I was a night owl most my life. One of the biggest transitions for me was when I joined the Army and had to get up at about the time I had previously been heading to bed. I have never been a morning person.
But lately somethings changed. There doesn’t seem to be a good time for me to go to sleep, other than throughout the entire day. That will make sense to people who are going through the same thing as I.
I lay awake fidgeting throughout the early mornings, dreading the idea that the alarm clock is going to go off, and once again I’ll have an entire day of exhaustion. The one light at the end of the tunnel will be that after work, I can head to bed. But I won’t. Somehow I will do the same thing the next day.
I have had bouts with insomnia before. It was always just more of a sleep pattern issue; I don’t like forcing myself into bed before 2 AM. Occasionally I would kick things off with a couple shots of Nightquil (I love that stuff), and that would knock me out around 7 PM, and by 7 AM, I’m as fresh as can be.
But that’s not working this time. It knocks me out for a couple hours, but then I start having that same desire to not sleep. Only now I start to have delusions as to why I need to get up. I swear the other night I was fighting with myself on whether or not I had to get up to correct a blog post that I hadn’t even written.
I’m trying to tackle the reason for the insomnia, but I’m not sure of the exact cause. The American Insomnia Association has a pretty good article on the causes of insomnia, and they make sense. I do have stress, I’m over weight, which I’m sure is causing sleep apnea , and I’m dealing with a tinnitus issue. I’m a mess now that I think of it. But it seems like this is not really new stuff.
My initial instinct is that it’s about the type of work that I do. Elijah at TheAtHomeCouple.com wrote a really good blog post about the fact that so many people in the online marketing industry have problems sleeping. I think this is caused by the fact that we worry most about money in the evenings, and unlike most people, we can hop online and start doing something right then and there. Which is great, except for the fact that you’re not sleeping.
I just read that Crown Plaza is implementing a “Shut Off Call” to guests on request. This is like a Wake Up Call, except it’s to tell you it’s time to go to bed. They have figured out that their most common customers, business road warriors, start working and lose track of time.
So I get that the world overall is facing more insomnia. Even or kids today are dealing with the communication requirements of CEO’s. They have texting and emails all throughout the day and night. Instant communication is making us need more drugs to shut ourselves off. But I don’t know if that’s exactly my issue. I have had Treo’s and Blackberries long before my latest iPhone. I have checked email at night for years. This is a new thing.
So far I have tried forcing myself to sleep, which didn’t work. Sleeping on different sides of the bed, sleeping with music on/off, sleeping with the ceiling fan on/off, different pillows, etc… My bed kinda sucks, and that could be part of it. My sinuses have been giving me problems, which could be a contributing factor as well.
I guess I’ll just need to start going down the list of items until I find the issue. Maybe it’s time to look into getting drugged up like everyone else.
