Sleep

Sleep is not an overrated activity, especially ordinary nighttime sleep. For me, however, ordinary and nighttime have seldom described my best sleep. I remember sliding out of bed in the cool quiet hours of night and pressing my face against the screen to hear the critters - frogs, crickets, owls, and the occasional wild cat. Those hours of feeling a part of God's world and having time to listen and reflect have always been valuable to me.

Somewhere along the journey of 60 years, those times of waking in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning or just before dawn have lengthened into erratic sleep patterns that leave me weary. I don't think well or clearly; I'm irritable; I think rude comments even if I don't say them; I put off doing things that I like because I'm tired - bone weary tired.

In the last few years, I've awakened to pain in my legs, and no matter how I move them to get more comfortable, I toss and turn until I finally get out of bed. I've taken OTC pain medicine, prescription muscle relaxers, anti-anxiety medication - sometimes making my stomach upset from the different things I've tried. I've eaten cereal (works better than some things), drank milk, avoided caffeine (sometimes helps, sometimes not), done stretching exercises (moderates the pain a bit), walked around and around the house until I'm so tired I could drop; nothing seems to do much good at getting me back to sleep comfortably. Nothing except watching the sun rise, eating breakfast and going back to bed.

I'm tired of missing part of the day, and I'm having way too much time on my hands at night when I the world is quiet and dark.

So, I finally went to the doctor - at the urging of a friend. She gave me medicine for restless leg syndrome. I slept six full hours the first night without pain. After a few days, the dosage increased; I was druggy feeling the following morning, but I persevered. On day five, I slept all night. On day/night six, I slept nine hours. This is night seven, and I'm looking forward to an ordinary nighttime sleep.

I'm thinking more clearly, and I'm getting more things done. I'm still a procrastinator, but tiredness and sluggishness is not the cause.

Thank God for sleep.