:: Sleepless In September ::

In D.C. last weekend, I heard a friend marvel at getting more than 4-5 hours of sleep. I'm not exaggerating: I need the full 8, 9 is better. Since childhood, even slight sleep deprivation (brought on, say, by a sleepover) has led to sore throats and even fevers. I am very susceptible to lack of sleep.

Dr. Maas, my Psych 101 prof at Cornell, would be so proud of me. When my peers in college were getting far too little sleep, I really was getting the requisite 9 hours a night that Dr. Maas went around the nation promoting. He, of "power nap" fame (yup, my prof invented the power nap and then went on Oprah extolling its virtues), would have taken my sleep profile and put it up on his power point show talking about what a good girl I am.

Of course, the flip side of all of this is that I am not a good sleeper. For one, I have always had trouble falling asleep. My husband can fall asleep while talking (he's done it several times) and never -- even when stressed -- takes more than about 10 minutes to fall asleep. I'm more like a half-an-hour girl. But then, I often wake up in the night. Bathroom trips (this is honestly why I drink so little water throughout the day), sounds outside, even hot or cold feet wake me several nights a week. Mornings, I'm so easily woken that Brian has to tiptoe throughout the house and make his lattes as silently (ever heard the screech of steaming milk?) as possible.

And yet, it's still exceedingly rare for me to be awake, at the computer, at 3:24 a.m. But here I am, thinking about my dissertation and about how little I know about the "great philosophers" and how little I have yet gotten done on my first chapter and wanting to maybe get something accomplished here before I go back to bed. Like that's even possible.

Instead, I am eating cookies and writing on my blog. It's like getting something accomplished, only tastier and lazier. : )