Sleep Deprived

I just tried to wash away the smeared make-up racoon eyes that I saw in the mirror ... only to realize that those dark circles weren't make-up, just my face.

I envy people like my husband who fall asleep easily and stay that way. I used to be one of those people. I'm not even sure when it changed, but now I am definitely not one of those easy-sleepers.

Unless it's during the day when I should be getting other things accomplished, of course. For some reason I seem to have no trouble falling asleep when the kids are running around making noise, my husband is talking to me, or I'm literally in the middle of doing something on my computer or tablet. During those moments I can easily drift off to sleep for a happy nap.

But put me in a comfortable, quiet, peaceful room at night ... and sleep just won't come. I can lay there for hours at a time, caught in that half-aware stage between sleep and waking. Too close to sleep to accomplish anything productive. Too close to awake to get any rest. Every tiny noise grabs my attention and yanks me out of sleep.

The rasping of the cat's tongue as he washes his face seems like a tiny, almost imperceptible noise until I'm trying to sleep - but now it's a ceaseless, horribly annoying scratching sound that just goes on and on and on.

The heat kicks on and wakes me up. And then it goes off, which wakes me up again. My son rolls over in bed three rooms away and bangs his foot into the wall - and it wakes me up again. One tiny thing after another that all add up to another night without sleep.

Well, without much sleep. I shouldn't exaggerate after all. (I'll save that for the novels.) I get a solid two to two and a half hours of sleep per night. Plenty - right?

But to look on the bright side ... I can get a lot of story plotting while I'm drifting in that waking/sleeping cycle all night long. That's good news for the next book!