The science of sleep...

For the past few weeks, I have been experiencing trouble sleeping. At first, I blamed the drinking I was doing before bed and while alcohol has a tendency to make me extremely sleepy, it does not make for a restful night of slumber. Waking up abruptly to an annoying alarm clock doesn't help matters, either.

A week ago, I decided to stop drinking(not because I had some great epiphany) in general, but I was surprised at the results. I went to bed every night, wired. My heart would race as I stared at the ceiling, and an hour later I would eventually succumb to boredom and fall asleep. But again, my restless night's sleep ended shorter than I would have liked, and to the sound of the annoying alarm clock.

Before the time change, I would wake up about an hour before the alarm clock, and this was preferrable. I enjoy, as I'm sure others might, waking up on my own and still having plenty of time to prepare for the day.

Last night, I took a few Tylenol PM's which made me extremely drowsy, but a littler earlier than I intended. I didn't care. I needed sleep. I rolled into bed around 8:30pm, put Solaris in the DVD player, and fell alseep to the soothing sounds of this magnificent movie and it's equally brilliant soundtrack. Seamless transition into the land of ZzZzZz's.

BEEP BEEP BEEP is what I heard next. I tossed and turned a few times that night which gave me some reference that time was not passing by so fast, but still the alarm came sooner than I expected, and sooner than I wished.

But something was different. I have more energy today, and while my mind might not be refreshed, my body certainly is. Sometimes you have to do things that your mind doesn't understand. The result is that, while your mind is scratching itself on the head, your body is thanking you in the end.

I feel refreshed today. Financially, this is a bad time for me(and a lot of others), but I don't care about all that. With my body taken care of for the moment, my mind is following suit and my outlook on things is a bit brighter.

Sleep is good. Our bodies and minds need it. And I am not young enough to go without it anymore.