sleep.

Remember when you were a kid and HATED to take a nap? What a buzz kill. You were right in the middle of somethin awesome and your mama's like, "Nap time." Boooooooo!

Funny how things change. Who wouldn't like a nice, comfy twin bed, a soft down blanket, a fluffy pillow and a noise machine of some kind in a private room at work to just check out for awhile? {Assuming you can't come home and get on your couch, of course.}

{What a snuggle pie, right? He swears I simply enjoy humiliating him.}

It's interesting all the ways people view and experience sleep. There are all these methods of getting babies to sleep - sleep training, co-sleeping, crib or no crib? And somewhat controversial takes from different cultures, like in Bringing Up BeBe. Is it God-awful to let your kid cry it out? Research on babies' and adults' sleep cycles. In some cultures, it is just accepted and joked about that once you have kids, you will never sleep again. I wouldn't know. What about when you are a grown-up?

As an adult, I am pretty sure that my sleep habits are whack. If I were to sleep totally undisturbed, I could EASILY sleep for 10 or 11 hours each night. Getting up "early" for work, or an appointment, etc. where I need to set an alarm? 9 hours. Anything less and I am in a fog. And it takes me awhile to wake up, mentally. My acupuncturist says not to fight with your body regarding sleep. If you feel like you need 9 hours and so-and-so needs only 6, then so be it. Try to plan your evening, to-do's so that you can get 9 if that's what you need. Then, there are other women in my family who get excited about 5 hours of sleep in a row. I would not be able to function I don't think if I had to live off 5 hours or less a night.

I was also thinking about the regularly nightly/early morning routine for me compared to my husband.

Me - somewhere between 1:30 am and 3:00 am - wake up with a low blood sugar, drink OJ and eat peanut butter, begin thinking of 8,342,343 things I'd like to do, need to do, or am avoid doing altogether. All the while, analyzing why blood sugar is low, contemplate changes to insulin pump settings.
Anj - sleepin like the dead.

Me - any given time after 1:30 am - it's hot as forty hell in here, sheets and blanket are thrown off.
Anj - snuggled under sheet and blanket - pulled up to his chin, curled in fetal position.

Me - somewhere around 6am - get up to pee. Why does my back hurt? Is it the mattress?
Anj - sleepin like the dead.


Also - every night, I have a series of dreams. Last night's was pretty awesome. We were in this store. It was kinda like the C-Store at NC State, but then, kinda like a real gas station with a walk-in beer cooler. And they sold dishes. {???} But - everything had a wolf motif. Awesome. Even if it wasn't an "NC State wolf" per se, everything was still wolves. Various patterns of wolf dishes in red and white gingham, at least 25 varieties of wolf t-shirts, wolf chewing gum. Total wolfness. The shirts were folded and arranged on shelves like drinks in a cooler. There were several other dreams that "connected" to this one, but I will spare you.

Although it's kind of exhausting, I'm just thankful I'm not still havin the snake/cat/tidal wave dreams anymore. Thank. God!

Also - every. single. morning. I wake up with a random song in my head. May be a song I heard yesterday. May be a song I haven't heard in 15 years.

Yesterday's was, "Gimme a ring-a-ling if you want some ding-a-ling." Really?!

Today's song actually matched up with the dream. That never happens. It was, "Hungry Like the Wolf".

Soooo ---- to anyone reading, what's y'all's "normal" night like? How many hours of sleep do you need? Are you a middle-of-the-night bill payer and kitchen cleaner? Do you wake up feeling well rested, or like you have been in a movie scene all night?