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 ;)

Amicable Ambien

I have a funny Ambien story for you.

My lifelong insomnia is no great secret, but I have not been as outspoken about the little pill that has curbed (if not cured) this issue for me. Ambien, it's your moment to shine (although I still question the wisdom of giving you out to recovering addicts and alcoholics ... guess it's a lesser evil thing).

But anyway ...

I've gone through all the sleep stuff--Ambien, Lunesta, Advil PM, and various other things that--ahem--I might or might not have had a prescription for. **Cough**

The thing that's funny is, my doctor prescribed the 12.5 dose of Ambien CR some time ago. It worked better than most for me, although I still had a fair number of insomnia-fraught nights.

So I switched medical practices, and naturally I didn't write down the medications I was currently taking to bring to my physical. Most of what I take was pretty easy to figure out in terms of dosage, but we really struggled with the Ambien (I knew it was the CR--a double whammy that knocks you out quickly then slowly releases lighter medication to keep you asleep--but I hadn't a clue as to the dosage).

I really like my doctor. She said, "We'll start with the 6.25 dosage. If that doesn't work, we'll go to the 12.5."

Remember how I said this was a funny story? What's funny is, the 6.25 works a hundred times better than the 12.5. Any logic to that? I'm not sure--just grateful :)

Hopefully this makes sense--1) I've typed the whole thing on my BlackBerry and 2) I took my Ambien a few minutes before I started typing.

'Night :)