Sleep is SOOOO overrated

LoveMyTanker asks the question, Do you sleep while they are gone?

Pshaw...sleep is SOOOOOO overrated. At least, that is what I keep telling myself. I am a night owl by nature. I blame my mother. She is too. I got her genes on this one. Damn her. MacGyver is anything BUT a night owl. He's in bed by 11pm. Usually it's closer to 10pm. Granted he has to wake up at o'dark thirty but still, he's NOT a night owl. Me? I'm more than willing to stay up until 2am if left to my own devices.

Unfortunately, the children took after their father. While I am content to sleep until 9 or even 10am on a regular day, they are up with the sun. I believe ArmyWifeToddlerMom calls them "Farmer's Hours". When MacGyver is home, I tend to go to bed when he does. Just makes life easier. But now that he's gone, I tend to stick to my own hours. Unfortunately, my children also stick to theirs.

Which means that, for the past 3-4 months I have been averaging less than 6 hours of sleep per night. Not a good thing. It has finally caught up with me and I am sick as a dog. Think I'll learn? Nope. As soon as I'm feeling better, I'll be up past midnight again.

As for falling asleep, I am fortunate in that rarely does my life or what is going on in it affect my ability to fall asleep. Even during the most stressful times in my life, I have usually been able to fall asleep pretty easily and sleep well through the night. When MacGyver first left, I got some of the best sleep I had had in a LONG time. Maybe because I had slept so horribly in the days leading up to the deployment? Or because I finally was able to spread out like I prefer and didn't have to fight anyone for the blanket or the pillow? Who knows? I am greatful that I am able to sleep.

I do, however, sleep with things that remind me of him. Currently it's his flight suit. I used it to dress up for Halloween and realized that it still smelled of him so it is now in bed with me. Looks a little odd lying there but at least I haven't stuffed it to make it really look life-like. THAT would be odd. At first, I slept with his pillow but eventually that lost it's smell. Eventually the flight suit will too. But then he'll be home for R&R and I can save up a few things to sleep with when he leaves.

Silly, I know but you do what you have to do, right? Whatever works. Now I'm off to take a nap!

Pau.

- hfs

Comments

[LAW]

nap.... second best three letter word in the language...

I love to stay up, but have to get up before dawn and commute... I used to have trouble getting to sleep and staying there... but I am so sleep deprived that I am able to sleep anywhere, including on the bus, and sometimes at the desk! and when he gets home on R&R, none of his shirts will get washed! All the ones I had to hold onto to have lost the scent. I have three - four months left after he leaves after R&R and want to make sure I don't run out again.

nap... sigh.

LAW

[dizzylizzie]

sunday, i accidentally washed hubbys shirt he left behind.
:(
it got mixed in with the linens when i changed the sheets and when i pulled it out the dryer, i about flipped. oh and we're working on week 10 that i still havent been able to wash his pillow cases. its so gross, i know. but especially now, one sniff and i just cant bring myself to wash them.

i emailed him and asked him to mail another post haste!

[catwin]

sleep is so much better when I hear from my boyfriend. If 2 weeks + go by then it gets harder and harder to get some good sleep and the bad dreams come. but even just getting a quick BUZZ on IM and I am sleeping good! and today the internet goblins were out so we had a '2-hour'(i checked the mins, nuts i know) IM session that went on for 7 hours. I laid down for a 1hour nap and woke up 4hours later! Good thing i wasn't late picking up the kid! now I can't go to sleep.

[Deltasierra]

Heh, I've learned to sleep in the middle of the bed - but so has my husband, apparently. Some of the *worst* sleep I've gotten has been when Hubby was home from R&R! Since he had spent so much time in 100+ degree heat, our 70+ degree weather was too cold, so he shut the window before bed. I about died of heat stroke in the night, lying between him and the cat. He took over the middle of the bed, and kept cuddling up to me to keep warm. Talk about your role reversals! *He* used to be the heat stroke victim trying to get away from *me*! :D

He's a deep sleeper, although that has changed a little now that he's been out in the field. However, he's *always* thrashed around in the middle of the night to get comfortable. Now he's more restless than before. I keep getting elbowed in the face. We're either going to have to get a king-sized bed when he gets home, or I'm going to have to get more aggressive about nighttime real estate. :)

[HomefrontSix]

Yeah - MacGyver is a thrasher as well. He's nailed me a couple of times in the past with the elbow. Not looking forward to that part of R&R. I'm usually the cold one but I can't stand to not have at least 1 window open all the time (no matter the temperature outside) so we'll see how that goes. It's going to be interesting...

[Deltasierra]

Ironically, I couldn't sleep last night till 2am. Hubby's gone off on his last op of his deployment, no amenities (including no mail). Usually, this means I might get a phone call, but we'll see. It should last into December.

I've gotten kind of used to the lack of communication, but I guess the prospect affected me last night. It's especially poignant if we've been able to chat at all over Gmail, which we were able to yesterday. (By the way, ladies, Gmail has been a GODSEND this deployment. You don't have to have a chat client installed on any computer - as long as he's logged into Gmail (http://www.gmail.com), you can chat over their little client. I'm ever so happy we discovered that!)

It's weird - my brain wasn't active, or anything. I just didn't *care* enough to fall asleep. I had to read a boring book to finally zonk out. :)

[Deltasierra]

Okay, the link messed up in the last comment.

http://www.gmail.com

You need invitations to join. I have a ton of them, so if you want one, email me at deltasierra [at] gmail [dot] com.

I'm not making any money off this - just passing on a useful little tool to people who don't have the luxury of their own computers or internet connections with a choice of chat clients.

[Armygirlfriend]

About the sleeping-- or lack thereof..........I haven't had a decent night's sleep in months! So don't feel bad, it's not just you, there are at least the two of us!!!! I get sucked in to pointless TV late at night while trying not to watch the news and the clock keeps ticking away and before I know it I find myself thinking, "If I shut the TV off now and fall asleep immediately I can still get 5 hours before work." Despite how exhausted I might be, I stare blankly at the boob-tube. As oone as I try to turn in I usually realise that I can't remember if I put the chain on the door, so I have to go check that, and then I check the oven, and then I usually stop along the way to clean or tidy something. By the time I am back in bed I am wide awake, intent on listening to and analyzing every sound I hear and waiting for a face to appear in the window by our bed that is usually open (due forced steam heat) and is adjacent to the fire escape (city apartment living). In true fashion to my 'nutty' nature I have actually stayed up even later planning routes of egress and attack measures. Not to mention the fact that when I come home from work or visiting family I must immediately turn on all of the lights and check all the rooms and closets in our modest apartment for lingering burglars! And I think I've turned into a bitter old hag in his absence!!! The college kids next door would not have bothered me before but I almost enjoy yelling at them to shut up when they are on the street after midnight being loud and obnoxious when it is not them, but in fact myself who is keeping me up!!! The real pain in the butt of it all is that when he came home on leave I couldn't break some of these habits!!! Sure I slept like a baby (and it is the smell of him next to me, love the t-shirt idea to replace a faded pillow scent), but God forbid I did not latch and chain that door which bothered him because he took it personally!!! Am I going too far?!?! Any recommendations? (*forgive any spelling errors, I'm not an idiot, just a sleep-deprived Army girlfriend*)