Sleep... I Can't Get No Satisfaction

But I try, and I try, and I try, and I try...

Not many of you recognize these lyrics probably (if they are the actual lyrics), but it's an old song that popped into my head when I began thinking about Octamom's post regarding sleep.

When she asked what others think about sleep, she opened a trunk-load of issues that I have developed about sleep. In fact, from the time I was nursing my daughter, I believe I developed one major sleep disorder. Staying awake became a common occurrence, and I'm still having issues with sleep.

First of all, I need it! Desperately. Although the past few weeks have been better, I will go for days getting only four to five hours of sleep. I watch the clock tick rapidly toward morning, and I try, really try, to go to bed. But the problem is, I'm a night owl. Which isn't a problem if you can sleep late the next day. But when you have to be at work by 7:30, and it takes nearly 30 minutes to get to work and to the dreaded sign-in sheet, being a night owl is not a wise thing to be!

Night, it seems, is when my creativity fires up. I can create things for my students to do, I can grade papers, I can create lessons, I can scrapblog, I can get on our blogs and follow link after link just to see what's new. (I can't clean or iron though. That would disrupt my sleeping family!)

Then, after mere hours of sleep, I drag myself out of bed feeling not-so-creative any more!

There was a time, however, when I was an early-bird. I woke up each morning at 5:30to run before the day had begun. And oh how I loved those morning runs. As I began a slow jog down my road, I would often spot shooting stars streaking across the heavens. Deer would wag their white-tails off the shoulder of the road (often giving me a fright before I figured out what they were). No watch was needed to tell me when it was time to head home. A train's whistle did the job -- same time every single day. And the sound of a Chuck-will's-Widow greeted me as I made the final turn back towards home.

Sure I've read a lot about creating a bedtime ritual. And I do start off with one. I take a warm bath with drops of lavender scenting the water and the air around me. I "feel" snuggly and warm... just right for sleep. I usually prefer to browse through a magazine (no heavy reading at bedtime). And all is well until I decide to check my e-mail - for just a minute. And the minute turns into an hour, and e-mail turns into writing a new lesson plan, and the lesson plan turns into additional materials to be used at school, and the additional materials turn into... Do you get the picture?

But I digress. I prefer seven to eight hours of sleep, although I can get by quite well with five (for a day or two). And the culprit really is having too much to do and too much that I want to do. There are just not enough hours in the day to do all that needs to be done. And when I am at home, I try not to do too much work while everyone's awake. I save it for their bedtimes, which means I can't get no... satisfaction when it comes to S.L.E.E.P!