A Facebook friend recently wondered, on a posting, if she was condemned to never sleep through the night again. Evidently, her toddler's sleeping pattern had gotten wonky and said child was waking up at 2 a.m. on a regular basis.
Well, the short answer is yes. You are condemned and you will never sleep all night again. I have not slept all night long in at least 32 years, since the birth of my first child. At first, because of the obvious. New baby and breast feeding and not ever being able to let a child cry it out. And, having a husband that could sleep through nuclear holocaust. I don't know if birthing a child triggered some sonar response, but if my baby whimpered, I was wide awake. And, once awake, I was often up for good.
This pattern of waking up in the wee hours of the morning has continued to this day. About the time first child started sleeping all night, along comes baby #2! Same sonar waking me up at the first hint of imagined distress. As time passed, it was bad dreams, a sick child, a meowing cat, a train passing through town, or police siren that would wake me up. And let's not forget Snoring, with a capital S. And not just husband's snoring, which can be quite impressive, but my own as well. I started snoring early in life, probably as young as 6 or 7. I remember my dad coming in my room one night to wake me up because I was snoring so loud that the only family member able to sleep through it was my profoundly deaf brother.
I would snore so loud that I would wake my self up at night. This issue just got worse the older and fatter I got. Throw in early menopause (not one period since 44 years of age -TMI, sorry!) and I have a deeply ingrained crappy sleep pattern. I've done a sleep study, and yes, I have sleep apnea. And yes, I have the ultra attractive C-Pap apparatus that is supposed to fix whatever structural issues I have that causes me to snore like a freight train by forcing a constant air pressure through my sinus cavities. But, I hate using it. Not only is it hideous, I still wake up after about 4 hours of sleep. So, it generally collects dust bedside.
So, after a lifetime of not being able to stay asleep, now, I just don't. I generally have little trouble going to sleep. I just feel like it's been a good night if I sleep 5 hours without waking up. Now, I sleep anywhere from 2 to 5 hours, am awake a few hours, then sleep really hard for another 2 hours. Thankfully, I am retired and my second sleep session doesn't generally interfere with a work day. My schedule now is much more flexible. Which is way better than when I had to be at work.
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