Sleep — that most elusive of creatures … as newborns we crave and successfully find it for almost 20 hours of every day! But it’s not long until the fight begins…
As toddlers, we are never tired, and especially not when we are overtired! We will fight, fight, fight to the bitter end to avoid our naps and bedtimes, and when we wake up from said naps, we are often very cranky.
As toddlers, we are never tired, and especially not when we are overtired! We will fight, fight, fight to the bitter end to avoid our naps and bedtimes, and when we wake up from said naps, we are often very cranky.
Soon come the teenage years, and we continue to fight our bedtimes, as our rewired adolescent brains convince us that staying up past midnight is the best way for survival…. And indeed, this approach works well — until the 7:00 A.M. alarm clock rings, signaling the evolution of our lives beyond neanderthal times, much to the chagrin of our not-yet-evolved brains, which now find themselves very tired. Relief comes only on the weekends, when our teenage brains can rest and rest and rest… Sometimes until two or three or even four P.M.!
And then the cycle begins again.
And then the cycle begins again.
Another change arrives with adulthood, and our slow desire to move our bedtime a little earlier, especially when we work and jobs that require an early morning wake up. Yet we continue to fight sleep, sometimes because night is the only time we truly have to ourselves, to rest, to relax, to pursue our own interests from behind the screens of our phones and laptops… as we travel through adulthood, many of us find that our struggles with stress and anxiety travel along with us, like oversized luggage that the airline won’t allow you to check! These painfully large packages join us in bed, even if we go to bed “early enough” and “at a reasonable hour”. Now it is the baggage that is fighting asleep on our behalf; all we need to do is lie there with our eyes or closed, ruminating, waiting for night to end so that we can splash cold water on our faces, put on our appropriate attire, and paste on a smile to Face the world after yet another sleepless night.
As we continue to age, we may consolidate some of our baggage into smaller, more manageable sleep packages that take up less room on the bed with us; unfortunately, that usually doesn’t happen until a special kind of later adulthood kicks in, at least for women. Perimenopause. This new and unwelcome visitor often brings with it night sweats and other sleep disturbances. Once again, sleep eludes us, even if we no longer have to wake up early for work or other commitments. Sigh.
As we continue to age, we may consolidate some of our baggage into smaller, more manageable sleep packages that take up less room on the bed with us; unfortunately, that usually doesn’t happen until a special kind of later adulthood kicks in, at least for women. Perimenopause. This new and unwelcome visitor often brings with it night sweats and other sleep disturbances. Once again, sleep eludes us, even if we no longer have to wake up early for work or other commitments. Sigh.
In our quest for sleep, some begin experimenting with “remedies“ — herbal options, including naturopathic suggestions or cannabis related products. Or, if we’ve had it and are ready to fight big, something a little stronger, requiring a prescription from a licensed doctor. (Of course, we’ve exhausted all other options first: plenty of exercise, good bedtime routines and sleep hygiene generally, blah blah blah.)
If we are lucky as we proceed through our lifelong quest for sleep, we find elusive pockets of this treasure in unusual places: 20 minutes on a beach chair while on vacation at all-inclusive resort, before someone comes up and offers you a drink, a necklace, a sun hat or some other tchotchkes being sold by one of the many beach vendors who are also not sleeping. Of 15 minutes glorious, drifting, deepening sleep on an airplane when you were lucky enough to get a row to yourself, before turbulence hits, and the flight attendant gently but firmly wakes you up to insist you buckle your seatbelt “and then you can go back to sleep“ (which of course you, now safely buckled in and wide awake, never do!!) Sometimes, you might — like me — even have sleep “stations” opportunistic places set up strategically around your home: a cozy couch in the living room room, for example, with a throw, or a reclining chair, or a hammock strung across the porch. Here you can occasionally find up to an hour of uninterrupted, deep and glorious sleep!
Eventually, there comes a time when we close our eyes for the last time, and — without interruptions from flight attendants, spouses, alarm clocks, children, or mental trials and tribulations jerking us awake at the most inopportune times – then we will finally sleep. It will be a most glorious, deeply nourishing sleep. One from which we will never awake.
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