Some have wondered over the years why it is that I am such a proficient napper. Granted I was depressed, but when Sarah I first moved here together, I would come home every day from work and take a two hour nap. Now, I know what you are saying... That's not a nap, that is sleep, and you are right.
My parents have always had this running joke that nothing could possibly ever wake me. "Mere could sleep through a train wreck, and if she were on the train." Its true. I have slept through fire alarms, midnight surgeries while staying with my mom in the hospital (that's her favorite story), but there is one thing that I always wake from...me. I will wake in the middle of the night, sometimes from the best dreams, and cannot get myself back to sleep. That is why I think I have the ability to fall asleep quickly. Its because my body knows that it needs to get in what it can because four hours from then, I won't be able to.
I never quiet understood it, that is until I was talking with my uncles this past weekend. We were talking during the family gathering at my Aunt Wanda's house. I haven't seen my uncles in a really, really long time. But I started noticing that they both are in fact, insomniacs. I had often wondered why my Uncle Kerry would post on facebook at 2 or 3 in the morning. Apparently he never sleeps.
My Uncle Richard by far had it the worst. As told by him, his parents (my grandparents) would have to lock in him in his room at night for bed time and let the child scream. He couldn't go to sleep and so he would scream and scream. The doctor advised them not to give in because otherwise he would develop the habit. Eventually he stopped and he learned to stay in there until he was able to fall asleep, however short lived it was.
Well, what inspired this post was the fact that last night, and several of the nights during this month and this past summer, I have woken and stayed up for hours. Just a few weeks ago, I woke at 3:00 am and could not get myself back to sleep. That was probably the longest day of my life. However, back in August, after a night out on the town with Sarah S., I found myself falling asleep at 3:00 only to wake at 5:00. No matter what I tried, nothing worked. Staring at the clock only seemed to make time stop all together.
In addition, last night, although still tired and sore from my personal training, I woke with my muscles hurting and I could not find a comfortable position. I tossed and I turned. I beat my pillows beyond recognition, and folded them over into pillow-gami. Eventually, even Mo got frustrated with me and when I finally crawled out of bed, admitting defeat, I found him asleep on the couch.
So, why is it that now in my adulthood I have just developed this plague that haunts my ENTIRE family? Why now? Why?
No comments:
Post a Comment