Insomnia
When I hear the word "insomnia" I think of a person who lays down in bed at night and can't go to sleep. I think of a person who lays awake the entire time or maybe finally drifts off to sleep after hours of staring at the clock. Someone who might be inclined to listen to the TV commercials and call their physician for the latest and greatest sleep aide prescription. But that's not what happens to me. No, I fall asleep at the usual time and sleep quite soundly until *poof* - it's 1:30 or 2:00 am and suddenly I'm wide awake. This will last for two or three hours until I finally fall back asleep, usually an hour or so before the alarm goes off. Now I'll admit that I'm in my mid-forties and this sort of insomnia is not unheard at my age so I could blame hormones as the cause, but it's actually a pattern that goes back as far as I can remember. If something's bugging me and I choose to ignore it in my daily life, then it will always come back to haunt me in the middle of the night. Most often, it reveals itself as one of several recurring dreams involving elevators, bathrooms or schools, but once and a while it turns into the type of literal eye-opener I'm currently experiencing. And I think I may have some insight into the mechanics behind this phenomenon. Quite a few things happened last week at work that were of the "straw that breaks the camel's back" category and I didn't do much about it. I thought that "Ann, the bitch" would show up in the office, but she didn't despite my best intentions. So apparently my body has decided to help me out by depriving me of sleep which just happens to be a very good way to cause "Ann, the bitch" to appear. Coincidence or Master Plan?