Sleep

I have never had good sleeping habits. I guess I should say after I was old enough to not have a strict bedtime as prescribed by my parents I have not had good sleeping habits.

When I was old enough to work I often had jobs that kept me up late. Neighbors who often hired me to watch their children while they went out for some fun did not come home until close to the time the sun was coming up. Of course I was not allowed to sit on school nights.

When I set pins in the bowling alley we did not get off work until 11:00 at night. Sometimes a little later if people needed to finish their bowling.

I did not mind. I am somewhat of a night owl. I like the peace and quiet late at night. Coming from a large family it is difficult to find the alone time that we all need. I found mine at night.

Being part of a large family also helped me to be able to fall asleep even if it is noisy. I can shut out noises and just close my eyes.

As an early teenager I spent almost one whole summer in bed. I had no energy and I was so cold. I was extremely anemic. It took a while to get the nutrients into my body before I felt better. In the meantime I slept under lots of covers.

When I was almost 17 I began to have seizures. The medications they had available then were not as kind to a system as some of the newer drugs we have now. I took phenobarbital which is an addictive drug in the beginning. They added dilantin later.

The nature of both drugs made me extremely sleepy. Two aspirin will put me to sleep for several hours so you can imagine the zombified sate I was in when I began to take these drugs. Once again I was often sleeping all day.

After a few months of taking these drugs my body finally adjusted and I began to have normal waking hours. More than 50 years later I am still taking them and I feel no different than I would otherwise.

When my children were small they kept me so very busy. Too often a spit and a promise was all I had time for when it came to cleaning my house.

Every once in a while I would just stay up all night and go through to do the major cleaning I had ignored for too long. I could thoroughly scrub floors and clean under the furniture. There were no children and no husband under my feet needing attention.

My three boys were night owls too. We used to stay up watching horror movies on TV after their father went to bed at night. They all still like to stay up late. I think they like the quiet time too.

My daughter on the other hand is a morning person. She is usually in bed by 9:00. To be fair she has to be at work at 4:30 ot 5:00 so she needs to get her sleep. When they were a bit younger her children would go in and tuck her in right before they went to bed.

Waiting in the doctor's office is long and boring. I take something to read with me. But after an amount of time even reading becomes sleep inducing.

I used to fight sleep in a waiting room. People chuckle at those who fall asleep there. I used to fight it. Then I realized I do not care if they laugh at me. So now I just find a comfortable positio0n for my head and purposely take a nap.

These days I find myself sitting down and then waking up. By that I mean that I did not intend to sleep in my chair but it happens in spite of me. The only time it bothers me is when I intended to watch what was on television and I slept through it.

As you can see sleep has consumed at least a third of my life. I am at a time in my life now that I enjoy a nap now and then. I not only do not feel guilty but I am happy that I am able to have the luxury.

But the best sleep is in my cozy bed. I like my cool sheets and lots of pillows. Then the comforting weight of the blankets and the gentle warmth they provide put me to sleep in no time.

Good night.