C: Insomnia

The other night I had insomnia.  It's been a while since I really had insomnia. Well, I guess, not all that long in the broad scheme of things. At the beginning of my marital problems three years ago I would often go on three hours of sleep a night.   Let me tell you, that’s not good.

That is highly uncharacteristic for me, I was always the kid who required the full eight hours. I was, throughout my life, early to bed and very early to rise.  (Unlike V, who was mostly the opposite—a night owl)   It is still common to find me in bed before 9 p.m and up before 5 a.m.  Falling asleep is easy—it’s the staying asleep that is sometimes difficult.

My sleep patterns have become very odd over the past year or so.  Most nights I have a pretty good night’s sleep.  Chili usually wakes me to go out (wolf dog that he thinks he is) around 2 ish, but normally I cruise by the bathroom and go right back to sleep.  Some nights, well, I wake up inspired, smack in the middle of the night.

One of the pluses of single life (yes, I’m finding that there are many) is that one does not have to be considerate of another in the sleep pattern thing.  Consequently, I sometimes wake at 1:30 a.m. and come to the computer and jot down thoughts on a case that my brain has apparently been working on as I slumbered.  Normally, I go right back to bed and don’t suffer a bit for this interruption.

And then there is  blogging.  Some posts are at least started by me in the middle of the night.  This particular post was largely written the other night, as I felt engulfed in a full-fledged case of insomnia.  I awakened at 11:45 p.m. and, notwithstanding my best efforts, was still wrestling with the situation at 2:00 a.m.

The three worst things about real insomnia (as opposed to those shorter interruptions), in my opinion, are:

1. Worrying about going back to sleep, finally, only an hour and a half before having to get up and go to work—you know, just as you are deeply in that precious sleep? 
2. Boredom; sheer boredom.  Do you know how boring the middle of  the night is?  Do you know how many amazingly-daffy products are offered for sale then on television and how alluring they look to the sleep-deprived?   People who are up at 2 a.m. watching are highly-susceptible to purchasing, being in a weakened condition.  I actually bought a Cricut Expression machine that way (you know, a die-cutting sort of thing that I thought, in my craziness, that I just had to have?), and I don’t even scrapbook!  It’s a neat machine, but I have n.o…e.a.r.t.h.l.y….u.s.e for it.  It was expensive. It now resides with my sister and her daughters who do, indeed, use it to do their scrapbooks.  New Rule: No purchases when I have just come out of the bed…Need to wait for the clarity of daylight…
3. I tend to eat when I’m up—probably connected with that boredom thing.

Truth be told, I don’t mind the “inspired” wakings, just  long as  they aren’t too long, I can accomplish something at my computer, and I go right back to sleep.  But the insomnia thing I just cannot handle for long.

Now, I want to know if middle-of-the-night composing is characteristic of bloggers.  I just betcha that there are others out there who get up in the night and at least start posting…c’mon.  ‘Fess up for me—make me feel somewhat normal.  C