I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

Well, its currently 6:27 AM. I've been awake since 2. Literally. I went to bed at 10:30 last night because I wanted to be able to get up early and take my car in to get the brakes fixed. I woke up around 1:30 am, checked the time, rolled and went back to sleep. 30 mins later, I was awake again. I was uncomfortable. Chuck was kind sprawled across the bed, so I can blame him a little. It wasn't very warm in there, because we had the fan on high. I had severe cotton-mouth, so I got up and got a drink. I went back to bed, and at 2:30 decided to just get up and move to the couch. I figured I'd be restless, and didn't want to disturb Chuck too much. He has his Frisbee finals today, and he's been tired lately. Anyway, whenever I can't sleep like this I usually watch infomercials until I feel sleepy and go to sleep on the couch. I watched 2 1/2 hours of infomercials. I now desperately want a GT Express 101. I'm pretty sure you can get them at Target...Christmas is 4 months away. ;) I then tried to go to sleep. I turned the TV off and curled up on the couch to no avail. Right now, my alarm is going off telling me to go to Midas. It can wait. Did you know that approx 1 in 8 or 11.76% or 32 million people in USA suffers from insomnia? (http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/i/insomnia/stats.htm). Insomnia isn't about not being able to go to sleep, but being able to stay asleep. Chuck teases me because he always gets up with Chase on the weekends, because I sleep so hard and I never hear him. I'm wondering if that's going to change. Looking at a list of causes for insomnia doesn't do me any good. I don't have any of these symptoms...at least not that I've had a problem before. I'm a little stressed. Anymore that usual? Not really. Its been extra hot here, as I stated in my last blog, but I've gotten used to it, and like I said...our room had cooled down quite a bit. So, what was the cause of my insomnia last night? I'm not sure. I even took 2 Tylenol Simply Sleep pills before I went to bed. While I was up this morning, I decided to look at what people had to say about this over the counter drug. Reviews? Eh, mixed at best. Most people say it only took one pill to knock them out for 6+ hours. Some say it didn't work in the slightest. I take them occasionally when my mind won't seem to shut itself down. They generally work for me. I try to take them at least an hour before I want to go to bed because that's how long it takes to kick in. I wonder if this is purely psychological or if I may suffer from a mild form of Insomnia. Maybe its hereditary, after all...my grandpa had it.



My maternal Grandfather fought in the Korean war. The battle of the Chosin Reservoir. He was one of "The Chosin Few". He never told me specifically about any of the details of his war experience, but what I did pick up along the way was he developed insomnia because he and his division, at least those that we left, could not risk falling asleep for fear of freezing to death. Thinking about it now, it makes sense to me that he hated the cold. He loved the hot and humid weather. He was a great man and taught me so much in my young life. I used to spend some summers when I was younger at my grandparents house while my parents were at work. My grandpa would always be awake at 6am when they dropped me off to let me in, have breakfast with me or put me back to sleep. I thought it was because I was special. I later learned it was because he was. RIP Gam-pa.



The point I'm working towards is that I wonder how much fear is involved with insomnia. Last night as I was trying to sleep on the couch, I was hit with a sudden wave of fear. Chase was up with me. He'd been whining in his crate, so Chuck got him out and I said he could stay with me. Big mistake. At about 4:30 we heard a thud in the front yard/porch area. I thought that it was probably a cat if anything. Chase flipped out. He barked at the window and stared int he direction of the porch for a good 10 mins. Had he not been there, I wonder if I would have fallen asleep. But, from that point on every small sound was an intruder, or a murderer, or someone looking to do me and family wrong. Chase was agitated and couldn't be settled, which led me to think that I shouldn't be either. Fear took over at that point...causing my rare insomnia to become full blown. I wish I could find more information on fear based insomnia. See stats and polling results. I may be on to something here.

By the way, the huge gap in time from me starting this blog and posting it, is the time it took to get Chuck up and take my car to Midas. They should be calling soon with a quote and we will get doughnuts. I might even try to take a nap.