When to Take a Nap

I’m no stranger to sleep deprivation.  It started back in elementary school with a flashlight and a book under the covers, and an iron-clad 6:00 a.m. rising time.   The late-night, early rising thing got additional reinforcement in high school and college because I was a theatre arts major (Yeah, I know…about the most worthless degree you can get, but like most kids I was sure I could beat that 93% unemployment rate.)  About two years into higher education, I took a sabbatical from education to become a mother.  I don’t need to tell anyone what that does to sleep!  On top of that, I had frequent bouts of single parenthood (that’s another story—comes under the heading of being independent, stubborn, and devoted to doing things the right way.), which included working, parenting and going to school.

As I have grown older, I find myself nodding off at odd moments—especially during my plan-time, right after lunch; then, when bedtime rolls around, I’m wide awake or stubbornly fighting sleep.  Why?  No real mystery here.  I like my fantasy world of books, music, writing, art, videos and computer games far more than reality.  Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t give me much time to indulge my fancies.  So I borrow from my personal energy bank to garner time to read, play games, draw and write.

I usually don’t indulge in naps for the simple reason that if I let my biological clock get too confused, I don’t get my absolutely essential five hours a night.  I really function better on six, and getting in seven or eight every now and then is a pretty good plan.  The other reason I usually don’t nap is because I average 45-60 hours of work per week; I teach my regular 7.5 hours per day, I work in the after-school program6-9 hours a week, and I catalog books at a little technical college on the week-ends.  It keeps me off the street and pays the bills, but that means that housework, laundry and so on must happen at some time making my days “off” almost as busy as my work-days.

I’ve learned little tricks—like eating lunch and reading a book at the laudromat, listening to music while I wash dishes, or writing poetry when I’m on door duty.  But this last week challenged even my ability to function on limited snooze time.   Friday, I took a personal day to help my daughter with her final wedding plans.  Saturday was the wedding, and then I drove home—a two hour trip.   I had already been doing the insomnia thing all week before, stayed up late Thursday night, Friday night (getting up early both days), and running like crazy getting stuff done.  Add to that the general stress of having my two older children within shouting distance of each other (they did a lot of shouting growing up), helping manage 6 grandchildren plus other friends, etc.