Sweet, sweet sleep

[indigo_rose99]

I do not know how other people do it.  Left to myself, my body likes 8-10 hours of sleep every night.  I can function for up to three nights on 6 hours sleep.  For every subsequent day, however, my thinking speed decreases significantly from the previous day.  I have trouble focusing on faces and thoughts.  Basically, on the fourth day I have serious trouble doing anything like my job.

Yesterday was the fourth day.  

Yesterday evening as my taxi drove me back to my hotel, I looked around at the lovely ~70F weather... People clogged the sidewalks, obviously mostly enjoying simply being outside in the lovely green spring.

I could have gone outside and enjoyed the weather.  One of my Danish students had promised to buy me a beer (no, I still don't drink them, but I figured I could talk him into something else at the last second) after work, as we are both in Warsaw.

Instead, there was a gentle THUD as I hit my hotel bed at about 6pm last night.  I woke up this morning to my alarm clock.  Ten hours.

Ah, this is what it feels like to almost be human without caffeine...

Comments

[fraeuleinchen.livejournal.com]

I would say 'sounds like you made a good choice', but it seems it wasn't so much a choice as your body making an, um, executive decision! Yay you. I am one of those people who needs less sleep than the average bear, usually get less than six hours on so-called schoolnights... but I do catch up a bit on days when I'm not working.

[sclatter.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I totally used to be the same way. Really, I felt so stupid without eight hours of sleep, I hated it. Then I gave birth. ;-) At my six week post-partum visit the midwife asked me about how much sleep I was getting a night. I thought about it, and told her as truthfully as possible, about five hours. Which had been pretty consistent since the baby was born. The amazing thing is, I felt surprisingly good. Not at my absolute sharpest, but not the walking zombie feeling I would have expected. I guess the body adapts when it really has to! :-)

But I'm totally grateful that those days are behind us. Now Nate goes down around 8 pm, so I can get some laundry done and still get a good night's sleep. He still eats a couple of times during the night usually but it's gotten so I hardly have to wake up for that!

Anyway, I hope you are able to repay your sleep debt and enjoy your trip a little!

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

If I am this bad at four nights, I do not want to think about my zombie status at six weeks! Reason number...54? 72? for not having a child. I know, I know, you are saying that either you get a cool biological drug to keep you functioning or you just adjust. Still not willing to go through with it.

I will admire your fortitude from a safe distance. *admire, admire*

[sclatter.livejournal.com]

LOL, nothing to admire, I assure you. Just evolution doing its job! I think you are totally right on both the cool biological drug and the adaptation. I was seriously high on some endorphin rush after the birth, and that just segued into the New World Order. ;-)