She Sleeps Oddly
I used to be a night person, back when I taught until 10pm and then cooked and ate dinner… and then took a couple hours to unwind.
When I moved to Arizona, I started going to bed later and getting up earlier. When the sun wakes up, I do.
Or did.
Now the sun is sleeping in, and I’m waking up earlier and earlier. What’s up? I’m now getting up at 3:30 in the morning!
When I was in college, one of my best friends used to wake up super early (I think around 1 or 2 sometimes). I’d still be up, and we’d sit and enjoy going over calculus problems together. She always went to bed around 8.
And here I am, suddenly on the same schedule. It’s ridiculous. At least being a morning person is relatively respectable, but conking out at 8 or 9 to get up at 3:30 and work is out of the respectable range.
I’ve been putting in 12- to 15-hour work days. After this week, though, I have a normal schedule. I can’t wait. Hopefully that means I’ll be able to sleep a little more normally.
What’s your sleep schedule like? Did it ever change drastically as you aged?
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Natasha Fondren is a writer traveling the U.S. in a camper with her four cats. She is currently enjoying the lizards and desert heat in Arizona.
My circadian rhythm can’t carry a tune in a bucket with a lid on it.
I sleep when I’m tired and get up when I wake up, which isn’t always when I’m not-tired, but if I have to get up to go to the bathroom (depressingly common since I started blood pressure medication) once I’ve been up and walking around, I can’t go right back to sleep unless I’m still exhausted.
I might be up for the usual 16 hours and then go to bed, or I might be up for 20, or 10, or 30, or who knows what. Usually my schedule precesses around the clock in 1-2 hour increments, more or less, but it can throw me a joker whenever it feels like. I don’t try to control it anymore unless I have an appointment coming up, or if we’re travelling and I want to be doing scheduled activities, like shore tours on a cruise. And even then, if our trip lasts more than five days or so, I can’t hold it steady any longer, and if I try I turn into a bleary zombie.
I just deal with it. My husband is wonderfully understanding.
Angie
Hah! That’s hilarious, Angie! Ugh, I know about those bathroom runs! I’m always drinking lots of water, and then I have to get up at night.
Lucky to have such a husband! I know how excruciating it can be to be sleep-deprived, for sure!
I sleep a lot shorter periods now than I used to. I tend to get under my needed sleep during the work week and catch up a little bit on the weekends. I certainly feel tired a lot.
I know that feeling. I used to be so sleep-deprived. Now I’m less able to deprive myself of sleep. At times, I do, but in general, I get a lot of sleep. It’s still surprising to me, because when I was teaching, I’d miss about two nights of sleep a week.
When I was in college I’d stay up until 2am and get up around 10. When I worked I got went to bed 10 pm or 11 pm and got up at 6 am. Since I’ve been self-employed I’ve been moving toward my college schedule. But usually I’m in bed by 1 am. Sometimes we get up fairly, sometimes really late. I reckon I spend more time in bed because I don’t sleep as well as when I was in college.
I had that schedule in college, too!
I love being self-employed. I stopped liking the night schedule when I was teaching, but now that I can truly set my schedule, I love it. Yay for flexibility!
I’ve always been a night person. My ex got me sort of on his schedule — bedtime by 10pm and up at 6am — but I’m slowly drifting to my younger ways — bedtime at midnight and up at 6. This isn’t working so well, lol.
In fact, I’m supposed to be getting ready for bed now!
Eeek, I hate thinking of losing all that sleep!