Sleeping in Shifts…

Lately I’ve been sleeping in shifts. For example, the other night I slept peacefully and soundly from 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Then I was awake until 4:30 a.m. and slept another two hours until 6:30 a.m. Apparently this is not an uncommon occurrence for people at my stage of life (eligible for senior discount at McDonald’s!). When this first started happening I was not happy about it. After a bit I decided to not be upset, but to use the time to do some things, write, think, research, and read among them. We spent last night in a motel room in Palm Desert. With three of us in the room my "use the time" program didn’t work very well :). So, while my breaks were shorter, I used the time to lay in the dark and think. I don’t like that so much. We were asleep early, after all a New Year’s party can set you up for a good night’s sleep the next night. I had about 5 hours of sleep before I woke up the first time. Then I got about another two hours of sleep before I got out of bed, quietly took a bath and headed to the lobby for the computer. I have a number of acquaintances who use various sleep aids, from valarian root to ambien to smooth out their sleeping cycles. When it seemed like I wasn’t sleeping at all about eleven years ago I did take Ambien for about five months. It was good for five hours of sleep per night and some amazingly vivid dreams. When I was a young man a combination of procrastination and adrenaline would cause me to pull an all-nighter at least once a week for a number of years. I was publishing a weekly newspaper and on publication day I did a stint that concluded with the delivery of the newspaper door to door in our target community. I would usually catch a nap while the paper was being printed. A favorite spot was underneath the desk on the floor of my home office! I’m redeeming my awake time in the night season. I am also praying that God will begin to give me dreams in the night pointing me in his direction for my life in the coming year. Either way, I have decided to be "happy" about my current "condition."