Sleep Deprived

I fell asleep in the library again, and I think I know the culprit. I’m lucky no one stole any of my personal possessions while I was passed out. Perhaps it was because I was propped up in the seat with a book open on my lap so I appeared like I would awaken if something shifted. Regardless, it’s frustrating to me every single time it happens (yes, this wasn’t the first time), but I can’t seem to stop it from occurring. Oh yes, and the culprit, I believe, is lack of sleep.

You see, I routinely go to bed at 10:30 and I sleep until 4:45 in the morning, and I’m starting to think that at my advanced age 6 hours and 15 minutes of sleep just isn’t enough anymore. It was standard practice in my teens and twenties to go to bed whenever I felt like it, and I would still be up relatively early the next morning with no adverse effects. But now, as I’m rapidly advancing towards 40 (I know, it seems surreal), I think it’s all starting to catch up with me, and not in the good way.

My nephew was just here for a few days, and when we’re together we like to play video games. The game playing generally starts late because others are usually watching movies or we’re playing Phase 10 (yeah, I suck at it) for a long time before it. Then, inevitably he asks if we can play Tiger Woods 2010 or Madden 2012 (our two favorite games) and I’m hooked. Before I know it the time has gotten away from us and it’s 2 in the morning, or sometimes even later. Now, about 10 years ago that would have been no problem, and I would have still been up with the cows in the morning. Friday night we stayed up until about 1:30 in the morning playing virtual golf.

And Saturday morning was a nightmare! But I’m pretty good at hiding how I feel, so even though I was wrecked I was my same energetic self. It just took a lot more energy to accomplish it. It seems now that the energy I can stir up begins to drift when my pace slows down. As long as I have something solid to do I’m pretty good, but then the second I get a second of down time it’s off to snooze land. Hence, me counting sheep in the public library. It just means I need to adjust my schedule accordingly, and I’m finally listening. We’re going to try 10 o’clock on for size tonight and see if it helps out at all. Because, who knows, I might not be so lucky next time I drift off in a public place.

Sam