Monday, November 9, 2009

Ink on the Face: Falling Asleep Unexpectedly

When I woke up this morning, I had weird black smears on my face. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the pages of my book had become superimposed onto my face.

Yeah, I literally fell asleep face-first on a book last night.

To fall asleep suddenly and unplanned and with no angst--I have been fighting epic battles with sleep my entire life, so this was a very odd experience. I'm not going to lie, I'd had Ambien plus migraine medicine and Valium (also for migraine and earlier in the day) so it's not like sleep should have been exactly elusive, but to just crash in the middle of a book, not even remembering it ...

I am fascinated by the nature of sleep. I don't think I've ever fallen asleep without "help" of one kind or another...ever. It wasn't like passing out, either, where the dizziness encircles you tighter and tighter until you drift away on waves of ... Well, whatever. It was--dare I say--what I always thought normal sleeping might be.

Is it me, or is there something magical about sleep?
Well, I'm off to replicate the task (with any luck ;)). Oh, and no Ambien tonight...I'm living dangerously ;)

4 comments:

  1. Wow, you take Ambien on a regular basis. I've heard some scary things from other people who've taken Ambien, mostly when they take it and then HAVE to stay awake because they suddenly have to evacuate the building or change planes or something. Hallucinations mostly. That, and the throat swelling shut. That would bother me. ;-)

    Sleep is nice. It would be nice not to have to sleep, though. Think of how productive we could be.

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  2. Sleep is tough for me as well. My brain is always engaged. If I wake up in the night to go to the bathroom, I cannot open my eyes, if my eyes are open and I wake up more than I am to shuffle to the potty, than I am awake for longer than expected thinking about a ton of stuff.

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  3. Fortunately, I haven't had any trouble with sleeping in my life. Maybe a little with dreaming all the time and waking up a bit tired :-) Curiously enough, I always turn my radio on when I go to sleep, so I would say that has been "help" all this time. Either that or a book, though they do tend to keep me awake, more so if it is a great one.

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  4. I rarely have trouble sleeping, it's getting up in the morning that's the problem.

    I do find that reading in bed is a good way to get to sleep. Especially reading a dull book, or a PC manual.

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