Late last month, I had to go to a work conference, the organization’s annual meeting. And I was looking forward to it, for a number of reasons. One was that I figured I’d sleep better. I’d been having trouble sleeping in our bedroom because some noisy creature seemed to be trapped somewhere between the ceiling of the attic and the roof. But it SOUNDS as though it were happening right in our room! The ceiling fan muffles the sound somewhat, but not adequately for my needs.
It’s not a constant noise. It seems to take place somewhere between midnight and 2 a.m. And I never hear it in the morning, so eventually, it stops. But it’s still distracting.
We’ve taken to sleeping in the guest room, where we can’t hear it at all, but the bed is smaller, my wife squeezes me to the edge of the mattress, and I’m not sleeping well there either.
First night in the hotel: sleep about 3.5 hours, and never get back to sleep, though I tried desperately. OK, it’s my first night in a different bed. Second night in the hotel: sleep about 3.5 hours and can’t return to sleep. Third night: ditto. I am running on fumes. I go home and have the best sleep I had had in a long time. Absence, and all that.
I’m really trying to avoid either stimulants or sleeping pills, although I felt that I NEEDED a Diet Coke after the third night on the road, especially since that was the morning we were doing the presentation! Thank goodness my role was minimal and I could stand there pretending I was awake.
What’s helped since I got back, unfortunately, are the painkillers, which I can take four times a day but opted for just before bed, and not every night, only the evenings when it’s REALLY WARM.
