Insomnia (Photo credit: EasyPickle)

Falling into bed at 2AM and waking up at 6AM isn’t good for me; or anyone for that matter. Understatement? I know.

Why do I have insomnia?

I have too much to do and not enough hours in a day. Anyone else have that problem?

Whatever this is, it’s leaving me foggy. The only way I know how to explain the sensation of sleep deprivation is to say, “I am like the walking dead. I am in zombie mode.”

I am sleepwalking through my days and nights until nights turn back into days. Always trying to get one more thing done before turning in. It’s not working.

Between the hours of 2 and 6 in the morning, I am wakened by my six year old. He crawls into bed next to me, “I just want you mommy,” or “I had a bad dream.” Which is kind of cute but acknowledging his need rips me out of my cocoon of rest. Another 10 minutes relinquished.

Operating on 4 hours of interrupted sleep is not healthy. Again, an understatement. It’s a wonder I can function.

The sleeplessness started with back to school and has progressively worsened.

Sleeping in till noon on Saturdays and taking naps on Sunday afternoons, is no longer working to supplement my sleep life. It’s not a good long term solution to insomnia but I hadn’t considered that insomnia would be a long term problem.

Not good. NOT good. Not GOOD.

According to my recent health assessment, just to name a few things:

• I need more iron in my diet.
• I need to drink more water.
• I need to get more rest.

My energy is drained. I just want to sleep. I crave a good nights rest. Eight hours please, charge it to my account.

To make matters worse, I’ve increased my caffeine intake so I can get stuff done. Work gets done on autopilot sometimes. Home life is done with a lot of effort and mental self talk. My poor family … I am crabby and irritable which isn’t fair to them.

I find myself hitting snooze way too many times which means we have to rush every morning. My reluctant riser and the slow mover get anxious of the pace. I’m like the White Rabbit checking his watch. Screaming, “We’re late. We’re late.” Morning Madness

sleep (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

Thankfully, I have the days between Christmas and New Year’s off. And I started my vacation sleeping in till noon. Maybe I can catch some extra zzzz.

Something’s gotta give. Can anyone relate? How do you combat insomnia and avoid sleepwalking through life? Oh and I’d prefer to do it without adding more caffeine or worse by adding meds. Open to suggestions.

Photos from Zemanta