Sleep Walk

I don’t sleep as well as I used to.

When I was younger, before I was charged with the care of anyone, I slept very well. As my family can attest, I could sleep through almost anything.

When I was 13, I went on a trip to Africa. One of the places we stayed was in Kenya, at a place called Treetops. It’s this very nice hotel built in and around this huge tree overlooking a watering hole. The idea being that you get a nice comfortable place to hang out until the animals come to drink, without you disturbing anything and making them not want to come. I cannot attest to the accuracy of this, but, I’m told that in the night, if any animals are seen, they come wake you up to go see them. I, of course, did not here any such thing, being such a sound sleeper. But, my traveling partner said she did and that I would not wake up to go see the elephants or rhinos or whatever it was that was drinking in the dark that night.

Another time the Olympic Torch was going to be exchanged at the top of our driveway. I know, crazy, right? I’m not sure why. But, I have to assume it was a place to pull off the road close to the allotted distance for the runners. Unfortunately, it was very early in the morning. Have I mentioned before that I hate mornings? It was at 5 or 6, which doesn’t seem so bad now. But, as a kid in the summer, I was regularly sleeping until 10 or 11:00. Five almost seemed like the night before. So, I almost didn’t get to see this amazing thing because they almost couldn’t get me up. Of course, what I remember is that the torch was heavy and it was early. Although, there are some pictures somewhere to prove that it did happen.

The only exceptions to that that I can remember were once or twice in my late teens/early twenties when I was watching someone’s baby. If I’m asleep and it’s my job to wake up to take care of someone, I will. At least, that’s been the case so far.

Now that I’m grown, and charged with the care of my own family, I wake at small noises that might be someone having a bad dream or falling. My husband uses a wheelchair, but he used to fall for no reason except something twitching or moving in his back. He also would sleep-walk. So, I became attuned to listen for him. I think any mom can tell you that they are more likely to wake since having children. Add, those things together with normal aches and pains and it means not as much sleep as when I was a carefree youth.

But, today I woke up three or four times in the night and kept thinking I should write about not being able to sleep. So, here we are, talking about my sleep habits.