You'll be up at 4am and the whole rigmarole will begin again. So I forced myself to go to bed within an hour of usual betime (that being 11:00). Subsequently I woke up today at 1:00 in the afternoon!
When I looked at the time, i had a moment of surprise - and then I counted backward and it made sense. Ever since I heard a lecture from my science teacher about 'sleep debt', I have always been able to keep track of times I go to bed, and times I wake up. I know that I need 9 hours of sleep to be 'sunshine and roses' Mandy, 8 hours if you want a smile, and 7 hours to be functional. Anything below that, stay the heck out of my way. :D So despite being a complete and utter dunce in math (to the point where my brilliant students add up game points for me because they're faster at it than I am), I know within a minute or two if I have made up my 'sleep debt'.
I was surprised again. I was off by about 5ish hours. Oh well. I got up, and went about my day (such as it was). By 5:30 I was yawning constantly, and by 6:30, I couldn't keep my eyes open. You know that head-nod/head jerk thing you likely did back in school when your teacher droned on and you started to doze off only to jerk yourself awake just before that final surrender? I was doing it too, and then asked myself why. I have nothing to do, nowhere to be - so I went back to bed. I woke up at 12:00 - just slightly over that 5 hour deficit on my sleep debt. Ah. There it is.
I've come to the realization that my body operates not unlike a bank, loaning out sleeping hours and waking hours - with a top-notch collections agency that doesn't give extensions. The loan officers in my head demand I sleep and send out the big guns tranquilizers in my system as soon as a payment is overdue.
So now it's almost 2am but I'm still tired because while I made up my sleep debt, if I don't get back to bed soon, I'm going to be making overdraft withdrawals on the next one. You know you're still tired - and likely slightly insane - if you need a 'financial consultant' to discuss your sleeping 'payments'.
Okay, I think I've murdered this banking analogy enough. Off to make another 'payment.' ^__^
When I finished work on Saturday and came home, I wanted to collapse right away into bed. But then I thought, not a good idea lady. You'll be up at 4am and the whole rigmarole will begin again. So I forced myself to go to bed within an hour of usual betime (that being 11:00). Subsequently I woke up today at 1:00 in the afternoon!
When I looked at the time, i had a moment of surprise - and then I counted backward and it made sense. Ever since I heard a lecture from my science teacher about 'sleep debt', I have always been able to keep track of times I go to bed, and times I wake up. I know that I need 9 hours of sleep to be 'sunshine and roses' Mandy, 8 hours if you want a smile, and 7 hours to be functional. Anything below that, stay the heck out of my way. :D So despite being a complete and utter dunce in math (to the point where my brilliant students add up game points for me because they're faster at it than I am), I know within a minute or two if I have made up my 'sleep debt'.
I was surprised again. I was off by about 5ish hours. Oh well. I got up, and went about my day (such as it was). By 5:30 I was yawning constantly, and by 6:30, I couldn't keep my eyes open. You know that head-nod/head jerk thing you likely did back in school when your teacher droned on and you started to doze off only to jerk yourself awake just before that final surrender? I was doing it too, and then asked myself why. I have nothing to do, nowhere to be - so I went back to bed. I woke up at 12:00 - just slightly over that 5 hour deficit on my sleep debt. Ah. There it is.
I've come to the realization that my body operates not unlike a bank, loaning out sleeping hours and waking hours - with a top-notch collections agency that doesn't give extensions. The loan officers in my head demand I sleep and send out the big guns tranquilizers in my system as soon as a payment is overdue.
So now it's almost 2am but I'm still tired because while I made up my sleep debt, if I don't get back to bed soon, I'm going to be making overdraft withdrawals on the next one. You know you're still tired - and likely slightly insane - if you need a 'financial consultant' to discuss your sleeping 'payments'.
Okay, I think I've murdered this banking analogy enough. Off to make another 'payment.' ^__^