Sleep is highly overrated

I have said this before, “Sleep is highly overrated.” I’ll say it again now, “Sleep is highly overrated.” I’ll probably say it again. Let’s just say that getting some sleep right about now while it would be nice, it is not necessary according *MY* body. Yes, my body has this funky sleep deprivation thing going on. It has always been this way as long as I can remember. It only got worse with children. The medicines I take don’t help the matter any either.

It used to be that if I napped during the day, even if only for an hour, I’d be up at least 2-3 hours later at night. That little nap resets the entire “sleep needs” meter evidently. So naps are generally avoided by me, unless I just cannot stay awake. Then I figure my body is saying that I really do need the sleep so the sleep-less night is usually worth it.

More and more recently though it has gotten to the point where any block of 2-3 hours of sleep is enough to reset the “sleep needs” meter. That is SO NOT FUNNY! Why? Because if I have been woken up from a sleep (for reasons other than going to the potty), I am guaranteed a sleep-less night. I just cannot go back to sleep right away. Now let me just mention that if I wake up at the 4-5 hour mark, it does not have the same effect.

So Sunday night was a not good sleeping night. With the sinus infection brewing and just not feeling well in general, I didn’t sleep well. It is hard to sleep when you cannot breathe after all. I am sure that trying to sleep sitting upright in the recliner did not help the situation any, but it was the only way that I slept. At least I actually slept that night. It just wasn’t a quality, sound sleep. Sleeping sitting straight up will do that to you.

Monday night I wasn’t feeling any better. Worse actually by the time bedtime rolled around, but I could at least breathe a little easier. The problem, I went to bed all tired and all but I did not fall asleep. I am sure this was the increase in sinus medicines that had me strung even higher than normal. Yep, those drugs like to trick the “sleep needs” meter all the time. It is not any fun at all. The last thing I remember hearing Monday night….ummmmm….Tuesday morning was Andrew and Kyle’s alarm clocks going off at 6:00 AM. Yes, about that time my body just simply crashed. I vaguely remember each of the boys coming in to tell me something at least two times as they were getting ready for school, but I was so tired I slept.

Fortunately, the boys are self-sufficient enough that they can get themselves up and ready for school with little to no help from me. They even tended to Lance who was also awake and put a movie in for him to watch while I slept. I woke up in a panicked state about 8:00 AM thinking that the boys had not gotten out the door. Kyle had made it off. I vaguely remember him telling me that he was leaving, but at 8 o’clock yesterday morning I did not recall this. Fortunately, Andrew was there and he quickly reminded me that he did not need to leave for the bus for another 5 minutes or so. The panic settled and I was good. I was, however, not going to be going back to sleep as much as my body needed it. While Lance was content to sit on the couch watching a movie, I could have certainly got another 1-2 hours of sleep. Nope, didn’t happen. That 2 hours of sleep was enough to keep my sick, sleep deprived body running for a little while longer.

You’re probably wondering what I was doing with my time while I was not sleeping on Monday night, right? Yes, that is the million dollar question, now isn’t it? You just pay up the million dollars and I’ll be happy to answer that all revealing question. Don’t have a million dollars? That’s alright, it is really not that spectacular. Usually it s watching a little TV. I have fallen asleep on the couch watching countless shows. I just get comfortable and start to relax and I’ll wake up some 4 hours later, ready to crawl into bed. Or I might be surfing the internet reading a little of lots of different topics or playing games. Sometimes I read. I have fallen asleep with a book on my face more than once. Tuesday night, I read. I managed to plow through some near 70 pages of the Book of Alma in the Book of Mormon. Yep made some good progress that night.

Now last night, Tuesday night, I thought I’d be better off in the sleep department. I was running on 2 hours of sleep and I felt like crap. I should sleep, right? You would think so. I was not feeling well enough on Tuesday that I drug my body to the doctor to be told that I do in fact have a nasty sinus infection. No joke! Oh and I took Lance to the doctor with me so that we could start getting him caught up on all his vaccinations that he’s behind on so he’ll be ready for school in the fall. He wasn’t so happy about that. I told him he was taking me to the doctor. Let me just say that he does not like shots and he was crying before they even brought the needles in. Scream away child, sometimes there are things in life that we have to do even if we are screaming “no no I don’t like sharp needles.” He got 3 shots today. We should have him completely caught up on all his vaccines this summer.

I left the doctor’s office and went to go pick up the boys. It was busy at the doctor’s office. A lot busier than usual. The appointment was at 2:50 PM and we did not leave the office until 4:15 PM. A lot of that time we were in the room with the doctor and/or nurses, so it was not a long wait in the waiting room, but they were running behind schedule. Fortunately, it is not a long drive to either of the boys’ schools from there. I picked up Kyle first as the elementary school teachers get a little upset if you’re not there within so many minutes of school letting out or an after school activity letting out. Kyle was staying after for Choir practice. He was priority. I got there and he was one of 2-3 kids left waiting. At least I wasn’t the last mom to arrive. Then we head the 5 minutes over to the junior high to get Andrew who stayed after for his private cello lesson.

I drop by the pharmacy to drop off the prescription for my antibiotics. She also gave me another one for my toenail fungus that I have picked up somewhere and in 18 months of topical treatment have not been able to get rid of it. I can’t, however, start that one until they get the results back from my liver function test and I have finished the antibiotics (also processed in the liver). The doctor’s office had finally called in the refill for my other medicine that morning so that was ready as well. I can now send in my order forms and paperwork for the 90-day supply through mail order that we’re being forced to go to with our medicine coverage on all maintenance drugs (medicines taken longer than 30-60 days).

I was not waiting around for them to fill my prescription. I felt bad, the boys needed to eat, and they still had homework to get done before we wandered back out for karate. Oh and I still needed to finish filling out all the forms for reporting the State Sales Tax that I had collected with my design business from the fourth quarter of 2009. I bit the bullet and filed it online. Woohoo! It cost me an extra $1 in “convenience” fees but I figure by the time I had gotten everything in the envelop, gotten everyone in the car, driven to the post office, stood in line to get it stamped and postmarked with today’s date that I would have well been past the $1 mark on “my time’s” value. So I just went ahead and did it. It was WAY WAY easier than filling out the paper anyway.

I dropped Andrew and Kyle off at karate at 6:00 PM and then took Lance to the pharmacy to get my medicine. My word. The pharmacist points out that the one medicine by itself is $66.11 after the insurance has done their part. *gasp* I look at how much the antibiotic was full price (it was on the information sheet). *gulp* I grateful for the insurance that covered the other $110 of it. Yikes! Fortunately the metformin was only $14 and change. I needed to get Andrew $5 in cash for his new class fee (keyboarding and technology fee) that he started this semester. Then the chocolate covered pretzels (for Lance) and the bag of Chex Mix (I was craving it)…yep, dropped $90 some odd dollars at the pharmacy. *sigh*

Lance and I head back to grandma’s house. It is halfway between the pharmacy and the karate studio. I take my medicine then. I am so mellow. I am so tired. I am exhausted. I feel like crap. I just want to go to sleep. I can’t, however, until I’ve finished the usual run around with the kids. I pick them up at 8:00 PM and it was not even 7:00 yet at this point. It was going to be a long wait.

I get them home and showered and to bed. I sit down at the computer to deal with email again for one final time of the evening. I figured I should since I hadn’t even checked the business email in 2-3 days. It was time to check in. I turn off the computer about 10:30 PM as it was at the end of the 10 o’clock news. I head to bed. I am tired. Let me emphasize that I am TIRED. I crawl into bed and told myself I’d read at least one chapter in my scriptures and then go to sleep. I did go to sleep about 11:30 so I got a little further than 1 chapter. I woke back up at 2:30 AM. Let me refer you back to the discussion about the 2-3 hour sleep bracket and how it resets the “sleep needs” meter. So I read some more. For at least another hour. I finally drifted off to sleep about 4 o’clock and slept. Now it was not a sound sleep. It was disturbed by nose blowing and going to the bathroom frequently, but at least I was sleeping and at least I was getting some sleep.

It all ended about 7:00 this morning when Kyle came in and said he was leaving. I was lucid enough to tell him to go through the garage (so the front door wouldn’t be left unlocked while I was still out of it). He likes to go out early to the bus stop so that he can play with his friends in the morning. The bus doesn’t actually come until about 7:30. Then Andrew came in at 7:25 and said, “Mom, orchestra sectionals start again this morning. I need to be there at 7:45.” I could no longer put it off, I had to get out of bed.

So there you have it. That’s why I feel that sleep is highly overrated. I will stand by that for a few more years I am sure.