The nights are the longest - but isn't that always true? It's those long hours when there's no one to talk to, nothing on TV, no real distractions to help us make the time go. Aches and pains are exaggerated in the nighttime!
The various "stages" we go through in life fascinate me. When I was a child the nights went quickly and were filled with nothing but sleep. If I woke from a bad dream or in some way needing reassurance I remember finding it easily by climbing into bed with my parents and drifting quickly back to dream land. The teens years are of course filled with all kinds of angst but I don't remember too many sleepless nights unless they were connected with unrequited love (the only kind I ever knew!) or concern over some big test the following day.
Then there were those years parenting little ones when we were lucky if a week went by without at least one child showing up at our bedside. When you have four children its just part of life that someone is going to have a nightmare or get sick or lonely or whatever and you pretty much adjust to interrupted sleep for years on end. Then as they get older the real sleep deprivation begins as you lie there at night waiting for the back door to open and close, signaling they're home safely. Or worrying about who's on the road or in some other way not "in the nest". I think in general, sleep becomes a real commodity from that point on because life only gets more stressful as we go.
The past few years have been good ones for me in terms of sleeping. Many of the stresses in my recent life are past, like parent's illnesses, and so we are ushering in another phase: our own physical discomforts. I know this particular thing will pass - stitches will heal and swelling will lessen - and in a few weeks I'll be sleeping soundly once again. But middle-age has its challenges and methinks this is only the beginning of mine. Ah life! Here's to it!
The various "stages" we go through in life fascinate me. When I was a child the nights went quickly and were filled with nothing but sleep. If I woke from a bad dream or in some way needing reassurance I remember finding it easily by climbing into bed with my parents and drifting quickly back to dream land. The teens years are of course filled with all kinds of angst but I don't remember too many sleepless nights unless they were connected with unrequited love (the only kind I ever knew!) or concern over some big test the following day.
Then there were those years parenting little ones when we were lucky if a week went by without at least one child showing up at our bedside. When you have four children its just part of life that someone is going to have a nightmare or get sick or lonely or whatever and you pretty much adjust to interrupted sleep for years on end. Then as they get older the real sleep deprivation begins as you lie there at night waiting for the back door to open and close, signaling they're home safely. Or worrying about who's on the road or in some other way not "in the nest". I think in general, sleep becomes a real commodity from that point on because life only gets more stressful as we go.
The past few years have been good ones for me in terms of sleeping. Many of the stresses in my recent life are past, like parent's illnesses, and so we are ushering in another phase: our own physical discomforts. I know this particular thing will pass - stitches will heal and swelling will lessen - and in a few weeks I'll be sleeping soundly once again. But middle-age has its challenges and methinks this is only the beginning of mine. Ah life! Here's to it!
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