Dreams, they complement my life

STIPIMM: “Destination Moon,” by They Might Be Giants

Something strange has been happening to me the past week or two. It started gradually, and now it’s developed into what is quickly becoming a habit. I am waking up on my own at the crack of dawn. My alarm clock hasn’t gone off once this week, because I’ve woken up before it was time.

I have long been a proud denizen of the night, fighting the despised urge to sleep in an effort to pack more hours into the day. Granted, I made up for that time sleeping in until noon, but I could just not bring myself to put an end to a day without getting some extra hours of darkness in.

And now, I go to bed between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., often staying awake to talk to Bridget until around 11:30 or midnight. Seven hours later, I’m rousing. Ordinarily, I would look at the clock and roll back over, but I’m not quite tired enough to back to sleep. What an odd feeling it is.

I very excited about the prospect of having a normal sleep cycle. I’ve tried numerous times in the past to fight my urge to stay up late in order to try to follow the natural rhythms of the sun, but there was too much standing in my way. Now, the stars have aligned and all the obstacles are out of the way:

1) Caffeine. I gave it up after Jan. 1 of this year. I never drank coffee, so it wasn’t as though I was blowing my wad at Starbucks or anything, but I was definitely addicted to caffeinated soda. It took a lot of willpower and tolerance of two weeks of headaches to get through it, but I did.

2) I got a day job. I’ve had plenty of day jobs before and I still had the same problems with sleep, but with caffeine out of the way, being forced to get up early just put me into that cycle and kept me there.

3) My wife is a light sleeper. This is actually key, because without the emotional incentive to get up, I probably would have kept trying to sleep in. But when your beloved starts kicking you because you’ve hit snooze twice, waking her up three times, you know something’s going to have to change.

4) I switched the time I took my medication. This was the last piece that had to fall in place, although I didn’t realize it until last week. I have a medication that I have to take every day, and usually I’d been taking it every morning. Well, maybe I should have paid attention to the warning on the label that said that the drug might cause drowsiness. Hmm, maybe I should take it at night. And so I started taking it before going to bed. And the rest is history.

The next test for my new sleep cycle will be when my seasonal job at H&R Block ends for the year, which will be in a couple of months. I hope I can keep it up; it feels good to wake up with the sun.