12.23.2008

Sleepytime

My body is still not on this whole vacation thing. Again, as evidenced by my 5:12 a.m. wake up time this morning. I think the latest I've stayed in bed these last 4 days has been 7 a.m. Which technically is sleeping in, considering I normally get up between 5 and 5:30. But still.... I long for the days when I slept so long my mother would come in to check on me just to make sure I was still alive. (Which would inevitably wake me up, because of the whole introducing-another-into-the-sleeping-environment-fucks-things-up-for-the-sleeper thing.)

Stupid internal clock.

I read in a magazine once that in order to find your own circadian rhythms, when you have about a week or so with no commitments, you should try falling asleep when you're tired and then waking up when you feel refreshed. This will allow you to find out 1. How much sleep your body truly needs, and 2. What hours your body functions optimally.

Back when I was still in college, and I had a summer to do whatever the fuck I pleased, I tried this. And was sorely disappointed. Ya see, first, I found that my body needs roughly 12 hours of sleep. However, being a college student, a volunteer, a worker, a grad student, an intern, a counselor, a wife, an ex-wife, a doggie mom, a friend, a daughter, a cousin, a niece does not allow for sleeping half the day away. So I jokingly say that when it comes to sleep, I need 12, I'd like 8, but I get 6.

Boo.

Another cause for disappointment was the hours in which I naturally fell into these 12 hours of sleep. I felt tired around 3 a.m. and felt naturally refreshed at 3 p.m.

Now I don't know about you and your world, but my world (even when I lived in a minorly major city) is not very accommodating to being awake between 3 p.m. and 3 a.m. And I'm not talking about finding a place to eat, or grocery shopping, or getting a drink, or going dancing. I'm talking about running errands and going to the local branch of the public library and making it to the DMV before closing and shit like that. Not to mention that currently, I live in a town that has 2 grocery stores and one sit down restaurant (not to be a snob, but it's a fucking Denny's) that you can access 24/7. And. That's. It.

Additionally, I don't know if you've noticed...but school's usually out by 3 p.m. Hell, the school I work at is out at 2:10 p.m.

Hmmm...maybe I need to find a position as an evening college advisor. Or maybe my career as a stay-at-home blogger will take off. Or I could work on the professional student thing, despite my hatred for evening classes.

Maybe I can make this 3 p.m.-3 a.m. thing work...

2 comments:

Elaine said...

You could always be a stripper. The hours would work nicely. HAHAHA

Kristen said...

I used to work with someone who was a stripper. She made bank! Hmmm...let me rethink my career goals.