Sleep

Those who know me well know that I have made it my life's work to not get enough sleep. With only a very few exceptions, I have been quite succesful.

As a child, I refused to nap. At a small, in-home daycare, I used naptime to break into the fridge and hand out snacks to the other captives. The next daycare, a larger place, attempted to deal with my disruptive naptime ways by partitioning my cot, and when that didn't keep me from keeping other kids awake, moving me to a room by myself to color.

I refused to go to sleep at a reasonable hour, sneaking out of bed to watch Benny Hill. No wonder I couldn't sleep with those images in my head! Then, in the morning, proved to be beyond challenging to wake. Except of course for Saturdays and Christmas. The two surefire ways to get kids up early - cartoons and Santa. That's some kind of cruel irony for the parents, isn't it?

Once a teen, I still stayed up far too late, but then didn't sleep in like so many of my friends did. Surprisingly my growth wasn't stunted by my lack of self-care. My mom thought I was anemic, but it was just the lack of sleep that caused me to look so crappy.

So, now I am an adult. Of the age when tired catches up to you. I am tired many days, but don't you think for a minute that I'm doing anything about it. In fact, I've found more reasons to stay up too late all thanks to the Internet. Instant messaging with a west-coast friend until it's her bedtime, no problem! Waiting until my husband gets to his office so we can email back and forth several times, easy. He's only eight hours ahead after all. Gets to work when a prudent me would be heading to bed. And I still don't sleep in. Blame this on the dogs. As soon as Shane senses that I'm awake, she comes over to nudge my hand. Sometimes Quentin lick, lick, licks and wakes me up. If I holler at him to stop, Shane'll know I'm up, so I pull a pillow over my head. Can't get back to sleep though, so up I get and begin another day for which I am unprepared. But if I wasn't this dedicated and focused, I wouldn't be able to reach five o'clock looking like I just. got. up.