My sleep schedule is…

My sleep schedule is utterly messed up. Friday night, if you'll remember, I didn't sleep at all -- stayed up and made brunch for the Nebula folk. Saffron rice pilaf and various curries, Thai green chicken salad, portobello bruschetta, bagels and cream cheese. Tea and coffee and mango-orange punch. An odd mix of items, but yummy enough. I pulled out one of the Christmas fruitcakes and served that too, with a brandy butter sauce. About a dozen people came by -- Ben, Alex and Lisa, David M., Karen, David S., Ellen K., Eileen, Ellen D., Laurel, Toby, Hannah, Jack -- and a few more I'm somehow blanking on, sorry. A good time had by all.

By 3-ish, everyone was gone; I watched a bit of tv, and managed to nap for an hour and a half or so. Then woke up and dressed for the ceremony -- I was so tired I could barely think, much less dress, and I was convinced that everything I tried on looked awful. Thank god for Kevin, who patiently zipped and unzipped me until I finally decided a cobalt blue sari looked okay; he managed to pin that up pretty well too.

Though sleepy, I had a good time at the ceremony, getting thoroughly choked up and weepy when they were giving Anne McCaffrey her Grandmaster award. Loved the moment when they showered her with silly string Thread. It was also SFWA's 40th birthday, and they got a bunch of the old folks up to sing Happy Birthday and share their memories of the early days. Sounded like it was really something back then. V. touching.

I got my second wind somewhere in there, and proceeded to be wide awake for hours and hours, through a long late-night conversation with Ben, finally falling asleep at 4 a.m. I slept hard, then, until 2 p.m. the next day (Sunday). Woke up still groggy, and had a quiet day yesterday -- phone calls catching up with people, watching tv, putting away laundry (still at least three loads left to do), dealing with urgent bills and other paperwork. Somewhere very late in the day, realized that it was May 1st, our anniversary. Had gotten so confused with dates that it had completely slid by my notice. I reminded Kevin, and he made me creme brulee (my favorite dessert) to celebrate, with vanilla beans I brought back from Sri Lanka. Thirteen years now, and I am daily astonished by how lucky I am to have found Kev. Too sleepy to be more articulate about him right now. :-)

Went to bed at 3 a.m., expecting to sleep 'til 11 -- but no. No, I couldn't sleep for an hour or so, and when I finally did fall asleep, I only slept an hour and a half before waking up again at 5:30 this morning. So I'm up and tired. Oh, so tired. My eyes keep closing on their ownsome. If I can just get through today without napping, though, maybe I can go to bed at a normal hour tonight. That'd be really really really nice.

3 thoughts on “My sleep schedule is…”

  1. I have heard often that one day per time zone is necessary to get one’s sleep patterns back to normal. So 12 time zones could take 12 days.

    I have also heard from several sources, but have not tried myself, that taking a little melatonin an hour before you want to sleep can speed up the process. Supposedly this is only needed for one or two nights.

  2. Yes on the melatonin. Take it before trying to sleep, preferably around 11 p.m., which I think is about when our own melatonin levels naturally rise. You won’t feel drugged, but hopefully you’ll be able to sleep through the night. And yes, it needs a night or three to do its thing. Do NOT try taking melatonin during the day as a sleep aid; it’s not a sleeping pill, but a hormone. It can reset your body clock so that it thinks day is night.

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