The Sound of Silence

As we wind down the first trimester Tiffany is beginning to have trouble sleeping. That, of course, means I am having trouble sleeping. Apparently her mind starts to race right after she lays down keeping her from falling asleep. Two nights ago she actually woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall asleep again for an hour and a half.

Not surprisingly, she wanted to go to bed early last night. Most nights we are in bed, with the lights off by 10. I get up during the week shortly after 5 a.m. and Tiffany sometime thereafter, usually 6, so we usually get 7 solid hours. Last night we were in bed by 9:30, so not drastically early for us, but I can’t imagine too many adults going to be bed much sooner. As I’m starting to drift to sleep, her arm hits me and I hear “It’s happening again.”

Her mind was racing and when I asked about what, she just said that it was nothing important. I use to have this problem frequently when I worked for the Texans, trying to organize the next day in my head before I could really relax and fall asleep. So I knew what she was talking about, but I didn’t really understand why she couldn’t pinpoint what she was thinking about. A solution was found pretty fast. We both have alarm clocks (since we get up at different times) and both have a “soundspa” option. I’ve never used it, but last night Tiffany turned on “waterfall” and it helped. I woke up when it shut off, but I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep. I also woke up at 4:30 when Tiffany got up to use the bathroom. I got back to sleep for 20 more minutes, but there really is nothing worse than waking up so close to the time you’re supposed to and know that you will be waking up again shortly.

That’s really one of the worst aspects of getting older, you rarely get to sleep through the night. Maybe I would if I wasn’t sharing a bed with someone, but I don’t think it’s fare to blame Tiffany...at least completely. Even on a weekend I can sometimes make it until 8 before I get up for good, but that’s pretty rare and I’ve usually been up at 6 already. I’m usually up shortly after 7 on the weekend, but as I like to tell people, that’s 2 hours later than normal. Hopefully we both get enough sleep in the next few months as I’m sure that’s going to change in the future.