“To sleep: Perchance to dream” -Shakespeare

I don’t need a Fitbit to tell me much quality sleep I get. I can tell you right now.

When I finally fall asleep, I sleep hard. I dream a lot. I usually have at least 2 to 3 REM cycles a night. I wake up around 11:30 or midnight to use the restroom (TMI? Sorry) and I’ve already been dreaming. I sleep until about 3am then I wake up again (bathroom break, I’m very well hydrated!) and I’ve had another dream. By the time I get up at 6am I’m dreaming something else entirely. I sleep well.

But the trick is, I have to actually FALL asleep! I have the worst time shutting off my brain and falling asleep. I take melatonin at night to help speed things along, but I usually take around 45 minutes to an hour to fall asleep once I’m in bed. It sucks and I don’t understand why. I exercise in the morning. I don’t drink any caffeine, ever! I don’t watch TV in bed and I try to quit using my phone at least 30 minutes before I go to bed.

Imagine my horror when last night, after that awful migraine I COULDN’T FALL ASLEEP! I was in bed at 8:45pm. My eyes were burning and I was tired and ready for sleep. But sleep evaded me. I took my melatonin. An hour later I added a benedryl. An hour after that I was crying from lack of sleep and the migraine, so I downed some Nyquil and hoped for the best.

And finally, I slept.

That cocktail of drugs did the trick and when my morning producer called at 4am I felt like my brain was foggy. Our morning meteorologist had car troubles and couldn’t make it in. So they needed to call someone in. Neither of our fill-in’s answered so I stumbled downstairs and woke up the roomie and she headed into work. It took my about 30ish minutes to fall back asleep.

I got about 6 hours of sleep last night. That is not enough for me. I’ve gotten that many hours each of the last 3 nights. No wonder I got a migraine! I need sleep.

Fingers crossed for good sleep tonight! I need it.

Migraines Suck

Right after I posted my last post…I developed a whopper of a migraine. I get the kind with the visual auras, I see a silver streaky light in my field of vison. It actually starts out suddenly half of my vision is gone. I can look at things and not see all of them. It’s freaky and awful, because I know what’s coming.

The auras, light and sound sensitivity, nausea and a massive, debilitating headache. The kind that will only go away with sleep. My rescue medicine (I take Topomax everyday because I used to get migraines frequently) includes Phenergan because it makes me so nauseous. And the drugs are at home because I so rarely get migraines anymore that I don’t think to carry it with me.

So right now, I’m sitting here, wearing my awesome aviator sunglasses inside because the newsroom is so bright it feels like we’re on the face of the sun. The police scanners are going off, and people are talking and I keep shushing them. I’m so sick to my stomach its not even funny. I can’t go home, there’s no one to fill in–it’s vacation season! There will be no run tonight. All I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep until nothing hurts anymore.

You win universe, (waves flag in surrender), you win.

Sigh.

I’m running a 5k tomorrow…

and it’s going to be 14 degrees! Why did I sign up for this? Oh, because my half-marathon training schedule called for a 5k this weekend and there happened to be one tomorrow! Maybe I will run really fast?

In other news I had to call in sick to work today because while I was in the shower I got a migraine. For my fellow migraine sufferers out there, I get a migraine with an aura, which means that before I get the headache I see a visual disturbance. Usually bright, zig-zag lines. And when I look at things I can only see half of it . Its a little freaky. I take medicine everyday to prevent them and haven’t had one in over a year, so I guess I was due for one. But when I get them I am done for the day. I have to go back to bed and wear an eye mask and sleep off the headache that follows the aura. It sucks and means a wasted day. Luckily today was a rest day anyway!

Have a great weekend friends! Stay warm!