Monday, July 9, 2012

Sleepy Monday

Well, it's Monday and I slept until after 1200 today.  No, I'm not on vacation.  I didn't sleep  last night.  I had heartburn all night long.  I took some calcium tablets, about four every hour.  Still, no joy.   It wasn't until I got up from my bed around 0430 to swallow about a 1/4th of a bottle of anti-gas/anti acid liquid that the fire was put out enough for me to get to sleep. Even then I just sort of dozed because I was thinking about going to work after only a couple hours of sleep.  Finally, I made the decision to call in about 0630, then slept until after 1200.

At least I slept fairly soundly.  Did you ever sleep and dream about being at work?  After you wake up you feel like you've already put in a days work and you need to rest, but in 30 minutes you have to be to work for real?  I hate it when that happens.  Especially when I get my paycheck and don't have anything extra in there to show for it. 

Did you ever have that dream where you are in highschool, in the hallways, and you don't know where you are supposed to go for your next class and to complicate things you don't have any clothes on, so you are trying to navigate to this class you have no idea where it is in nothing but a book to cover you up?  Yeah, me neither.

Seriously though, I used to have a recurring dream - I was in a car, in downtown Chicago and there are draw bridges that cross the Chicago River.  While crossing one the bridge is open and I plummet down into the River's water.  I never actually hit the water though, I usually wake up just before then.  It was the same dream over and over for many many years.  Not every night, but fairly frequently.  Once I woke, I'd go back to sleep to some other dream.  It must be over 15 years since I've had that dream (will probably have it tonight since I stirred the memory up).  Some people can decide what they are going to dream on any given night.  I don't have that power.  I wish I did.

I do like sleeping though.  I think I appreciate it more since I have a sleeping disorder, and without wearing my mask with my constant positive air pressure (CPAP) machine I can't sleep...well, I can't get into a restorative sleep without it.  Sleep Apnea has been linked with all sorts of health issues - diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems, and a litany of other things.   I have diabetes (too much sugar in the blood) and high blood pressure (too much pressure in my veins).  I'm a regular one-man-carnival - sugar, like cotton candy, pressure, like balloons, and CPAP like some carnival ride.  I don't know if Apnea caused these conditions or of the conditions caused the apnea.  Bring in the clowns.  Having the apnea has let me experience what it's like to be Luke Skywalker's Father though or a fighter pilot.  I put my mask on and in a few seconds the air starts blowing into my nose and mouth.  It makes that heavy breathing sound like Darth Vader makes when he talks.  I can put my mask on, lay down and stare at the ceiling, count down...3, 2, 1, Blast...(make Vader noise here)...off.

My wife has a favorite dream too.  It's not one that she had, it's one that I had.  One night, my wife awoke to me making a noise in my sleep.  She heard, "Whooo...whooOOOOOooo....WHOOOOooo." She didn't know if I was having a nightmare or what; and was wondering if she should wake me up.   She finally decided to shake me a little so I'd wake up...now before I continue, I should tell you that I have a "thing" for watching, what Cindy calls, "bludgeonings."  You know those Forensic Files shows, like, "Body of Evidence" or "Who the Bleep Did I Marry" or "American Justice" to name a few.  I have a morbid fondness for those True Crime shows.  Plus I read those Detective Magazines too. I don't know why I like them so much, but I do.  I like to see how they put the pieces together to figure the crimes out.  Anyway, it's against this backdrop that I'm having this dream and making that noise.  I woke up and Cindy told me what was going on and asked me if I was having a nightmare.  I immediately started laughing.  The reason I was saying, "whoo, whoo, whoow,  was because I was dreaming I was on the Moon.  Each time I said, Whooo, I was jumping into the atmosphere in slow motion, getting higher, and higher, with each jump.  I was having a great time.  Cindy said that she wsa the one who has nightmares when I watch bludgeonings and I have fun dreams like floating on the Moon. 

I made a little light of having to wear the CPAP but really, it's serious business.  If you think you might have sleep apnea, go get a sleep study done.  If you think your partner might have it, encourage him or her to get the test done.  It may save your life.  You can die from it if left untreated.  I've sort of grown addicted to breathing. 




2 comments:

  1. Hi Mr. Scott,
    Saw you started a blog, iv enjoyed reading. Dreams are a funny thing. iv never had a recurring dream before. Last night i did have a dream about my old job that i quit in Jan, i worked at subway and i quit because all the employes were SO lazy. So in my dream I'm in subway and i had to train 2 new people but they wouldn't do anything i told them to do and by the end of the day the restaurant was a mess and the 2 new people left without cleaning up. My dreams are always action packed as if i were in a movie and they can get so crazy sometimes. the dreams i hate, is when someone i know dies or disappears and I wake you crying hysterically, scaring Brian awake.
    I'm sorry to hear about your sleep disorder, that's scary. I knew a child i watched a long time ago that when they napped, would stop breathing for long periods at a time. I couldn't take my eyes of them and would watch them till they woke up. I don't remember if the parents did anything about it.

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  2. On the moon? Sure it wasn't the dunes? Told you I would read the blog!

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