Connie
I feel a little better today. And it's Friday. And snowy. And I am only behind on blog reading by, you know, 200 or so posts.
Because I need to go de-snow the car and get to work, let's cut right to the Friday questions. Yes? Okay! How do you get yourself to sleep at night? How many times a night, on average, do you wake up? What name did you really want to have, when you were a kid? You know, the name you would give yourself every time you played anything with the kids next door, like beauty pageant or train or store or wild wolf people in the woods. Which is cuter, a basket of puppies or a basket of kittens? OR A BASKET OF DINOSAURS?
I usually get myself sleepy by doing something quiet like working on a crossword puzzle. When I feel ready, I turn off the light, get situated (this might take a while), and then I must quiet my brain. My husband thinks this is strange, as he just "thinks about darkness and goes to sleep." I, however, have little luck with this trick. I usually try to think about something happy, because I can't just turn everything off and go to darkness. My favorite drift-off-to-sleep brain scenes are: kittens, sunny spring meadows, and kittens playing in sunny spring meadows.
I wish I was making this crap up.
I wake up, on average, 6-10 times a night. Fully awake. Then I go back to sleep. I have always done this, except when I was on sleeping medication, and then it was only 2-3 times a night. But that medication gave me killer headaches.
When I was little, I always wanted my name to be Connie. I have no idea why Connie was the Chosen Name of Beauty, but it was. I had glorious imaginings of being in high school, with the name Connie on my high school jacket.
And finally, I think I'm going to have to go with the basket full of kittens, because kittens are so weird and jumpy.
Go!
black sheeped
posted by Black Sheeped @ 7:19 AM
15 Comments:
Is it weird that I don't have a "way" to get myself to sleep at night? I don't really think about it. Sometimes if I'm having a hard time falling asleep I count backwards from 100. It doesn't always work though. I feel like I can't shut my brain off. Sleep and I have never been the best of friends. I wake up probably 5 times a night... fully wide awake for at least 30 minutes at least one of those times. I wish I loved to sleep.
I wanted my name to be Jessica. I loved how pretty it was, but how fun and cute the nicknames could be... and that it was three names in one -Jess, Jessie or Jessica. I always wanted a nickname. There's no short or familiar version of Heather.
I'd probably have to go with puppies. That's a tough one though.
And Happy Friday! I hope you have a great weekend and feel rested and restored and happy.
I don't have a way of getting to sleep, really. Torsten and I go to bed together and cuddle for awhile, and then when I'm tired enough to sleep I roll over onto my back and just... go to sleep.
I usually wake up once in the night, having to pee, or else not at all.
I vacillated between Kimberly and Naomi as my preferred childhood names.
A basket of puppies is the cutest. But a basket of dinosaurs is the COOLEST.
I'm glad you're feeling a little better today. Have a good weekend!
Hmmm... I'm usually so tired that I don't need a way to fall asleep. If I'm having trouble, though, I'll watch a little TV or read until I'm tired enough.
I either don't wake up, or I wake up once to pee. Unless my kids get me up, then it's hard to say how many times.
I actually named myself when I was a toddler, and refused to answer to anything else. My chosen name was "Os". Pronounced like the plural of the letter "O". I don't know why. As a kid I know I had a name I liked to use when playing with friends, it's niggling at the back of my brain, but I can't remember what it is. Actually, over time, there was more than one.
I'd have to go with basket of puppies for cutest. But it would also qualify as biggest pain-in-the-ass. I think that's why babies of any kind are so darn cute. It's because they're such big pains in the ass. We actually HAVE a basket of dinosaurs. Plastic, of course.
I wake up 4-6 times a night. I don't have a "way" to get to sleep. Mostly I just take a book and read until my eyes droop, and then I'm out. When I wake up, I pace for a while, then go back to bed. Instant sleep.
My secret name that I wished to have was Consuelo. Who knows where that came from?
Basket of puppies, please, because they want to be really close to you and they don't get you with their little razor sharp claws.
Hope you're feeling better, and pardon my French, to hell with the laundry on a sick day.
I lie there and wait for sleep to happen. If I can't sleep, I pick a time at which I can get up--usually 15 or 20 minutes in the future. I'm usually asleep by then.
I wake up about twice, not including children waking me up (which last night brought the total to seven).
I wanted to be Stephanie.
Basket of puppies.
Not a good time to ask me about getting into POSITION to go to sleep, as I'm 8 months pregnant and feeling every bit of it. Urgh. Typically it does not take me long, though, and I must admit, we fall asleep with the TV droning. Usually it's G4-TV, the gamer's channel (husband takes longer to fall asleep so it's his pick). I haven't slept through the might in months and months.
I named several dolls Lisa, and often wished my name were Lisa.
I think a basket of kittens is cutest, with their tiny mewing. However, my kid is in a dinosaur stage and I do like when he CLEANS UP his dinosaurs and puts them all in a basket -- so that might win my affection at the moment. ;)
I have to watch Friends or something similarly familiar/mildly funny to relax my brain into sleep. Unless I am DEAD tired, but this is rare. I've had to watch TV to go to sleep ever since Addy was born. Overnight I became a major worrier- probably mild PPD now that I look back, the form of it that manifests itself in severe anxiety- and I would seriously lay awake at night for HOURS fretting, sometimes literally rigid with fear, about such likelihoods as break-ins and kidnappings. Fun times! Am better now, and thank heavens this didn't happen when Eli was born. Now the TV is probably just a habit, but it works.
I wanted my name to be something LONGER is all I remember. My name is short and boring and common and I wanted something long and flowing and unique. Like Guinevere or Anastasia.
Also! Puppies! The way they fall all over each other and the way they SMELL! Yum!
I watch TV, which is stupid because it usually keeps me up longer.
I wake up all night usually.
My middle name is Chirstine and I really wanted to be called Chrissy.
Do the puppies know to pee outside yet? Then a basket of puppies
I often lay away at night trying to shut my brain off too. I try to tell myself to stop thinking, which only works half the time. If it is a good night I only wake up one or two times, a bad night can be every hour. Lately I have been waking up at 5 am. Wide Awake. And I just kind of doze till my alarm at 7.
I always named my dolls Laura, but I can't remember what I used to call myself.
Kittens are so cute because they are prone to spazz out for no reason, but my friend has one that is on attack mode every three seconds. So because of that I'm going to go with puppies. I like how they just up and decide to lay down and fall asleep after playing for a while. :o)
Yovonette.
Ouch.
I actually wrote it on a folder once, until the teacher, bless her heart, called it out in an enormous, booming voice and I realized that no, that was not my Real Name.
I second Jess about Naomi. Also, Anissa.
I prepare myself for sleep by writing in my notebook a little bit about my day--the more boring the better--and then reading (I HAVE to read, even it's 1:30 a.m. and just a paragraph). Then I turn off the light and think about the wind sweeping down off the mountains, filtering around on the houses around me on the way out to the plains.
And if that doesn't work I bring in the fantasies about Trainspotting-era Ian McEwan.
Puppies, because I don't have the right genes for cats. And, well, dinosaurs might be cute but they might be trying to bite off my fingers as well.
I wanted my name to be Tiffany. It kills me to admit that.
I have to read to fall asleep. We don't have a T.V. in the bedroom becuase if we did, all I would do is watch it and we'd never sleep.
I also have a prescription for trazadone, which knocks me out in approximately 2 seconds, but then I feel kind of lame or groggy the next day, so I don't take it very often.
Puppies! Always puppies!
Also, that's great about your mom. I meant to chime in yesterday.
I actually tend to fall asleep on the couch before getting anywhere near an actual bed. I could be reading, watching TV; anything really.
If I do make it to bed and can't fall asleep, I sometimes find myself thinking of summer days in the back garden of the house that I first remember living in with my parents. Good times. They make me feel warm and fuzzy. The other trick I have that seems to never fail is a little reverse psychology. If I keep telling my brain that I want to stay awake as long as possible, said contrary brain makes me fall asleep just to spite me.
How often do I wake up in the night? Typically once or twice. I can't remember the last time I slept through without waking at all. And if my son is staying with me, it can be anything from once to eight times, depending on how restful he is feeling!
When I was young I always wanted to be called Mark. I have no idea why I thought this was a cool name, but if you ever set eyes on stories that I wrote when I was a kid, the protagonist is always, ALWAYS, called Mark. Weird.
I would have to opt for a basket of Barnabys as being the cutest of all.
To get to sleep at night I wait until Hubs finishes his 30 allowed minutes of talking endlessly about everything, and changing every few words to popular songs with poopie pants. Then I make sure that the last thing I say to him is "I love you" (you know, in case I die in my sleep). If I can't stop my brain from thinking about stupid shit like work, I think about TV shows I've been watching, and rehash the episodes. It's odd, but it pushes out the worry-think and obsessive-think and I can fall asleep. I rarely wake up before wake up time any more.
I wanted to be Grace. Badly.
Basket of Kittens. Please see: This
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