On Sleep
You can only guess what kind of night I had by the topic this morning. At least I’m writing at my normal awake time instead of at 3:30 in the morning. It’s that storm front thing. I don’t really understand how everyone’s behavior is so drastically affected by the weather, but it is. I suppose it’s the part of us that is still just a mammal instead of a human – that can sense the “charge in the air” and responds. So anyway, I was up like every 20 minutes last night. Isaiah was no better in the early hours – he was so frustrated that he ended up sleeping sitting up with his forehead resting on my belly – now to those of you who are skinny – you should realize that you’re child would have been bent over double in the same position most likely suffocating himself – so know that this extra weight is really a pillow for my child so that he can rest more comfortably.
Anyway, waking with the thought “do I really have to go into work today” leads me to my topic – the quest for sleep. I have always tried to respect another’s desire for sleep. If they are snoozing away, then I try to let them enjoy the moment and get a good nap in. But for some reason, there seems to be an invisible note pasted to my forehead that says, “In Case of Sleep – Wake Immediately.” Jose will often sit down in the living room on the weekend, and doze off watching television. Of course, this means that Elijah and Isaiah and perhaps the neighborhood kids will be running through and sometimes wake him up. He will groggily open one eye, growl some sort of heavily accented complaint and then adjust his position and return to sleep. By the third time this happens, he’s really a bit pissy about the whole thing. But for him, I have no sympathy. First of all, if you are serious about taking a nap, you have to take a nap in a quiet room where no one is welcome. That’s why I take all my naps in the bedroom. Lying on the couch with my eyes closed is not perceived by anyone in my house as sleeping, merely resting my eyes. So, when Jose wakes up and wants to be grumpy – I inform him that if he’s serious about taking a nap, he should go back to the bedroom and lay down – rather than sitting up with his head drooping down to his chin and drool pooling about him. It would also make tv viewing easier for the rest of us who don’t particularly want to hear his snoring. Secondly, he was in the military. And it has been my experience that being in the military forever trains you to sleep whenever and wherever you want. If you can sleep full clothed, all night long, on a floor without a pillow and wake up the next morning refreshed – you really don’t need any help sleeping.
Now, for me, sleeping is more of a delicate process. I have to get mentally prepared. I can’t watch television before I go to sleep, I have to read. That doesn’t mean the television can’t be on – as it often is because Elijah likes to watch his show as he falls asleep. ½ of m family are television sleepers (my mom, my nephew, my brother) – I find that the television will wake me up later in the night if it’s on.
The room temperature must be just right too – and finding it is no easy task. I like a cool room and a light blanket. Because there is little that makes me angrier than waking up hot and sweaty – it’s just not pleasant. But none of this really applies for the nap. For the nap, I simply need the desire, something sort of boring on television, and a little quiet. But it never fails, even if I’m back in the bedroom with the door closed, my son will come into the room and ask for a soda, or chicken nuggets, or cheetos, or toilet paper – or whatever insanely stupid thing he needs at the time. My response is usually, where’s your dad – and Jose is always “in his living room” sleeping – Now what motivates my son, the love of my life, to ignore Jose and walk all the way back to the bedroom to wake me up instead I’ll never know. I can only guess is that I’m not nearly so grumpy when someone wakes me up. But it’s not just Elijah. One night, Jose and I had gone to spend the night at my mom’s house. It was like 3:00 a.m. and mom was up for one of her smoke breaks (she doesn’t sleep all night long but in spurts). My dog, Token, was with us at the time. My mother, who was in the living room, not 10 feet from the door, walked all the way back down the hall, woke me up and told me that my dog wanted to go outside. I couldn’t believe it! But it’s your mom so you silently fume and walk blindly to the door to let the dog out and then sit wide awake for another 2 hours before you can go back to sleep. Jose will often do the same thing. A couple of weeks ago, he came and woke me up from my nap to ask if I wanted to keep sleeping. To be fair, I’d already been asleep for like 4 hours – but I told him that I was pretty sure that I could sleep all night if he’d go away and leave me alone. And I did – I got 14 hours of sleep – and I felt really good the next morning.
Anyway, it’s now time to go interrupt my child’s bout with sleep. It’s a school day –
