Sleep, elusive sleep

A blog, a journal to amuse myself with thoughts and ideas about my sleep habits, patterns, and /or lack thereof. 

Sleep; I do it well,  As a matter of fact I'm an expert sleeper;  As a child, my parents would take me with them when they went out to party, and the time would come when it was my bed time; they'd lay me down on some one's bed or on a heap of gathered coats and in an instant I'd be asleep and no amount of noise would wake me.  The same held true at our home where many social get togethers lasted well into the wee hours of the morning.  One time, during a firefight in Viet Nam, I fell asleep and didn't awaken until the radio man shook me awake to take my watch.  I'd fallen asleep first, before the enemy engagement, and slept through the skirmish.

Approaching the threshold to old age has altered my abilities in this respect; I rarely, no, I never sleep for 7 or 8 uninterrupted hours.  I still fall asleep almost instantly when I get into bed.  If I don't, I get up and read or something.  I've said, more than once, that when I go to bed I'm asleep before my head hits the pillow.    For the first 2 1/2 to 3 hours  that I'm asleep it is so profound that it would take a major earthquake to wake me.  The exception to the rule, (there's always an exception, right?) is/was when I took call for the O.R..  Then, the fear of missing an emergency call kept me in a twilight state of sleep which proved to be very ineffective rest.

So, I still fall asleep quickly and for awhile that sleep is deep.  Once I awaken, after that 2 1/2 - 3 hour interval, I never get back to that depth of sleep.  I drift in and out of a semi-sleep, awakening fully every 20 to 30 minutes and check the clock.  If, perchance, I've stayed under the covers for 7 or so hours I arise refreshed and alert and energized for the day ahead.  Less than that and the day ahead will be like slogging through a muddy bog.

I must interject here that for the past 20 years, give or take a year or two, I routinely arise quite early by most people's standards; 3 A.M..  I'll skip the reasons, quite valid though odd, for this essay.  I make an attempt to retire by 8 P.M. every evening, and because this is a long standing habit, am usually in bed asleep by 8 p.m. if not ten minutes either side.  My alarm is set for 4 o'clock a.m. and I shut it off between 0300 and 0320.  I've forgotten when the last time I was awakened by m alarm clock.

Most days, between 1500 and 1530, a feeling of overwhelming drowsiness sends me to the sofa for a nap.  that "nap" lasts for 1 1/2 to 2 hours of, again, deeply profound slumber.  However when I awaken after this nap, it takes me 5 to 10 minutes to actually become alert.  And nearly a half an hour to be functionally alert.

One last point for today; because I work a nearly 4 hour drive from my home  of record, I stay in an apartment in the village where I work during the week and drive home on the weekends.  If I leave, for home, on a Friday afternoon, I struggle for the full 4 hour drive to stay awake, ( I swear my brain goes to sleep even while my eyes are open,) which necessitates frequent stops at the interstate rest stops.  If, on the other hand, I leave at 0300 Saturday morning, nary a grain of sleepiness encumbers my alertness and I drive the 3 hour 40 minute trip without a stop.