Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Adrenalin-Induced Insomnia

For the last couple of years I've had trouble with sleeping through the night. Sometimes it's for pretty benign reasons. However, I think I can attribute most of it to grad school. When the pressure is on and I have an assignment due, it keeps me up at night. I usually fall asleep just fine but then wake up around 3 am, unable to get back to sleep until around 6 am. Anyone who's either got a job or kids to take care of or any other normal responsibilities understands that's just no good.

For months now, I haven't had any problems with it. I didn't really think about the fact that I wasn't having my wee hours-wake ups. And then the pressure to get going on my final push for grad school began. Guess what? More insomnia. It's so frustrating.

Today I worked for hours to get the product part of my project ready to email to my advisor. I finished and emailed it at 11:59 pm. (I'd originally promised it on Friday and then repromised it on Monday.) I was glad to get it turned in--just in the nick of time. I considered waiting to send it until tomorrow (TODAY actually) so that I could have someone look over it for me. But Nooooooo, I was getting to anxious to have it in my advisor's inbox. So I sent it.

I had to unwind for awhile so it was about 1 am before I headed off to bed. And then Marley had a nightmare. (Remind not to let her watch any Harry Potter movies for a long, long time.) I had just barely drifted off when she came in to tell me about her bad dream. (David Tennant as Barty Crouch, Jr. was the culprit.) Great. Now I was awake and trying to get back to sleep. What thoughts drifted in my head? A sudden realization that I maybe hadn't explained aspects of my project. Did I really turn in a curriculum handbook that didn't have all the information in the instructor notes? I think I did.

Crap.

Yes, I said CRAP on my blog.

Now I can't get back to sleep. It's 3 am. and I'm surfing the internet, playing Word Challenge on Facebook, exhausted as can be. Sleep just slithers right on by me.

So I reckoned, if I had to suffer through it, you might as well suffer reading about it.

I'm probably going to regret this when I get up--if I ever manage to get to sleep.

Sincerely,

Morose, possibly inept, seriously sleepy, Mary-LUE

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ugh. I'm hoping you're wrong, that you did actually do everything right and you've just forgotten :)

And I am doing this training which means I have to catch an 8 a.m. train which means leaving the house by 7:25 to catch a taxi, buy a ticket, etc. So I need to get up 1/2 an hour earlier than normal. So what time do I wake up? 3:30. Sigh. Because I am worried about sleeping in. We are insomniatic sisters :)

Anonymous said...

Ugh. I'm hoping you're wrong, that you did actually do everything right and you've just forgotten :)

And I am doing this training which means I have to catch an 8 a.m. train which means leaving the house by 7:25 to catch a taxi, buy a ticket, etc. So I need to get up 1/2 an hour earlier than normal. So what time do I wake up? 3:30. Sigh. Because I am worried about sleeping in. We are insomniatic sisters :)

Mel said...

I'm feeling lucky for 4 hours of sleep--that's my norm.

I do hope the brain was able to shut off and allow you some rest time.

*hugs*
Pretty sucky ordeal to have to handle over and over and over again......

ennuiherself said...

Fortunately, insomnia is never a problem when faced with a deadline. Unfortunately, I suffer from stress induced narcolepsy so while I'm not up worrying, I'm also not up being (possibly) productive.

Hope everything worked out!