When Did Night Turn Into Day?

"Sleep is a blessed thing

as dreams float in on a special wing.

Slumber at night makes me feel good

putting me in a pleasant mood."

Erlinda Moscoso

 "How do you do it? The minute your head hits the pillow you are asleep within seconds. How I wish I could do that," was a comment I used to hear. Lately, maybe one day a week I can no longer fall asleep when I go to bed. I looked up the word insomnia and found out it means one has problems falling asleep or sleeping a short time and then waking up.

Last night was one of those nights. I went to bed around eleven and slept until twelve-fifteen. I was awake until four-thirty and the next thing I was waking up at nine-thirty. Normally, I go to bed around eleven, get up at two for a bathroom break, and sleep until six. I enjoy that routine.

I have read that if you haven't fallen asleep within fifteen minutes, the best thing is to get up. On one of my bad nights I get up and get on the computer, read, do homework, pray or watch television. A few times I have baked cookies or did my laundry! Once I vacuumed the front room around three in the morning! It used to be that if I was having problem falling asleep all I had to do was put on a Julio Iglesias CD and off to dream land I would go. I would be asleep before the second song. A few years ago, I switched to a sweet, heavenly sound of a harp and it worked for awhile, but when the music began playing three times from beginning to end, I knew it no longer helped to put me to sleep!

The odd thing is that during the day, while watching television, my head flops to one side as I fall asleep. It's as if I have no control on staying awake. The jerk of my head wakes me up and it is as if I am drugged. No matter how hard I try to stay awake, I find myself dozing off. A few times as I watched a movie, I found myself waking up from what I thought was a few seconds of sleep. When I rewound the film I had missed almost half of the story.

Now, I know what you are going to say. "No wonder you can't sleep at night, you are dozing during the day!" Not true. Some days I am busy morning to night with no naps, and am still awake during the the night. Other times, I may doze off on the couch but I also sleep through the night. It's as if my day and night are reversed.

Information I read is that sleep problems can affect physical and mental health. Some suggestions to help me sleep at night were:  Exercise 30 minutes early in the day, massage feet with Castor oil, drink milk at bed time, massage scalp with herbal oils, drink two teaspoons of honey in glass of water, avoid snacks of grain or sugar, eat celery, or drink herbal teas.

The good thing is that it is not a daily occurrence. My hope is that tonight I will return to my normal schedule and night time will be for sleeping and day will be for staying awake!

"Two eyes wide open in the dark

while thoughts move restlessly, like a shark

in the ocean in the wrinkles of my brain,

keeping me awake and becoming my bane."

Erlinda Moscoso