Four Hours of Sleep in Two Days

I’m regularly up in the evenings till 10:00, sometimes till midnight. Monday night I was at work till after 1:00 a.m. That’s 17 straight hours of work. Then four hours of sleep, and right back to the office.

Granted, my work is not physical, but still, work is work — it ain’t play. Staying up till midnight writing on my Web site, watching a movie, or playing a game is nothing like actually working passed midnight.

At work Monday night, by 8 p.m. I was already feeling that, “Good lord, but it’s late” tiredness that I don’t get at 8 p.m. at home. By 11 p.m. at the office, my mind and body had that trembly feeling. You know, that sensation of quivering even though you aren’t actually, really shaking.

By 1 a.m., I was just ridiculously out of it. My mind was in slow gear, and my vision had that haze that makes everything seem surreal. I got home at almost 2:00, and was in bed asleep by 2:15.

Calfgrit4 came out of the boys’ room 6:00 a.m., 4 hours later, and I got on up and went to the shower. I was back at work by 8:00.

Now, as I’m writing this post, it’s coming up on 9:00 Tuesday — 4 hours of sleep in 39 hours. That little core tremble is back, everything outside my head seems to be moving in fast forward mode, and the air has that screen of haze that makes everything seem unreal, dream-like.

It’s an interesting feeling, actually, this extreme lack of sleep. I don’t get in this situation often (especially not usually because of work), so it’s kind of neat to just sit and experience it for a while. It’s hard to believe I used to could live and work and learn in this condition. A body and mind loses a lot of lifestyle elasticity by 41 years old. At 21, I could game all night and then go to class and got to work without the strung out feeling I now get from just one night’s missed sleep.

But now that I sit here and think about it, I realize there’s a big difference between life then and now: family. Then I could easily make up the lost sleep by just zonking out any ol’ time — right after work, between classes, 11:00 in the morning, 3:00 in the afternoon, etc. I really don’t have that option and luxury now.

I really need to stop writing right now and just go to bed. I have to catch up on this missed sleep somehow — it might take me a week to make up the lost hours.

Bullgrit