So, there is no denying it. I am sleep deprived like no one’s business. I haven’t completely gone off the end of dementia, but I would not consider it out of the question.
Thanks this week go to IC Yellow, Belsum, Sparky, Capt McArmypants, and Allrileyedup:
Onto the questions:
1. Have you ever been asleep dreaming that you were lying in bed trying to go to sleep? That's happened to me a time or two. Talk about confusing!
I have had a dream that I was nearly done with all the morning tasks when I am rudely interrupted by my alarm. Very similar confusion I would imagine.
2. Who's more sleep deprived? You or Wifey? Who's handling it better?!?!?
I think I am more sleep deprived than Wifey, but not because of Little Man and Q. When I am stressed my sleep goes to shit. Plus both Wifey and I think that there must be some kind of hormone flowing through breast feeding moms that nullifies some of the sleep deprivation effects.
3. The Captain woke up at 2:30 this morning and had insomnia. Now I’m a wreck. How is that fair?
Parenting is completely unfair. It is best to keep that in mind.
4. Is waking up in the middle of the night to pee really the body’s way of preparing you for the post-birth sleeplessness or is it just the smaller bladder due to the parasite taking up residence in your abdomen?
I would say that it is a little of Column A and a little of Column B.
5. Does caffeine actually help when you’re working on severely not enough sleep or does it just make you so jittery that your attention is diverted to that unsettling feeling instead of being mad about not getting enough sleep?
Caffeine is a substance that helps insure that I stay marginally conscious whilst at work. I have never really felt jittery after consuming something caffeinated, then again, I am not that fond of espresso or other super potent forms of caffeine, so I really haven’t taxed my system with caffeine as of yet.
6. What’s worse: not being able to fall asleep initially or waking up for no good reason and then not getting back to sleep?
Not being able to fall asleep initially is worse for me. That is when the brain starts to do crazy stuff. Truth be told, though, I cannot remember an instance of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep.
7. Why is it always possible to fall deeply asleep about 40 minutes before the alarm goes off, even when you’ve been tossing and turning all night long?
Because there is a higher power and that higher power is known as Irony.
8. Unisom? Tylenol Simply Sleep? Tried them? Perhaps you should?!
When co-sleeping, one should not take sleep aids. Anything that assists someone into a sleep often takes them into too deep a sleep to have an infant in the bed. Those would be excellent choices to reset the sleep-o-meter if Q were not sleeping between Wifey and I.
9. How about quitting the Dew after 12 noon? This might help. Too much caffeine makes one edgy and it's hard to wind down then drift off (personal experience talking).
This is definitely a goal in the life of SRH, but it is one that needs a few criteria to be met prior to enforcing. Without the mild caffeine found in soft drinks most likely what would occur is sleeping at my desk at work and being wide awake at home. Honestly, sleep would not be an issue if I were able to take an hour long nap in the afternoon.
10. Can you try resetting your body's clock and going to bed earlier for a week? It will be tricky at first, but you'll adjust.
This is trickier than one would think. The transition would be frustrating beyond belief. One of the most frustrating things that I can do to myself is to lay in bed trying unsuccessfully to go to sleep. Lack of sleep coupled with immense frustration does not a fun-to-be-around SRH make.
11. How about making yourself NOT get on the pc/gaming stuff and hitting the hay instead?
I honestly haven’t played the big computer game of my life more than 3 times in the past 2 months. Lately the late nights have been Olympics and/or Sudoku. Actually, I think the lack of game playing has contributed to my insomnia. I have not had enough mindless yet engaging activity to “reset” and escape.
12. Are people who actually believe they are better off going without sleep if they can only get an hour better classified as imbeciles or dimwits?
There is some sooth in the thought that sometimes a paltry amount of sleep is worse than no sleep at all. It all depends upon when the person wakes up in the sleep cycle. Some times a power nap’s end can coincide beautifully with a waking time, but then again there is the chance that you will be groggy for hours as well.
13. I used to have a really hard time sleeping. Light sleeper, could not actually get to sleep with all these little thoughts bouncing around and then other thoughts would wake me back up when I finally got to sleep. Except for the light sleeper stuff, I pretty much got all that beat. My thoughts pretty much keep to themselves if they know what’s good for them! So what is your main problem? I am pretty sure it is not light sleeping, so brain activity waking you up or keeping you from going to sleep? or a combo of the 2 with what percentage?
I would say that on stressed out days it is 75% keeping me from going to sleep and 25% waking me from sleep.
14. How is it that the siesta has not taken off like wild fire? Would you go so far as to say that when we embrace the mid-day nap as a species it will be an evolutionary step?
I believe we would evolve as a race with the global implementation of a siesta. Genius really.
15. When really sleep deprived I resent everything that wastes my time and get very frustrated with things that would normally just annoy me. But my real hot buttons, (I say hot button, but cause the phrase "pet peeve" is actually a pet peeve of mine.) are inexplicable traffic jams and multiple human voices talking at the same time. Anything seem unusually aggravating when going on 4 or less hours of shut eye?
Everything seems annoying to me.
16. So I figure Napoleon was lying and actually got 8 hours a night and just talked a whole bunch of crap in hopes that some one would try his B.S. sleep recommendations. What is your ideal sleep amount?
Ideally I would subsist well on 7 hours. I would do fine with a solid 6. The problem is that I am getting an interrupted 5.5.
17. Is a 20 minute catnap as empowering as those advice columnists claim them to be?
Nope, those advice columnists are a bunch of lying jackals... the lot of them
18. What have you been dreaming about lately?
Oddly, I have been dreaming about super mundane stuff. The grocery store, laundry, world domination… the typical stuff.
19. What do you think your children dream about?
I believe Q dreams about Mama, while Little Man seems to remark about dreaming of Chicago. Peter Cetera did all his own stunts when he was with Chicago.
20. What is your dream sleep time?
I sleep best from about 2 am till 9 am. Yes, that sleep would make me happy.
21. Admit it, when you look at her, all the sleep deprivation in the world is worth it, isn't it?
With or without the sleep debt, she is amazingly worth it. That being said, I do not feel that she is the over-arching reason that I am not sleeping well. Heck she sleeps from midnight to 6 and goes back to sleep after feeding. That would give me plenty of rest if I could assimilate into that schedule.
To recap:
Interview went well last night
We kicked the caregivers in the stomach today
It could have been worse
We could have shot them and eaten their hearts in front of their fading consciousness
Instead we just ripped their hearts out
We are good like that
I have way too many icons on my desktop
But I cannot, for I need the icons, yet they cannot be moved elsewhere
Woe am I
Listening to The Theme From Shaft by Isaac Hayes
They say that Shaft is a bad mother..
SHUT YO MOUTH!
I’m talkin’ bout Shaft
Then we can dig it!
Thanks this week go to IC Yellow, Belsum, Sparky, Capt McArmypants, and Allrileyedup:
Onto the questions:
1. Have you ever been asleep dreaming that you were lying in bed trying to go to sleep? That's happened to me a time or two. Talk about confusing!
I have had a dream that I was nearly done with all the morning tasks when I am rudely interrupted by my alarm. Very similar confusion I would imagine.
2. Who's more sleep deprived? You or Wifey? Who's handling it better?!?!?
I think I am more sleep deprived than Wifey, but not because of Little Man and Q. When I am stressed my sleep goes to shit. Plus both Wifey and I think that there must be some kind of hormone flowing through breast feeding moms that nullifies some of the sleep deprivation effects.
3. The Captain woke up at 2:30 this morning and had insomnia. Now I’m a wreck. How is that fair?
Parenting is completely unfair. It is best to keep that in mind.
4. Is waking up in the middle of the night to pee really the body’s way of preparing you for the post-birth sleeplessness or is it just the smaller bladder due to the parasite taking up residence in your abdomen?
I would say that it is a little of Column A and a little of Column B.
5. Does caffeine actually help when you’re working on severely not enough sleep or does it just make you so jittery that your attention is diverted to that unsettling feeling instead of being mad about not getting enough sleep?
Caffeine is a substance that helps insure that I stay marginally conscious whilst at work. I have never really felt jittery after consuming something caffeinated, then again, I am not that fond of espresso or other super potent forms of caffeine, so I really haven’t taxed my system with caffeine as of yet.
6. What’s worse: not being able to fall asleep initially or waking up for no good reason and then not getting back to sleep?
Not being able to fall asleep initially is worse for me. That is when the brain starts to do crazy stuff. Truth be told, though, I cannot remember an instance of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep.
7. Why is it always possible to fall deeply asleep about 40 minutes before the alarm goes off, even when you’ve been tossing and turning all night long?
Because there is a higher power and that higher power is known as Irony.
8. Unisom? Tylenol Simply Sleep? Tried them? Perhaps you should?!
When co-sleeping, one should not take sleep aids. Anything that assists someone into a sleep often takes them into too deep a sleep to have an infant in the bed. Those would be excellent choices to reset the sleep-o-meter if Q were not sleeping between Wifey and I.
9. How about quitting the Dew after 12 noon? This might help. Too much caffeine makes one edgy and it's hard to wind down then drift off (personal experience talking).
This is definitely a goal in the life of SRH, but it is one that needs a few criteria to be met prior to enforcing. Without the mild caffeine found in soft drinks most likely what would occur is sleeping at my desk at work and being wide awake at home. Honestly, sleep would not be an issue if I were able to take an hour long nap in the afternoon.
10. Can you try resetting your body's clock and going to bed earlier for a week? It will be tricky at first, but you'll adjust.
This is trickier than one would think. The transition would be frustrating beyond belief. One of the most frustrating things that I can do to myself is to lay in bed trying unsuccessfully to go to sleep. Lack of sleep coupled with immense frustration does not a fun-to-be-around SRH make.
11. How about making yourself NOT get on the pc/gaming stuff and hitting the hay instead?
I honestly haven’t played the big computer game of my life more than 3 times in the past 2 months. Lately the late nights have been Olympics and/or Sudoku. Actually, I think the lack of game playing has contributed to my insomnia. I have not had enough mindless yet engaging activity to “reset” and escape.
12. Are people who actually believe they are better off going without sleep if they can only get an hour better classified as imbeciles or dimwits?
There is some sooth in the thought that sometimes a paltry amount of sleep is worse than no sleep at all. It all depends upon when the person wakes up in the sleep cycle. Some times a power nap’s end can coincide beautifully with a waking time, but then again there is the chance that you will be groggy for hours as well.
13. I used to have a really hard time sleeping. Light sleeper, could not actually get to sleep with all these little thoughts bouncing around and then other thoughts would wake me back up when I finally got to sleep. Except for the light sleeper stuff, I pretty much got all that beat. My thoughts pretty much keep to themselves if they know what’s good for them! So what is your main problem? I am pretty sure it is not light sleeping, so brain activity waking you up or keeping you from going to sleep? or a combo of the 2 with what percentage?
I would say that on stressed out days it is 75% keeping me from going to sleep and 25% waking me from sleep.
14. How is it that the siesta has not taken off like wild fire? Would you go so far as to say that when we embrace the mid-day nap as a species it will be an evolutionary step?
I believe we would evolve as a race with the global implementation of a siesta. Genius really.
15. When really sleep deprived I resent everything that wastes my time and get very frustrated with things that would normally just annoy me. But my real hot buttons, (I say hot button, but cause the phrase "pet peeve" is actually a pet peeve of mine.) are inexplicable traffic jams and multiple human voices talking at the same time. Anything seem unusually aggravating when going on 4 or less hours of shut eye?
Everything seems annoying to me.
16. So I figure Napoleon was lying and actually got 8 hours a night and just talked a whole bunch of crap in hopes that some one would try his B.S. sleep recommendations. What is your ideal sleep amount?
Ideally I would subsist well on 7 hours. I would do fine with a solid 6. The problem is that I am getting an interrupted 5.5.
17. Is a 20 minute catnap as empowering as those advice columnists claim them to be?
Nope, those advice columnists are a bunch of lying jackals... the lot of them
18. What have you been dreaming about lately?
Oddly, I have been dreaming about super mundane stuff. The grocery store, laundry, world domination… the typical stuff.
19. What do you think your children dream about?
I believe Q dreams about Mama, while Little Man seems to remark about dreaming of Chicago. Peter Cetera did all his own stunts when he was with Chicago.
20. What is your dream sleep time?
I sleep best from about 2 am till 9 am. Yes, that sleep would make me happy.
Bonus Question
21. Admit it, when you look at her, all the sleep deprivation in the world is worth it, isn't it?
With or without the sleep debt, she is amazingly worth it. That being said, I do not feel that she is the over-arching reason that I am not sleeping well. Heck she sleeps from midnight to 6 and goes back to sleep after feeding. That would give me plenty of rest if I could assimilate into that schedule.
To recap:
Interview went well last night
We kicked the caregivers in the stomach today
It could have been worse
We could have shot them and eaten their hearts in front of their fading consciousness
Instead we just ripped their hearts out
We are good like that
I have way too many icons on my desktop
But I cannot, for I need the icons, yet they cannot be moved elsewhere
Woe am I
Listening to The Theme From Shaft by Isaac Hayes
They say that Shaft is a bad mother..
SHUT YO MOUTH!
I’m talkin’ bout Shaft
Then we can dig it!