Lordy lordy. Sleep schedule's messed
Lordy lordy. Sleep schedule's messed up again -- has been for a little while -- and I'm forcing myself to stay awake until late this afternoon. I had the strangest bout of insomnia last weekend. My mind just would not stop. I lay in bed for three, four hours -- this after going to bed late, around four -- and could not, for the life of me, fall asleep. The rest of the week was history.
On a three a.m. excursion to H-E-B (the local all-night grocery store -- love it) last Wednesday, I took a very rare trip to the pharmaceutical section and procured myself a boxful of Unisom. I have a healthy aversion to using pills and the like to cure what ails me (which usually works out fine; I don't even get headaches all that much), so this was definitely new ground I was breaking. Pills for sleep? Gah.
Well, I took one, and it seemed to work. Apparently the active ingredient is the same stuff they put in NyQuil to knock you out (it's the "so you can rest" part of the "so you can rest medicine"). Nonetheless, when you go to sleep too late, the damage is done. Assuming you have the luxury to sleep a full eight hours, you won't be tired the next night until much later, and thus, the cycle is set in motion. For a whole week you have to tack on an extra three or four hours to your waking periods just to rotate your diurnal cycle to fit in with the working world.
If there's a better way to do this, I'd be glad to hear it.
Just for the record, I did try to reset my sleep schedule once by trying to correct it within the course of a day or two. Didn't work. I was wiped out later. I think the greatest difficulty is not being around people all day long. I've found that if I'm awakened by the phone and I start my day with talking to someone, I'm up for good. The very act of conversation with another human being probably stimulates some part of the brain that isn't easily quieted after being aroused. Maybe if they could come up with a smart alarm clock that calls you on the phone and simulates human intelligence. Of course, if it sounds like those automated telemarketing calls, forget about it. But there's a multi-million-dollar idea there for an A.I. specialist, just waiting to be had.
Posted by Matt at April 28, 2003 12:23 PM
