One of the minor annoyances of chemotherapy (or maybe it's just a consequence of my age) is that I have bouts of insomnia. No rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes I just get into a bad pattern that involves tossing and turning, rearranging pillows, roaming the house at 2 am, switching bedrooms, trying out the couch downstairs, reading, watching movies, drinking warm milk, or practicing yoga breathing, before I finally drift back to sleep. Then I sleep later in the morning, shift all meals 2 or 3 hours later, go to bed at midnight because I'm not tired and repeat the whole process. The bedtimes get later and later, so you can see the result is akin to being a college kid and subbing day for night or being a world traveler, unsure of what time zone you're really in. Three o'clock--must be lunch time! Six o'clock--nap before dinner!
After a week or so of this nonsense, I return to a more normal sleep schedule, highlighted by a marathon 12 hour sleep to start, just to reset the internal body clock.
What's strange is that I miss my crazy nights sometimes. There's something about creeping around your house at 3 am that gives you a sense of peace and well being. I've been playing with a new toy that Gary got for Christmas--binoculars with a camera inside. The moon has just been so bright the last few nights, that I've been looking out my window in the wee hours and clicking away. The only problem is I'm so used to digital previewing that it's weird to have to wait until you download the pictures to your computer to see if any came out. (and I do wait for daylight to do that). I overestimated how much light the moon was actually shedding on objects below, so got a set of very black photos the other night. Here's the best of the batch:
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| Moon peeking through the tree branches |
Oh, yeah, and I know, before anyone states the obvious, that the key to returning to sleep is to NOT engage in any activities that will stimulate the brain and wake you up more. Seems like running from one window to another is not exactly a soothing, back to sleep ritual.
My ritual when I was a little kid was to listen to the same record every night. For some reason, the record player, which was a sizeable piece of furniture--mahogany cabinet with a heavy, polished lid--was in my room. I don't remember all the songs that were on that 78--maybe because I always fell asleep before the record ended-- but I'm pretty sure these catchy tunes were included :
(have a listen, courtesy of You Tube)
They're very upbeat for bedtime lullabies, but obviously my parents were on to something because it worked for me then and I'm wondering if the Chordettes and Dinah Shore will work the magic for me now. May just have to try that out.
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