Morning Fatigue

It is rare these days for me to wake up fatigued and stumbling, waiting some burst of energy to wake me up after I'm woken up.

I remember those days in elementary school, middle school, high school, college, my son's early infancy.

Then we lived in Central Time Zone for a year - and something clicked. I was actually WAKING up, withOUT an alarm clock, every morning and still getting to my son's school on time to work the mornings then to my training center in the afternoons. Something about that time zone was so helpful. Or maybe it is was because we were so far north - the days and nights were much more extreme. I don't know, but it was nice.

So I decided to go without alarm clocks.

I can't explain it but for the most part I can wake up timely, not rush around but BE awake.

I don't need make-up to hide the bags under the eyes and I am mostly well-refreshed.

If I have to be up by a particular time that I don't think I'll manage, I set the alarm on my phone. Thus, alarms happen rare enough I actually wake to them (I stopped waking to them for a LONG time).

Well, a couple of Saturdays back I'd been up too late the night before working and had to be up early. For tae-kwon-do tournament no less - all the noise, all the driving in the early morning winter air. Sigh. I said to myself, "I don't have to do this again for a while."

So last night I stayed up late - got a second and third wind and really slammed through some intense, detailed projects. I am SO RELIEVED to have these projects out of the way! I have SO MUCH ELSE to catch up on! I thought for sure i'd sleep until 10:30 since I was going to bed at 4:30 after having been awake all day and most of the night.

I woke up at 7:30 and could NOT get back to sleep.

I am awake. But I am unproductive. I am bleary-eyed. I have bags under my eyes. I can't function, yet I can't go to sleep.

So I pray. I pray for sleep to overtake me. As I feel that familiar wave of energy seep into me that I remember so well from my school days. I hated it then. I hate it now. This being SO tired and waking up after waking up. It's not proper.

But neither is staying up until 4:30! Which will be a repeat tonight, if I don't fall asleep in the middle: THE HOBBIT comes out tonight and my son has been saving up money for a year. So despite our current financial straits, we are treating his godfather to a midnight showing.

I sense an afternoon nap coming on!