Friday, June 17, 2011

Falling asleep with my lamp on

For years I have been drifting off to sleep each night with my bed side lamp on. Every night when Ben comes up to bed he finds me asleep, with my bedside lamp on, clutching either my mobile phone or my book (which at the moment happens to be 'Sex at Dawn - the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality) or sometimes clutching both. I literally fall sound asleep while in the middle of reading a book or making a scrabble move on my phone. Recently, Ben decided to ask why I do that. Whether his motivation for asking was a financial one (I'm sure the energy saver lightbulb would be using about 20c worth of extra electricity each year, money that could be on our mortgage!!!) or whether he was just interested I'm still not sure. He seemed very amused by my response so I thought I'd share it with you all to see if there are others out there like me or whether I'm just strange.
It is 10:47pm. I am in the middle of reading my book or am playing scrabble on my phone. I realise that I am just about to drift off to sleep. I have two options:
Option 1 - Turn off the lamp.
So I think to myself - gosh I'm almost asleep, I had better turn off my lamp. But it is only 10:47 so maybe I will read for 3 more minutes and go to sleep at exactly 10:50. That is a much nicer number. Oh wait I still need to go to the toilet and check on the older kids. I had better do that now. If I get up now then I can be back in bed by 11:00 and can go to sleep then. Hmmm... I wonder if Isabelle needs another feed so she will sleep for longer. I could give her a 5 minute dream feed. That sets my get to sleep time at 11:05.... adding on a few extra minutes to account for the time it will take me to actually get to sleep. But hang on, my alarm is set for 7 and I really need 8 hours sleep. So I had better readjust my alarm so it wakes me at 7:15 instead of 7. This internal dialogue can go on for ages and I lose the small window of time that I had to drift off peacefully. I usually end up staying up for at least half an hour after this thought process began
Option 2 - Keep reading.
I keep reading and then drop my book mid sentence and fall asleep at 10:48.
More often than not I go with option 2!!!

2 comments:

  1. i usually stop reading at the end of a chapter or page or section, not at a nice round number.. thats just me. Who turns off the light when ben isnt home?

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