Thankful Thursday: A Good Night's Sleep

My alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. I realized I had slept through the night with only minor awakenings (Frank prayed with me before he left; I heard Scott in the shower...) and I went right back to sleep after those. I hadn't heard a peep out of Seth all night (he hasn't been sleeping well lately). It was not very hard to get up. I felt rested!

Getting a good night's sleep is something I have learned not to take for granted. I used to sleep like a log every night. I remember my mom mentioning "not being able to sleep last night" fairly often when I was a teenager, and I couldn't understand what she meant.

Well, now I know. My troubles with sleep began when I was in my mid-twenties. I had just graduated from college and was working at my first "real" job. It was a pretty stressful work environment. The company I worked for was plagued with financial difficulties (as in...I hope I get my paycheck this pay period). I was working in the accounting department, so I always knew just how bad it was! Then there was the "owner" of the company. He was an interesting character, let me tell you! I don't want to go into a long description of him, but to get your imaginations going, I will mention that one of my responsibilities for part of the time I worked there was to fill out the report for his probation officer every month! He had a terrible temper and thought nothing of bursting into the accounting department (or any department, for that matter) and yelling at people for not getting him the information he needed, which he did on a fairly regular basis. (Fortunately, he never singled me out for this treatment, but I witnessed it many times.) To top it off, I worked on the 7th floor of a very old building with a scarey elevator and an even scarier fire escape. I used to have dreams that the building was on fire and I was trying to find a way out. Then I'd wake up and lie awake worrying about work-related things. I stuck with that job, believe it or not, for nearly 2 years, and by then I was an expert at lying awake and worrying.

By that time, I had a 4 month old baby, another root cause of serious sleep deprivation! My first two babies were terrible sleepers (love you guys, though!) so I went straight from worrying about work to that hazy "young mother" stage where getting 5-6 hours of interrupted sleep is considered a good night. And since my first 3 babies came every two years (just like clockwork!) I was barely getting "the baby" to sleep well at night before a new baby came along and I got to start all over. Jared was a better sleeper than the first two, but when he was young Frank was traveling a lot so I was in a high state of "alert" at nights and woke up to every bump, thump, or squeak. I'll say this for those years, though--I was so exhausted from night time feedings and so forth that I usually went right back to sleep as soon as the baby did.

After those 6 or so years, my kids stopped waking me up on a regular basis, but I reverted to my former "lie awake and worry" chronic insomniac self. Believe me, there is always something to worry about! And it always looks ten times worse in the middle of the night than it does in broad daylight, for some reason. I do not wake up every night, thankfully, but I really never can depend on having good nights on any kind of a regular basis. (I had another baby in there, just for good measure, so I took a short detour back into the "young mother" stage, but he was by far my best sleeper, so it was brief!) Not sleeping well on a regular basis is a great trial for anyone, I'm sure, but it is especially trying for a major "type A" personality like me, who thrives on planning ahead, being organized, and checking things off a "to do" list! There is nothing I love better than feeling well enough to get up early so I can read my scriptures and pray in peace, get a shower, and then maybe get the laundry going before the kids get up! Not sleeping at night makes it pretty impossible to plan anything or to have a regular schedule of any kind (did I mention I thrive on having a regular schedule?).


This week has been different, though. I’ve been trying out something new (for me) called Melatonin. It’s the chemical in our bodies which promotes sleep, and it’s available over the counter in pill form. It really works! At least, it’s been working for me for a week now. It is just a great blessing to get a good night’s sleep! I have hopes that this will be happening for me more regularly now.

I am very thankful for a good night’s sleep!

PS—Can you say all 50 states in alphabetical order? How about all the state’s capitals in alphabetical order? Do you have the words (all verses) of “Where Can I Turn for Peace?" and “Be Still My Soul” memorized? I can, and do—that’s a few of the by-products of my many years of poor sleeping. I did do a lot of praying and pondering during those sleepless nights, also—so not all of it was unproductive! I'm thankful for that, too.