We are a family of periodic insomniacs. My spouse has the most persistent insomnia -- he has trouble sleeping the majority of nights. My daughter can't sleep every so often, and will stay up watching tv or reading. Even as a toddler she would wake up and play with her toys on the floor in the middle of the night.
I'm a recent convert to insomnia. A few years ago, I started having "power surges", commonly known as hot flashes, in the middle of the night. I also started having heart palpatations that kept me up. Last night was warm for September -- a beautiful night in the high 70s. After tossing and turning for a while while my body temperature and heart rate soared, I moved to the living room and clicked on the tv. Yikes, what a shallow pool to dive into! One hundred channels avaialble, and all I got was late night talk shows and the x-files.
Today, I walk zombie-like through my day, reminescent of living through the Infant Years of parenting. Taking moment by moment, praying that God gives me strength. And He does. He reminds me of the classic prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Sleepless Fact: Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.
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