Wednesday, May 16, 2007

To Sleep, Perchance...

Philip Marlowe: Hmm.
General Sternwood: What does that mean?
Philip Marlowe: It means, hmm.
(From "The Big Sleep," Raymond Chandler)

How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads, to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.
(From "Dracula," Bram Stoker)

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.
(From "Macbeth," William Shakespeare)

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book.
~Irish Proverb

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Lately, I seem to feel best when I'm sleeping. This is new. Most of the time, I have a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep, possibly because I often feel like I don't have time to sleep (which is utterly stupid but sometimes I am powerless to combat stupidity). Normally, when I finally do get to sleep, I wake up periodically. If I manage four hours uninterrupted sleep a night, I'm good to go. Right now, however, sleep feels almost like some new-found luxury I'm reveling in. I feel like I'm getting too much -- and yet I can't get enough. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Not guilty; I don't do unnecessary guilt. It does feel strange, though.

I've been taking afternoon naps (and REM sleep in the afternoon is extremely unusual for me), sleeping in on weekends, and I've been in bed before midnight the last several nights. Subconsciously hoping, perhaps, that the sweet oblivion of sleep will help dissipate the rough edges of some recent nastiness that left me feeling pretty icky? Nah; I think that would be too obvious. Floating in the soft, fuzzy cocoon of sleep, there are no worries, no fretting, no anxieties. I'm rarely susceptible to those conditions, but every now and then...

And when I'm sleeping there are ... dreams. They aren't bad ones, either. I can't remember what they are, but if they were bad, they'd wake me up. They don't, which tells me it was good while it lasted.

Sleep is good. Not to be morbid about it, but I suppose it could be practice for the long dirt nap. I don't expect it any time soon, but then sometimes we don't know when it's coming, do we? We'll all take the big, long sleep sooner or later.

I could honest to God put my head down on my desk right now and drift off. I don't know which is worse, this sudden onslaught of pseudo-narcolepsy or the more frequent bouts of insomnia that plague me. I know there's a cause and effect, the law of action and reaction in play. There is surely some way to get both equality and moderation going here. There must be. If only I could get a viable, provable formula worked out...

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
~Dylan Thomas

Anyone feel like taking a gander at today's Words Gone Wild?

becomming
ebing said
apprently
thougths
negatism


An elderly couple in their 80s were about to get married.
She said, I want to keep my house.
He said, That's fine with me.
She said, And I want to keep my Cadillac.
He said, That's fine with me.
She said, And I want to have sex 6 times a week.
He said, That's fine with me. Put me down for Fridays.


You Are Not Destined to Rule the World

You are destined for something else...
Like inventing a new type of cupcake.
You just don't have the stomach for brutality.
But watch out - because many people do!

22 comments:

leelee said...

you make me smile every day, thank you for that Serena.

I am in a good sleep pattern myself these days and I am totally enjoying it because....good sleep doesn't seem to come round often enough for me anymore..so when it comes...I bask in it.

I wonder where the moon or the planets are aligned, that usually has something to do with it for me.

Have a good one :-)

Unknown said...

COuld it be menopause? Menapause? However it is spelled? As women age they tend to have their sleep disrupted. Napping in the afternoon is good, but getting into REM while you nap is not. A nap should be twenty minutes or so. Any longer and you will ruin your sleep for that night. Perhaps the naps are why you are not sleeping through the night? Avoid caffine and stressful activities at least four hours before bed.

Serena said...

Exactly, Leelee. When you can get it, you bask in it. I'm not sure what the planetary alignment is right now, except that I think it must be pretty messed up.:)

My dear darling Kan, I am not aging. I am getting BETTER. See this? I'm sticking my tongue out at you! Seriously, the current afternoon sleep isn't disrupting night sleep at all. When I'm having the interrupted sleep patterns, I'm generally not catching an afternoon nap. Right now, it seems like all I want is sleep, whenever and wherever I can get it.

rkfinnell said...

***You Are Destined to Rule the World***


You have the makings of a very evil dictator...
Which is both kind of cool and kind of scary!
Will you rule the world? Maybe. Maybe not.
But at least you know that you could.

I'm not sure why it came out this way. Maybe I should have said people were mindless sheep.

Signed,
The Royal Evil Gruesome Queen
(Please address me as such or off with your head!)
LOL

Unknown said...

I mean....I was only trying to say...I thought I was....I am going to go now.

Serena said...

I said the mindless sheep thing, too, Roxan. And yet, somehow I managed to fool the stupid thing. LOL.

Come back here, Kan. You're getting ... older. You can't be running from the sharp tongues of elderly ladies.:)

Signed,
HRH Queen Crone

rkfinnell said...

But I didn't call anyone a sheep. LOL

G-Man said...

Serena Joy, I think that the older you get, the less sleep you require.
Thomas Edison once said, " If you sleep for more than 4 hours, you are wasting the day"!
BTW....Great Joke!!
( Big Smile )

Anonymous said...

Serena, you are like a good bottle of wine.

Corn Dog said...

THe correct term is mean-o-pause, in case anyone is wondering or wandering and it doesn't have anything to do with sleeping. It has more to do with killing Him if he opens his mouth one more time.

The best sleep is on the BART (train). Any commuter will tell you.

I hate sleep cycles. I wish I could figure them out. The only one I can figure out is the BART's and that is fall asleep on the BART and there is no sleep finer. My husband drinks expresso before bed and snores like a chain saw. If I really can't sleep I go jog 3 miles and then I'm out like a light. Thank God we live in a house and not an apartment so no one complains about the treadmill spinning sometimes at 2am.

I just passed through a great sleep cycle but I think it was drug induced from the new anti-seizure drugs. Now they are out of my system I am back to insomnia. Drat. Bully hocky. Mouse Poopy.

Anonymous said...

CD, Bully hocky. Mouse Poopy. That has to be a classic.

Serena said...

But I didn't call anyone a sheep

I did. And I will again.:)

I think you're right, g-man. I hope I'm soon back to my normal pattern of not needing so much. Glad you liked the joke, but then I knew you would.

Why, thank you, Steve. It's a smart man indeed who doesn't compare me to an ancient flask of vinegar.

You get those "Kill!" urges, too, CD? LOL. You can sleep on the BART? I can't sleep on anything that moves. Oh, except a boat. I love sleeping on boats. I'm not talking about the Crazed Norwegian F**ks, though. Ditto Steve's remarks re bully hockey and mouse poopey. I learn something from you every day.

tfg said...

I absolutely adore sleep. I rarely get enough of it, but 8 hours of sleep is like a Christmas present.

Serena said...

I've been averaging about 6 on week nights lately, which seems like a present, which I pretty much adore.

Scary Monster said...

seems like me be reading a few posts about sleep, or the lack of it these days. Me rarely gets a full nights sleep me brain be whirringg and clicking and waking me up. On the other hand the Vixen can get into the Guinness book for sleeping. Last Sun. she slept for 17 hours straight and we didn't even go out drinking the night before.

Me figures that Kanrei would provide some good advice while punctuating it with some blatent frankness.
You were nice, I would have stuck something different out at him.

STOMP.

Serena said...

Ask the Vixen what her secret is, Scary. I'm sleeping way more than usual, but 17 hours is phenomenal.

Don't worry, Kan will get me back. We understand each other.:)

Hale McKay said...

As long as I get about six hours of sleep I'm usually at my best. I can get by with four one day, but have to make up for the next.

If I get more than six too often I actually feel out of sorts.

Sorry - drawing a blank on the "Words Gone Wild."

Serena said...

I feel crappy when I sleep too much, too, Mike. That probably explains why I'm not feeling so creative lately. My God, I was just longing to crawl in bed around 9:00 tonight. That is pathetic.

Camille Alexa said...

thougths
what those with heavy lisps put on their Barbecue: Barbecue thoughs.

Lee said...

Lately, Serena, you have been far too hard upon yourself. Lighten up...you are doing just fine...better than a lot of folk are. And...you still have your sense of humour! ;)

Serena said...

ROTFL, Camille. I love it.:)

I know, Lee, I do come down hard on myself sometimes. I have to keep myself in line.:)

Liz Hinds said...

Kanrei is a brave man to suggest menopause to any woman!!

I love my sleep; I sleep well. Sleeping is probably what I do best in the whole world. But I'm still really tired at the moment. I think I feel a lot like you sound. I've had a rotten cold that is hanging on and now getting worse again! I can't believe it! And I'm generally feeling grugh. If you know what I mean. Grugh about writing, grugh about life, just grugh!